The Trade™, three weeks on: Dončić, Davis and the art of the NBA breakup
As much as the basketball itself has started to round into shape for the Lakers and Mavs after the biggest trade in NBA history, the wounds have only just begun to heal
“A lot of emotions, not much sleep … I’m just glad it’s over.” Those were 25-year-old Slovenian basketball phenom Luka Dončić’s succinct and surprisingly vulnerable initial thoughts on Tuesday night after his first rendezvous with his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, when his Lakers hosted them in Los Angeles. It was a highly anticipated game, the culmination of weeks of NBA drama following the biggest blockbuster trade in league history, when Dončić was traded for 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis. Davis was sidelined on the bench with an adductor strain on Tuesday, which slightly dampened the dramatic potential. But with both Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison and minority owner Mark Cuban joining Lakers GM Rob Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss in attendance, the tension was palpable. There’s really no such thing as a hands-clean breakup, but this one has been particularly messy, and as much as the basketball itself has started to round into shape for both clubs, the wounds from the parting have only just begun to heal.
The “wins” and “losses” of the trade have been covered ad nauseam. The basketball of it all, the Xs and Os, what might work, what might not, have been dissected to death. The drama, trying to figure out what conspiracy theories could have been at play to set it into motion, has made for unassailably compelling television. But, as is the case in many sports sagas, the human element of it all seems to have gotten somewhat lost in the shuffle.
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