In one of the most shocking trades in NBA history, the Dallas Mavericks sent star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal that brought Anthony Davis to Dallas. Many current and former NBA players were flabbergasted by the trade, including Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade.
In an appearance on “The Why” podcast, Wade actually offered a different point-of-view when it came to Doncic being traded. The former shooting guard believes that the NBA’s billionaire owners wanted to place Doncic on the league’s most iconic and valuable franchise for the long haul.
“First of all, I said to myself, before all the reports came out, I said, ‘Oh, no players were involved in this decision,'” Wade said. “This was billionaire business. This was at the top. The last 12 to 15 years, the players have decided what we want to do. This was the owners, the governors, the billionaires deciding what they want to do.”
When the trade occurred, many former players, analysts, and other basketball personalities began breaking down why it happened purely from a fit perspective for each team. After all, it’s possible that the Mavericks could’ve gotten a bigger haul from another team in exchange for Doncic’s services.
However, Wade — who himself became part of the Utah Jazz’s ownership group in 2021 — believes that team owners wanted to make sure that Doncic was as marketable as possible in Los Angeles.
“This was an amazing business decision by billionaires to say, ‘This is what I want for now, and this is what we need as a league.’ You get 10 years of Luka being the face of the Lakers. But you also get to put him with LeBron James… the guy who’s been the face of the league, who can show him how to be the face of the league, and also who can show him how to take care of himself the way he needs to take care of himself,” Wade added.
It’s certainly a valid claim that the NBA would benefit from seeing Doncic one of the largest sports markets in the world in Los Angeles. It also doesn’t hurt that Doncic could learn under the current face of the NBA in James, who Doncic will be playing alongside on the Lakers. James will likely retire in the next couple of seasons, so Doncic can then take the mantle as the league’s top star and succeed James in Los Angeles in the process.
Wade’s claim is certainly a daring one as he’s basically alluding to the fact that the NBA’s owners may have had more to do with this trade. Regardless, now Doncic will get to play with James in one of the most star-studded duos that the league has seen in some time.
