Elgin, West. Kareem, Magic. Shaq, Kobe. LeBron … Luka?
Luka Doncic? For Anthony Davis?
LUKA DONCIC!? FOR ANTHONY DAVIS!?
What in the ridiculous fantasy basketball trade offer?!
How ’bout them Lakers, though?
A season ago, they couldn’t be bothered to even lay down a bunt at the trade deadline.
A year later, they opened February by going Freddie Freeman on ’em.
To be fair, the Dallas Mavericks put it on the tee, reportedly shopping their 25-year-old generational superstar, global icon and transcendent talent like he was a role player who might help fill a need and not the guy who will keep the Lakers relevant for years to come whenever LeBron James does retire.
The Lakers, Mavericks and Utah Jazz agreed to a three-team deal that will swap Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic. The Lakers also will receive Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris from the Mavericks while Dallas also gets Max Christie and the Lakers’ 2029 first-round draft pick. Also, the Jazz will receive Jalen Hood-Schifino, the Clippers’ 2025 second-round pick and the Mavs’ 2025 second-round pick.
And the rest of the NBA must be so annoyed. Seventeen years to the date of the Pau Gasol deal – seen as such a steal at the time – that helped put in motion two more Lakers championships, they’ve hit another grand slam on another lob to the plate. Charmed, as ever.
Because all the Lakers really had to do was say … uh, yeah? OK, yes. Heck yes!
And probably, quietly, to themselves: What’s the catch? Because nobody shops their 25-year-old top-five NBA player who doesn’t even want out. And yet … and yet: Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis. It’s real. Real life.
Gotta wonder, though, whether Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and his people did the double- and triple- and quadruple-take that the rest of us did Saturday night, when our social media feeds went from breathless discussion about global trade to breathless discussion about a trade. The trade, this wild and shocking transaction.
When ESPN’s Shams Charania posted, “Yes, this is real,” it only made it all seem less real. He had to be hacked, we assumed. And yet …
Doncic is a baaad dude in the best way. Aggrieved, aggressive, an all-time maniacal competitor who never shuts up – his penchant for complaining and trash-talking all a part of that Luka Magic. That passion and emotion and exquisite shot- and pass-making, all part of the show.
I’ve watched him spend more time than any visiting player I’ve seen signing autographs at Crypto.com Arena, and I chuckle still when I think about the time he scored through a bunch of Clippers and screamed toward the reporters on press row: “You can’t (expletive) guard me!” No, sir, clearly not. Few can. Sometimes, nobody can.
He is Luka Legend. The Slovenian superstar has a 73-point game and a 60-point game and five 50 burgers too. He was the NBA Rookie of the Year and a scoring champ, a five-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA honoree.
And apparently the Mavericks thought they couldn’t win it all with him, never mind that he and Kyrie Irving led Dallas to the NBA Finals last season, where they lost in five games to the Boston Celtics. But apparently, per Charania’s reporting, the Mavs thought Doncic wasn’t the caliber of a defender that wins championships.
And, for what it’s worth, Davis is. The 31-year-old big man won a championship in the Purple and Gold in 2020, and he – like Gasol – was underrated and underappreciated in his Lakers tenure, and … wait a minute!
Luka and Kyrie went to the NBA Finals last year. And if they could do that, what’s to stop Luka and LeBron from mounting their own deep playoff foray this year? I know we’re all peering into the future, but I’m not taking LeBron’s presence for granted this season.
No, the Lakers don’t, at the moment, have a reliable center now that Davis (who made it known just last week that he really didn’t want to play center) has been traded.
But if they get a serviceable big man – and there’s time to work a deal, with the trade deadline not until Thursday – think about how scary they could become. Think about how aggravating.
Think about how spectacular 39-year-old LeBron was in the Olympics, when he wasn’t carrying so much of the scoring burden by himself all of the time.
Think about ESPN’s Brian Windhorst’s report Saturday that LeBron has long wished he could play with Luka, but never thought it would have been possible.
Well, thank you Dallas – what were you thinking?
I’m thinking that Doncic, who takes things rather personally on the court, might feel a certain way about this deal, by all accounts a shock to him.
Thinking this experience – the insult of it, the ignominy – might rile him up, get him going, get him past whatever it was that had Dallas hung up.
That’s what L.A. will demand, of course.
This city will treat him like a king, the next in line to inherit the throne … if he delivers.
If he puts on the show he’s capable of, deft and daring and so darn fun.
If he lives up to his billing as a potential future Laker great – an honor bestowed on few, it comes with pressure beyond what most players can handle.
But Doncic is not like most players. He isn’t like most stars.
Luka Doncic is magic, and the Lakers know something about that.