Luka Doncic going to the Los Angeles Lakers should have been a stuff of fiction. After all, he has been the face of the Dallas Mavericks since 2018, as proven by his five All-NBA First Team selections and five NBA All-Star appearances. Doncic also led the league in scoring (33.8 per game) in his last full year with the Mavs.
A player of his caliber should have played his entire NBA career in Dallas. The Mavericks must offer him the necessary contract to keep him in Texas. When he’s done playing, he should have a statue outside the team’s home court.
However, the fantasy turned into reality when the Mavericks traded Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris to the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. The Utah Jazz also got involved, making it a three-way trade.
While it’s been two months since the league office approved the trade, The surprising nature of this deal still makes it a conversation starter among everyone invested in the NBA. If those not directly affected by the trade have much emotion about it, what more about the players from both teams, especially from the Mavericks?
The Lakers felt they got the better end of the bargain because Doncic is younger, and Davis has an extensive injury history. Conversely, Mavericks players thought it was a prank, as shared by shooting guard Quentin Grimes.
Grimes shared during his recent appearance on The Young Man and The Three podcast that he was in a hotel room when he received a call from a friend. He picked up because it was unusual for that friend to be calling that late at night. That friend informed him about the Doncic trade, which he did not believe at first.
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Grimes confirmed the trade when he saw an update from NBA insider Shams Charania. However, he added the three words that reverberated throughout his location that night. “It was funny, maybe ten seconds later, all I heard in the hallway was like ‘What the f***!?’ I opened my door and it was Naji (Marshall), D-Live (Dereck Lively), P.J. (Washington) and we were just looking at each other and we were like ‘Hey yo, what the f***?’ Grimes described the scenario after the Doncic trade.
What’s odd is that Grimes’ stint in Dallas didn’t last because the Mavericks traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers two days after the Doncic trade. It became a blessing for Grimes because he averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game in 28 matches.
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