‘Hated him’: Text message says it all in NBA bombshell
The NBA is in meltdown over one of the biggest trades in basketball history — and the cloak-and-dagger deal has sparked bombshell rumours.
The NBA is in meltdown.
Basketball was rocked on Sunday when the Lakers and Dallas Mavericks triggered one of the biggest trades in the history of the league.
The NBA is still coming to terms with the fact superstar shooter Luka Doncic is now playing for the Lakers — while 10-time NBA All-Star Anthony Davis now calls Dallas home.
The pair have swapped places as part of a complex, three team trade that sees the Lakers receive Doncic, Maxi Keleber and Markieff Morris, the Mavericks received Davis, Max Christie and the Lakers’ 2029 first-round pick and the Jazz receive Jalen Hood-Schifino, the Clippers’ 2025 second-round pick and the Mavericks’ 2025 second-round selection.
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Doncic, the MVP favourite entering the 2024/25 season, will now join forces with LeBron James.
The trade has sent rumours flying in all directions and staggering questions are now being asked about James, a four-time NBA MVP.
According to US reports, Doncic, Davis and James were all kept in the dark as the deal was brokered in secret behind their backs.
As first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania, the whole thing was driven by the Mavericks.
NBA commentators are still scratching their heads and there are still plenty of moving parts to the story.
Doncic loses $200m in trade he never saw coming
Luka Doncic was in line to receive a super-max contract from the Mavericks next off-season but is no longer eligible after being traded to the Lakers, The New York Post reports.
The super max would have allowed Doncic to sign a five-year, $345 million contract with the Mavericks this summer. He is no longer eligible.
Instead, the most the Lakers can offer him next offseason is a five-year, $229 million deal, according to ESPN, a whopping $200 million (USD$116m) less than what he could’ve gotten from Dallas.
On top of that, Doncic will go from paying no state income tax in Texas to the country’s largest state income tax in California, with a current top rate of 14.4 per cent on income that exceeds $1 million a year, according to Sportico.
NBA teams can offer the super max — which allows players to get paid up to 35 per cent of the salary cap as opposed to 30 per cent — to players with seven-to-nine years of service if they earn specific accolades; Doncic became eligible by being named to an All-NBA team last year.
The player also needs to either still be with the team that originally drafted or acquired him or have been acquired by the team before his fifth season in the league.
Doncic is currently in his seventh season in the league.
Text message says it all as Doncic moves on
For someone who has lost a fortune, Doncic seems to be taking it well.
He took to social media on Monday morning to show that he is already moving on from his former team.
Doncic has changed his X profile photo to a shot of him meeting Lakers icon Kobe Bryant.
He also changed his banner to a photo of Bryant and daughter Gigi, who died in the tragic helicopter crash with her dad.
“Grateful for this amazing opportunity,” Doncic wrote on X.
“Basketball means everything to me, and no matter where I play the game, I’ll do so with the same joy, passion and goal -- to win championships.”
He also sent a classy message to his supporters in Dallas.
“Dear Dallas,” his open letter began.
“Seven years ago, I came here as a teenager to pursue my dream of playing basketball at the highest level. I thought I’d spend my entire career here and I wanted so badly to bring you a championship.
“The love and support you all have given me is more than I could ever dreamed of. For a young kid from Slovenia coming to the U.S. for the first time, you made North Texas feel like home.
“In good times and bad, from injuries to the NBA Finals, your support has never changed. Thank you for not only sharing my joy in our best moments, but also for lifting me up when I needed it most.
“To all the organisations I’ve worked with throughout the Dallas community, thank you for letting me contribute to your important work and join you in bringing light to those who need it.
“As I start the next part of my basketball journey, I am leaving a city that will always feel like a home. Dallas is a special place, and Mavs fans are special fans. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. — Luka.”
Behind the scenes it appears to be a very different story with reports emerging Doncic has not returned Dallas general manager Nico Harrison’s calls or text messages.
‘Terrified’ Mavericks ‘must have hated’ Doncic
Public comments from the Mavericks have only fuelled rumours there must be more to the situation for the team to have shipped out a 25-year-old four-time All Star.
