The Athletic is putting out its yearly round of anonymous player polls and reactions from the 2024-25 season. They’ve already called the Dallas Mavericks one of the worst organizations less than ten months after making the NBA Finals, and now NBA players are giving their reactions to the already infamous Luka Doncic trade.
For those that need a reminder, General Manager Nico Harrison decided to dump Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers without warning in the middle of the night for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. It’s already considered one of the worst trades in NBA history, and most NBA players agreed.
READ MORE: Anthony Davis could make it difficult for Mavericks to fire GM Nico Harrison
Here are some of the best anonymous reactions from this lengthy piece, most of them falling between disbelief, utter shock, and “blasphemy.”
“Shocked. I was on the court. … A fan told me at half court. … It’s one of those moments you won’t forget. Like when Michael Jackson died (or) 9-11 happened. Those moments you just know is going to be forever ingrained.”
“I told my girl, ‘Turn on ESPN.’ And I was locked in the rest of the night. I think that was like, what, 12? It was like midnight. I didn’t go to sleep until 2, 2:30. I was like, what the hell? I thought it was a joke. I DMed Shams and texted him, was like, ‘Did you get hacked?’ And it was real.”
“When I’m not with my team, I’m a Mavericks fan … I didn’t know how to process it, because it happened so fast. … I was taken aback. It just let’s you know that nobody is untouchable in this league.”
“It’s like a once-in-a-blue-moon type of thing. I don’t think something like that is ever going to happen again, but it definitely got franchise players and star players on edge.”
“I thought it was just the NBA doing it for viewership.”
“It’s one of the worst basketball decisions I’ve ever seen.”
“Bad for (Mavs’) business. Bad work. Good for the Lakers, though.”
“Stupid … If Luka can get traded, everyone can get traded. So it’s kind of messed up the way that the NBA runs their league.”
“I don’t think they should have traded him. No way. And this is just the short term right now. We’ll see where it’s at five years from now. But you just can’t do that. No way.”
“Dallas’ decision? Stupid. Lakers’ decision? Great.”
“I was in disbelief because if you’re trading a guy like Luka Dončić, you get the entire kitchen sink back. I mean, obviously with Anthony Davis, let’s not act like he’s not a top-75 player and perennial All-Star and an All-NBA guy himself. But you would imagine there would be several first-round picks attached to that, and there wasn’t, so something is going on there.”
“That was a terrible decision. Terrible. … I think Dallas went with a five-year window instead of a 10-year window.”
“I don’t get it. I think (Dončić) is probably the best player in the league for the next 15 years. Maybe there was something behind the scenes we didn’t know about, but I didn’t understand it. At the same time, getting Anthony Davis back is not like any slouch. He’s obviously a star in this league. So superstar for superstar. But I didn’t really understand the trade.”
“I thought it was stupid. Anthony Davis is a top player, but you got a franchise player (in Dončić) who wants to be there. Ride it out with him.”
“Terrible. Wow. Like, what did they do? I thought (the Mavs) were gonna come out of the West again two months ago. That was terrible, man. I don’t care how you slice it. To not get back what they should’ve gotten back is ridiculous. Messed the league up.”
“Terrible decision. If (Dončić) came in weighing 500 pounds, so what? He’s still averaging damn near a 30-point triple-double.”
“I think that s— was idiotic, but I don’t think it was a bad trade. I just think that the way they did it and everything about it was idiotic. I think them shopping the franchise (face) of their organization — for a lot of players who already feel that this is a business (like), ‘The motherf—ers don’t care about you,’ I think it sets an example, like, ‘All right, why should I give a f— about this team if this is how they’re going (to treat me)? I came in here and I was All-NBA, like, five times in six seasons, an MVP candidate, and don’t even get told about none of this.’ I’m like, ‘This organization doesn’t give a f— about me. Why would I give a f— about any organization?’”
“(I) didn’t agree with it. You don’t trade somebody like Luka, regardless of the stuff you want to say about him. You turn the other cheek. There are some players you just don’t trade, I don’t care.”
“Really puzzling. I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand it. I understand what they’re talking about as far as the defense goes, but every player has strengths and weaknesses, and Luka’s offensive strength outweighs his defensive weaknesses by a wide margin. So, to be concerned about that, I don’t understand why you would trade a player like that in any circumstance. I’m sure there were tons of other avenues they could have exhausted to get the effort they wanted out of him before pushing that button.”
“Everybody talks about his defense and all that, but I just don’t think you trade a generational motherf—er like that. I feel like you can find three, four hungry people in the league who are going to come in and pick up the slack. And obviously in today’s league, I feel like there’s always one person on the floor who can’t shoot it as well. I feel like Jason Kidd is a smart coach. He could have found ways to hide him [on defense] or make him a helper. I feel like they could have went into the summer and had a grown-man conversation so you make Luka the one who ultimately makes the decision for the front office. If he don’t want to play defense, all right, now it’s time to — we already talked about it. And they’ve been keeping him accountable. Just being around him, I feel like he’ll take feedback. But I feel like they should have went into the summer and then talked that out. That’s crazy.”
“Terrible. It doesn’t even make sense. It’s stupid. The face of Dallas should have been there his whole career. They just went to the finals (in 2024). It makes no sense. And then they got another team in the West better. If they would’ve traded to an East Coast team, then, ‘Yeah, OK, he’s over there. We don’t have to see him.’ But come on. Weird.”
“Dallas did Luka Dončić wrong.”
There were a few people that saw it as a win-win for both parties, if Dallas can get healthy.
“I don’t think it was bad. I think it was just two different outlooks on what gets the job done. If you look in the past, they’ve had success. So they know better than what we know, and I think if AD gets back to a healthy level, then everything would be good for both sides.”
“Thought it was a win-win, short term. I thought Dallas won it short term, even though, obviously in hindsight, Anthony got hurt. I think the Lakers won long term. In actuality, the Lakers won short term and long term, the way that it happened. (But) you’ve got to have some people that defend to win a championship. I think that’s what Dallas was looking at, and we know Luka’s not that.”
“I mean, would I have done it? No. But the business side, it is what it is. That’s the business side of it. I don’t have any opinions on it for real. You got back Anthony Davis. If your opinion, if you think defense is what matters the most, then that’s on you. That man just led y’all to the NBA Finals the year before. But to each his own. I think it’s good for the league he’s in L.A.”
“I think it backfired on them with guys getting hurt. But in the moment, I feel like if those guys were healthy, that was a win-now trade. And the Lakers were trading for the future. They got their young star. But it backfired [for Dallas], so it’s an ‘F’ now.”
“Hindsight is always 20/20, but if you look at [the Mavs] now, it looks like a bad thing right now. But we’ll see how it unfolds later on down the line.”
And then, there were a few players who had to be on the Lakers who thought it was a great move.
“I think it’s phenomenal decision. So smart. Wise. I’m a Nico Harrison fan.”
“Thank you. I love it.”
“I wasn’t mad at it.”
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