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Lakers Front Office Initially Thought Mavs GM Was Joking When Pitching Luka Doncic Trade

Nico Harrison shared L.A.'s initial reaction to a Luka trade after the blockbuster went down.

Liam McKeone

Luka Doncic and LeBron James are now teammates
Luka Doncic and LeBron James are now teammates / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The NBA world was blown away on Saturday night as the Los Angeles Lakers traded Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks for Luka Doncic as part of an earth-shattering trade that redefines the championship landscape both now and into the future.

Mavericks GM Nico Harrison spoke to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News to explain some of the thinking behind the massive transaction. In the process, he revealed the Lakers didn't take him seriously when talks first began.

Harrison said he began having "basketball conversations" with L.A. general manager Rob Pelinka over a month ago. Then he detailed the first exchange the two GMs had about possibly exchanging Doncic and Davis.

"Then all of a sudden we’re like, ‘Would you ever do this?’" Harrison told the Morning News.

‘Nah, you’re joking, right?’

‘Hmm. Interesting. Maybe I would.’

“And then it just built over time over the last three weeks," Harrison said.

A pretty understandable response from Pelinka and the Lakers brass. A player of Doncic's caliber and age simply does not get traded. What's more, it's very rare to see All-NBA talents get swapped for one another, and especially in the middle of the season. This whole situation is varying levels of unprecedented and it sounds like the Lakers reacted to the idea accordingly—with laughable disbelief.

But, it's true. The Mavericks were willing to offer up a first-team All-NBA player, at 25 years old, on a silver platter for Los Angeles.

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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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