At 9:12 p.m. PST, Feb. 1, 2025, Shams Charania, ESPN’s NBA Insider, the man known for dropping trade confirmations, tweeted out the following.
“BREAKING: The Dallas Mavericks are trading Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick, sources tell ESPN. Three-team deal that includes Utah.”
Luka Doncic, 25 years old, has made five consecutive first-team All-NBA appearances and just came off a season where he was the Western Conference Finals MVP and led his team to the NBA Finals. He had never expressed any desire to leave Dallas.
The NBA world went into complete shock. Users of X, formerly known as Twitter, were so surprised and confused that nobody believed this was true. NBA fans and players alike were convinced that the only explanation for this tweet was that Charania had gotten hacked.
Tyrese Haliburton, all-star point guard for the Indiana Pacers:
“Shams got hacked?”
Alex Caruso, all-defensive shooting guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder:
“Nah shams gotta be hacked ?”
Bam Adebayo, five-time all-defensive center for the Miami Heat:
“Did somebody steal Shams phone??”
Joel Embiid, 2022-23 season MVP:
“WOWWWWW NO F WAY”
Charania had to double down multiple times to tell the NBA fandom this trade was real.
Not only was the vast NBA community caught off by this trade, but reportedly the players involved were taken by surprise.
“This deal materialized in the shadows … LeBron James had no idea this was coming. Anthony Davis had no idea this was coming. I’m told Luka Doncic is still stunned about this trade,” Charania said.
In his farewell post on Instagram, Doncic said “I thought I’d spend my career here.”
Doncic reportedly cried when he finally heard about being traded. He had recently bought a $15 million home in Dallas. He was regarded by most fans as the franchise’s star and building block for the next decade. His first-team All-NBA appearance last season showed that voters thought he was a top-five player in the NBA last season.
The Los Angeles Lakers were reportedly the only team that the Dallas Mavericks’ General Manager, Nico Harrison, called to offer Doncic up for trade. The original trade was reported to also involve Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht and multiple first-round picks. However, this package was dwindled by Lakers’ General Manager Rob Pelinka, claiming that the Lakers were taking a risk with Doncic’s “conditioning issues” (reported by Kirk Goldsberry).
As reported by Tim MacMahon, when Harrison was asked about why he made the trade, he responded by saying:
“I believe that defense wins championships. I believe that getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We’re built to win now and in the future.”
While Davis is certainly an upgrade over Doncic on the defensive side of the ball, he is six years older than Doncic. Doncic has also been in the top 10 of NBA MVP voting for five years straight. In this same time period, Davis finished top 10 in MVP voting once. That was five years ago, where he finished sixth, still below Doncic (fourth) in the ranking.
The trade has been received incredibly poorly by Dallas Mavericks fans. A group of these fans held a protest outside of American Airlines Center, the Mavericks’ stadium. Doncic jerseys were laid out among candles in a mock memorial. Fans made signs, one of which read “Worst Trade in NBA History,” and chanted “sell the team.”
This trade could come back to bite the Dallas Mavericks in the future, if not right now. A healthy, MVP calibre 25-year-old traded for an injury-riddled 31-year-old. This is a win-now move and a massive gamble from the Mavericks front office. They better pray that they win their championship.
