The Craziest Trade In NBA History

[Music] there aren't many things that can stop the entire NBA World in its tracks at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night did someone score 100 points did LeBron hly retire in the middle of the Season what did Michael Jordan come back out of retirement what could possibly get everyone riled up out of nowhere oh my God we all said in unison as news broke that the Mavericks traded Luca donic for Anthony Davis I couldn't believe what I was seeing I figured this was just some big elaborate hack job and I was waiting for follow-up tweets

saying false alarm the Mavericks actually aren't brain Deb I can't believe you guys fell for it but within minutes it was clear that this trade was unfortunately very real and the Mavericks are in fact out of their minds the same player who Mark Cuban said he would rather leave his wife before giving up the same player who is responsible for a third of the organization's finals appearances the same player who by the grace of God miraculously fell into their lap 7 years ago is now gone and after looking at the reported details of this exchange

how it went down and who was involved this is without exaggeration the most shocking trade in NBA history today's video is sponsored by DraftKings Super Bowl 59 is right around the corner and dra DraftKings is here to make the big game even better because they are offering all new customers $200 in bonus bets instantly after betting just $5 and yes you heard that correctly an automatic $200 in bonus bets for all new customers who place any $5 wager and you can use your $200 in bonus bets on draftking same game parlays for a shot at

an even bigger payout and if sports betting is not yet available in your state you can still join in on the action with DraftKings daily fantasy and have your shot at cash prizes download the draftking Sportsbook app now new customers use my promo code Jimmy highroller bet just $5 on any wager and get $200 in bonus bets instantly that's promo code Jimmy High Roller only at draftking Sportsbook now that we've had about a day to digest the Luca ad trade by now the reality of the situation should be setting in it has not a trade

so insane that fans are now theorizing if the league did it for the sake of ratings imagine concocting a deal so heinous that your fans literally think you're doing it for clout that is how crazy this trade is and there's about a dozen reasons why this is legitimately the most shocking deal we have ever seen first according to multiple sources none of the players even knew this trade was happening not Luca not Anthony Davis not even the Lakers GM LeBron James as some sources put it this deal materialized in the shadows in the shadows what

is this the Illuminati what do you mean in the shadows and turns out this was the cleanest way this deal could have gone down because the next component that makes this truly the craziest trade to ever happen Luca never requested a trade he's been in Dallas his entire career and outside of a few rumors nothing suggested he wouldn't be a lifer in that organization there wasn't any buildup there wasn't any reports of a disgruntled Luca making demands it just happened out of the blue which is reason number three the Mavs just traded away a top

three asset in the NBA without even shopping him no bidding wars no asking around and assessing other offers they just made the call to the Lakers and accepted the deal can you imagine the hall Dallas would have got if they actually shopped Luca around the league for a couple of months oh you want to give us Luca here is our entire franchise the players the coaches the building the staff my firstborn child take it all thanks for doing business I'll figure out the details later if Rudy Gober is worth two starters five first rounders in

a pick swap if Mel Bridges is worth five first rounders a second rounder in a swap if an aging Paul George is worth a rising SGA five first round picks and two pick swaps can you imagine what a prime Luca donic would have fetched to the right team oh wait I know a 31-year-old Anthony Davis and a thank you note it makes no sense and that brings up reason number four the Mavericks were just in the finals last year we've seen players sign with other teams after a finals run we've seen players demand trades after

a great season but we have never seen a team willingly cough up a mega star after being just three games away from winning a championship it's Unthinkable because reason number five it's Luca freaking donic you do not trade Luca donic if you were to rank players in the NBA on their trade value starting with the players who are the most Untouchable non-negotiable hang up the phone and down from there Luca is probably third or fourth on that list the only two players definitively ahead of him are wimi and joic now just try to wrap your

head around the deal a team would have to offer in exchange for nicoa yic or what the Bucks would get in return for Giannis here's a hint there isn't one because they would never trade them away the deal doesn't exist Tim McMahon of ESPN reported that Dallas had two major concerns in regards of Luca's future with the franchise the first one being his massive $345 million 5year extension which he would have been eligible for this summer and the second concern being his health and conditioning in other words the man was out of shape so let

me get this straight the Dallas Mavericks just traded away the best player of a generation the future of their franchise and the man that just got them to the finals on one leg because he put on a few pounds for sake Zion Williamson ate his way into load management and he has spent the last six seasons in and out of rehab and the Pelicans are still sticking by him now Zion didn't deserve that stray seems like a nice guy I wish him the best but you get the point we are now over a decade into

