Luka Dončić is now a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, and he’ll make his first playoff appearance with his new team on Saturday against the Minnesota Timberwolves. But it’s barely been two months since the trade heard around the world jolted people upon learning that Dončić had been traded from the Dallas Mavericks, a team he just led to the NBA Finals last season, to the Lakers.
From the Lakers’ perspective, it was fantastic news. They traded Anthony Davis for a younger superstar to set this team up for the next decade. But while Lakers fans were cheering, Mavericks fans were — and still are — mourning the loss of Dončić, someone they’ve cherished greatly since the team pulled off the draft night trade to land him in 2018. Dončić, too, went through an array of emotions since the trade, and shared with ESPN that he threw his phone after getting the call that he had been traded.
“I was actually in bed, my TV wasn’t working so I was on an iPad watching a movie about to go to sleep,” Dončić said. “First thing I said probably three times was, ‘is it April 1st?’… [I felt] sadness mostly, I was still in shock. I felt like my heart was broken, honestly.”
Dončić is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve, and we saw those emotions come out when he and the Lakers played the Mavericks last week in his first game in Dallas since the trade. Dončić was visibly emotional prior to the game while watching a tribute video showing all his highlights throughout his time with the team, but when it was time to get down to business, he dropped 45 points on the Mavericks.
Top moments from Luka Dončić’s Dallas return: Lakers star tears up during tribute, then scores 45 on old team
Sam Quinn
That moment served as closure for Dončić, but everything that’s come out from Dallas’ side about him since the trade has tried to paint him in a negative light. Reports have come out to suggest the Mavericks didn’t like that Dončić was always out of shape, that he drank too much beer in his free time or didn’t commit himself to improve in certain areas of his game, primarily on defense. The day after the trade was announced, when asked why this deal was done, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison said — and still maintains the same saying — that “defense wins championships,” alluding to the fact that Dončić wasn’t good enough on that end for Dallas to keep him.
“It’s sad, the way he’s talking right now,” Dončić said about Harrison’s comments since the trade. “I never say anything bad thing about him, and I just want to move on. The fans, my ex-teammates will always keep it hard, but it’s time to, for me, to move on from that.”
Harrison has harped on defense as one of the reasons he traded Dončić, and has also said on multiple occasions that the Mavericks were not sure if Dončić would sign the supermax extension he was eligible to sign this summer. Harrison said this despite Dončić saying at the Lakers’ introductory press conference that he had every intention of signing it. No player in NBA history has declined to sign a supermax extension because of the amount of money you stand to make on a deal like that.
Dončić wasn’t just going to sign the extension, he had no intention of leaving Dallas ever. He reiterated that to Andrews when she asked if he intended to play his entire career with the Mavericks, to which he responded, “Of course, that’s an easy question.”
Unfortunately for the Mavericks, that’s no longer a reality, and luckily for the Lakers, Dončić doesn’t plan on leaving the organization anytime soon. Andrews asked if staying in Los Angeles is what Dončić wants to do, to which he responded, “Yes.”
