Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, And Kyrie Irving Were All Reportedly Blindsided By The Luka-AD Trade

It’s extremely rare for an NBA trade to happen these days without anyone knowing about it other than the owners and few front office personnel directly involved, but that appears to have been the case with the shocking trade that broke late Saturday night that sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers and Anthony Davis to the Mavericks.

By all accounts, none of the players involved or their star teammates were briefed on the trade talks or aware discussions were even going on. Shams Charania of ESPN reported LeBron James learned of the deal when everyone else did while out to dinner in New York after the Lakers beat the Knicks, and that Davis and Doncic both also found out they were getting moved when the trade happened (along with Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris, Max Christie, and Jalen Hood-Schifino). Mavs GM Nico Harrison still had not spoken with Doncic directly as of Sunday morning after the star had not returned phone and text messages after the shocking trade went down, per Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. Kyrie Irving was similarly blindsided to learn he was getting a new star big man and losing his backcourt running mate, with Ramona Shelburna reporting he was mid-training session in Cleveland when the news broke.

The LeBron part was where most people got hung up, because for the last 15-plus years, there has been the assumption by many fans that James was at least included in conversations about roster moves by his teams, if not outright dictating some. However, given there was never even so much as a whisper this trade was going to go down despite it being discussed by Harrison and Rob Pelinka for the last three weeks, I’m inclined to believe James was genuinely not brought into the loop until it was at the finish line.

Players, agents, and front office personnel are notoriously talkative and I really think the Lakers kept the lid on this thing completely to avoid it blowing up if it became public. The backlash in Dallas to even having discussions on Luka would’ve been massive (as evidenced by Mavs fans reaction to the actual trade) and might’ve been enough to scuttle everything — at the least, it would’ve allowed other teams to try and make offers for Doncic that could’ve driven the price up. Instead, after years of Lakers fans begging the front office to make an all-in move, they not only did that but set themselves up for the post-LeBron era. That also might’ve led them to not involving James, as Luka is as much LeBron’s future replacement as the Lakers top star as he is James’ new star teammate.

Now there are real questions about whether the Lakers are done shaking up their foundation and how LeBron feels about the new arrangement. This was a no-brainer from the Lakers organizationally, as they now have their star for the next 10 years, but the roster this year is now wildly imbalanced after trading Davis from a team that was already extremely thin at center. How LeBron will feel about a trade that adds a star but is more a long-term play than a short-term push for this season remains to be seen, and everyone involved has to process a lot after being blindsided by the craziest trade in recent memory (and maybe ever).