What led to the shocking blockbuster trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers? Jeanie Buss, the team’s controlling owner and president, shed some light on that recently.
Before Thursday’s game between the Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, Buss detailed why she felt it was so important to keep all but a select few out of the loop on trade talks.
“It was really important to me that we didn’t blow up the team,” Buss said, per Dave McMenamin, ESPN. “If it had leaked out and the trade hadn’t happened, that would be really unfair to the progress that the coaching staff had made with the team. Because it’s a huge distraction.
“The trade deadline is part of the business. It increases the level of stress for everybody,”Buss added. “And I’m really proud that it didn’t leak out and that we were able to execute the trade in a way that still was surprising to all the parties involved. But that goes with this business.”
McMenamin also detailed how the trade came to be, emphasizing that it was the Dallas Mavericks — not the Lakers — who opened the conversation. From the time the deal was first discussed until it was announced, only a select few people from both organizations knew what was happening.
“Mavericks general manager and president of basketball operations Nico Harrison first approached Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka with the trade concept on Jan. 7 when the Lakers were in Dallas,” McMenamin detailed. “The trade was agreed upon 3½ weeks later, with Harrison, Pelinka, Buss and Mavericks ownership the only ones privy to discussions until Feb. 1, when the deal was finished.”
Star players getting traded isn’t anything new in the NBA. Dončić’s trade was unique for two reasons.
One was his age. Dončić turned 26 on Friday. Realistically, he’s only entering his prime years. Two was the lack of even speculation that it might be happening, which means that there was no bidding war.
Apparently, that was exactly how the people who made the deal wanted it.