Speculation across the league has raised the possibility that the Mavericks were desperate to get rid of the Slovenian superstar.
According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, the Mavericks had “major concerns” about Doncic’s ability to fulfil his potential due to issues they saw with his conditioning and lifestyle.
Dallas was worried enough that “they were terrified” about giving him the super-max contract.
Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor said the Mavericks had likely “grown tired” of Doncic’s “antics”.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, meanwhile, revealed that one current All-Star texted him to ask: “Do you know how much the Mavericks must hate Luka?”
‘Ultimate insult’ theory behind Mavericks move
Doncic’s conditioning has always attracted headlines, but it may be just the tip of the iceberg — if the Mavericks were so keen to let Doncic, who led the NBA with 33.9 points per game last season, go.
The Mavericks clearly weren’t comfortable with coughing up to pay the super-max extension.
“I find it completely unbelievable that he would not sign that contract,” Windhorst said on ESPN.
He described Dallas’ move as the “ultimate insult” if the organisation truly believed extending Doncic for that amount of time and money was a smart move for the franchise.
“This was not done because the Mavericks didn’t think Luka wanted to be there. Even if he didn’t sign that contract, he would have a whole year to figure it out,” he said.
“This was done because the Mavericks didn’t think that going forward with Luka was best for their franchise. Think about that statement — a 25-year-old who’s been first team All-NBA the last five years and carried them to the Finals a few months ago.
“And they said, we want out of the Luka Doncic business, and we want out of it.”
Mavericks criticised for bizarre trade strategy
The Mavericks have rolled the dice on one of the biggest gambles the game has seen.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps described the gamble as the NBA’s version of “The Big Short” – fully betting against Doncic’s future.
Dallas boss Harrison has defended the jaw-dropping trade, but there have been suggestions the team could have cut a better deal.
The cloak-and-dagger dealing between the two teams was a rare strategy considering the Mavericks could have put Doncic in the shopfront window and taken the best offer from the countless teams that would have jumped at the chance to sign a superstar who is only just entering the prime of his career.
“They didn’t put him on auction, they didn’t say we’re going to trade Luka Doncic, bring us your offers. They targeted one team, and they made the deal in stealth mode,” Windhorst said.
“This is just shocking, and I will say this, we all know what Luka’s pock marks are. We all know what his deficiencies are.
“We all have seen his greatness. But nobody in the world has more information on Luka Doncic than the Mavericks. And the Mavericks just pulled the rip cord — it’s a stunning situation.”
Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor said general managers around the league were shocked at how it went down.
“The Mavs must’ve had some indication that Luka could have demanded a trade this offseason, one year ahead of his free agency,” O’Connor reported.
“And if that happened they would’ve had zero leverage. Has to be much more to it than just his weight and conditioning.
“One executive texted me, he’s like, ‘Sure, maybe the Mavericks were tired of Luka’s antics and all that but how do you not hit up all these other teams? How do you not go for it and try to get more from these other teams and a bunch of picks’. So, there is a lot of confusion all around the NBA.”
The Mavericks, who made the 2024 NBA Finals, believe they are built to win now and will pair Davis with Kyrie Irving while complemented by Klay Thompson, Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington and Dereck Lively, among others.
LeBron James torches journalist over rumour
LeBron James quickly disputed one report about his relationship with Anthony Davis after the blockbuster trade, The New York Post reports,
“You a fkn lie!!!” James posted on X in response to a report from CBS Sports that claimed he “had grown frustrated” with Davis.
“I’m gonna tell you something that was true a year ago but I think it is pertinent now,” CBS Sports reporter Bill Reiter said in a television spot.
You a fkn lie!!! 🤥🤡 https://t.co/EYNRUbUFmj
— LeBron James (@KingJames) February 2, 2025
“Remember I talked to I think you on CBS Sports HQ last year at the trade deadline and Lakers fans got very angry. But at the time, there was talk within the Lakers organisation that LeBron James had grown a little frustrated with Anthony Davis.