the process and the Sixers have yet to move on from embiid it's one thing for a franchise player to one out to sign with another team if they aren't happy and the opportunity presents itself but for a franchise to pull the trigger and get rid of a mega star in his prime because of constant conditioning issues is Criminal there's really no precedent or great comparison for a trade like this because in the past even when teams did trade a superstar there was context behind those trades that at least made it seem justifiable either the star

was exiting their Prime and the team was trying to salvage some value before they inevitably left or despite how good the star was the team wasn't finding much postseason success and wanted to go in a different direction or the star was bound to leave anyways made it known and the team had no leverage so they were essentially forced into the trade this deal between the Mavs and the Lakers has none of those elements involved Luca didn't request a trade he's 25 years old in his prime and the Mavericks Championship window just opened up now as

a Blazers fan I am painfully aware of how hard it is to get your hands on a true franchise player painfully aware in our team's entire 55e existence we've had three the first one got hurt the second one was incredible the potential third one got hurt and the actual third one was also incredible that's about one Superstar every 20 years what does the lackluster history of my team have to do with this trade well because the Mavericks should know a thing or two about keeping their hands on a generational talent because in their franchise's history

they've only had two of them Dirk nitzki and Luca donic the first one spent his entire 21-year career in Dallas facing ups and downs and winning arguably the heaviest and most challenging championship of our lifetime and the second one they traded away for ad in a box of scraps after just 6 and a half seasons of a promising career and as every fan of a non- Major Market team knows all too well generational talents only come along once in a generation the Mavericks aren't some hot spot for Superstar Talent they don't get real chances to

win it all often just three trips to the finals in 45 years one of those trips at the hands of the guy who they just sent packing they cannot afford to roll the dice and hope for greener pastures like some other teams can you are not the Lakers you get a player like Luca and you lock that man in and throw away the key what are we doing it could be another 20 years before a player of Luca's caliber puts on a Maverick's Jersey and the team traded him away because he was mildly out of

shape it makes me sick this is coming from a desperate man who's got 18 years left before I see another Dame which brings us to their second concern again according to sources the Mavericks were not keen on giving Luca an extension that would have made him the highest paid player in the league but if the third best player in the world who gets better in the playoffs is a perennial MVP candidate who's hitting his prime isn't worth paying then who the hell is is Dallas said that this was a win now trade an oxymoron of

a statement considering who they just traded and where he just got them last season but Superstars win championships Superstars also cost a lot of money and if you're not willing to empty your pockets how committed are you to actually winning in what world has being cheap ever won a team a title it just seems completely counterintuitive to what they're trying to accomplish now the implications of this trade for the Lakers are just as drastic but for entirely different reasons for starters this will be the first time in LeBron's entire career youth High School NBA a

lifetime of basketball where he won't be the best player on his team which is already a huge adjustment for him and the team as a whole but specifically because Luca and LeBron essentially do the same exact thing oversized on ball floor generals with Elite scoring abilities in fact they not only have the same skill set they take on the exact same roles on the court LeBron has always an initiated the offense even if it meant relegating point guards to other positions and this usually worked in the past because no one did what LeBron could do

nearly as good as he could do it but now there's a guy who can do what LeBron can do only better so that means unless Luca and the Lakers are okay with him getting neutralized LeBron will have to truly play off ball and within the flow of the offense for the first time in about two decades two LeBron's on one team sounds great in theory probably a bit redundant which leads me to believe the Lakers are actually playing a longer game with this trade sources report that the Mavericks are the ones that approached LA with

this trade and despite the Lakers playing fairly well as of late I think they knew their chances of winning another title with the LeBron ad Duo was getting Slim So with the option of trading away key pieces and tripling down on a 40-year-old LeBron to carry them to the promised land or trade for a mega star that just showed up on their doorstep 5 minutes ago they couldn't book ad's flight to Dallas quick enough which makes me think this move was the first step into the post LeBron era in Los Angeles as we all know

LeBron will more than likely retire within a season or two and the Lakers needed a new face for their franchise and they just got it inexplicably miraculously in the most Lakers way imaginable I always wondered what LeBron's final years would look like how he would go out who would be around him but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would be playing second fiddle to Luca donic in a Lakers jersey all in all it seems like the Mavericks won this trade if you zoom way in and look at this in an 18-month window

but zoom out and the Lakers are looking around asking themselves how they just pulled off a bank heist with ad the Mavericks lineup looks good possibly a winning formula but the Lakers got Luca donic and in 20 years fans will look back and wonder how one of the greatest players of all time in his prime was traded away on a random Saturday night [Music]