Earlier this month we saw one of the biggest trades in recent NBA history, shocking the basketball world, and leading to theories and speculation as to what possibly could’ve prompted the Mavericks to trade away one of the sport’s biggest stars.

By Conor Harte Roig | Mar 3 2025

On the night of February 1 2025, the unthinkable happened: Luka Don?i? was traded by the Dallas Mavericks to Lebron James’ Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis. Since the trade, many people have had their say on the deal, with the one thing that everyone can agree on being that this trade has changed the game. Amidst the confusion and bewilderment of the basketball world, one thing has become very clear, no player is untouchable - even the very best.

Let’s put things into context, Luka Don?i? is no ordinary player, he is one of the best players in the world; it would not be controversial to say that when it is all said and done, he will go down as one of the greats. Before Luka, Dallas had not been to a final in thirteen years. When Luka joined Dallas, he took the league by storm. He slowly but surely made the Mavericks a serious team again, culminating in their NBA finals appearance in 2024, where they were defeated in five games by the Boston Celtics.

So while we know just how high a calibre of a player this man is, we ask ourselves the obvious question: why would the Mavericks trade one of the best players to ever play for them, at the age of 25, who just took them to an NBA final, for a 31-year-old, injury-prone Anthony Davis?

Of course, having a player of Davis' calibre is not to be frowned upon. He is another future hall of famer; he is an all-time great defender and he instantly makes any team better. 

So what’s the issue? Anthony Davis is not Luka Don?i?. Luka Don?i? loved the Mavericks and the Mavericks loved him. The former owner of the Mavericks, Mark Cuban, went so far as to say that he would rather divorce his wife than trade Don?i?. The Dallas Mavericks front office have since gone on to say that ‘defence wins championships’ and that they traded Luka amid concerns of his fitness, conditioning and weight issues. The problem with that reasoning is that they replaced Luka with an even more injury prone star, and a player who is considerably older than Luka. 

The other criticism of this trade is that even if Luka is perceived to be ‘overweight’ for an NBA player, he just took the Mavericks to a final, proving his weight may not be the issue that it's being made out to be. This has led to a few different theories as to what’s really behind this deal.

 We know that the NBA is struggling with low TV ratings, so some say that this trade was orchestrated by the NBA to get more viewership. This theory makes sense when you take into account the huge secrecy behind this trade. There was absolutely no speculation by any media outlet that this trade was going to occur - it came out of nowhere. 

Others speculate that the new owner of the Mavericks wants to sour the relationship with the Dallas fans so that they can move the franchise to Las Vegas with little-to-no objection, an idea that they’ve not been hiding from fans. This of course would make both the new owner and the NBA a lot more money as Las Vegas would be a much more profitable market than Dallas, with the idea of placing the court in the middle of a casino being touted

The fact of the matter is, we might never know the real truth, but what we do know is that Luka magic is a Dallas Maverick  no more. We are entering a new era, the era of Los Angeles Luka.