“It wasn’t that necessarily AD was going to be traded, we obviously didn’t report that on CBS Sports, it was just ‘hey this is something to keep an eye on, LeBron is frustrated with AD and he doesn’t think that it’s working.’ And that’s because LeBron has very, very high expectations.
“And you fast-forward a year later, obviously that reporting, really that information from Lakers sources, was accurate. This was probably a slow blow and it’s always hard to know with LeBron James.”
James and Davis are both managed by the same “Klutch Sports Group” agency.
LeBron James no longer the man he was
In an unheard of development it has been revealed James was kept in the dark the whole time.
The 40-year-old has had a career-long reputation for holding sway in the front offices of the teams he has played for — so to see him left out shows a major power shift at the Lakers.
ESPN reported that James first learned of the deal late on Sunday while out for dinner in New York with his family following the Lakers’ victory over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Further to this point, Charania said on SportsCenter that the trade was “out of nowhere” and “materialised in the shadows”.
“A lot of people on both sides of the Mavericks and Lakers had no idea,” he added, while Stein said on the ‘DLLS Dallas Mavericks Podcast’ that there was “shock” throughout the Dallas organisation because the front office had kept it so quiet.
“They knew exactly who they wanted,” Charania added.
“They wanted Anthony Davis. That’s the player that if they were ever going to trade Luka Doncic, if this was even a thought that was going to cross their mind, it was for AD.”
James signed a two-year extension last summer which includes a player option for the 2025-26 season.
But The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie said that regardless of how James reacts to the news or what it means for his future, this was a move the Lakers simply had to make because of what they’re getting in return.
“If you’re getting Luka Doncic, he’s one of the only guys in the league where it doesn’t matter,” Vecenie said on ‘The Game Theory Podcast’.
“It doesn’t matter what LeBron thinks, we’re going to get Luka Doncic. If we have a chance to go get one of the guys who’s going to be the next eight years, we’re doing that. LeBron can be frustrated... it just kind of doesn’t matter.
“If you’re getting Luka, what the decisions are there are just kind of simple.”
LeBron James’ future in doubt
The Lakers suddenly look like one of the most bent out of shape teams in the NBA.
With Doncic on their roster the iconic franchise has secured its eventual replacement for James.
But that shift raises many more questions.
There is speculation the Lakers will have to orchestrate another trade to bring in a star centre or power forward to replace Davis — who has left a giant hole in the team’s front court.
With the Lakers at 28-19 this season — sitting fifth in the Western Conference — it will undeniably take time for the team to find its feet with Doncic suddenly demanding so much of the ball.
It’s why there are many questions about what the Lakers’ long-term plans are.
“This doesn’t seem to be a trade that was made to better position the Lakers for a tilt at the title in the short-term anyway,” Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix posted on X.
“What does this mean for LeBron? Luka is a transformative talent but short term this already bottom-third defensive team just got measurably worse. Acquiring Luka feels like the start of a pivot, not a move to make an immediate run.”
Mavericks give defiant explanation
Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison believes the trade can be a huge positive for his side.
“We think defence wins championships and we’re bringing in one of the best two-way players in the league,” Harrison said.
“We’re excited to feel like we’re built to win now as well as in the future.”
Asked if he could understand the frustration of fans at seeing a generational talent being traded away, Harrison replied: “I’m sorry they’re frustrated, but it’s something that we believe in as an organisation that’s going to make us better.
“We believe that it sets us up to win, not only now, but also in the future, and when we win, I believe the frustration will go away.”
Harrison also suggested the Mavericks were obliged to act pre-emptively ahead of contract extension negotiations with Doncic this summer, heading off the possibility of having to scramble to rebuild the team in the event the Slovenian sought a move.
“He was going to be able to make his own decision at some point of whether he wants to be here or not,” Harrison said.
“I think we had to take all that into consideration and feel like we got out in front of what could have been a tumultuous summer.”
Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, meanwhile, admitted he had been kept in the dark about the trade until late on Saturday.
Luka will have his first chance to go up against his former club when the Mavericks take on the Lakers in Los Angeles on February 26th.
The Lakers will then venture into Dallas on April 10th for the second showdown.
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