The National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the biggest and fastest growing sports leagues to date. The league raises and skyrockets young men out of college into the superstars whose jersey’s we all wear. When a potential prospect gets drafted to a team, the team’s General Manager (GM) has the ability to trade that player to another team in exchange for other players or a higher draft pick. This can be done with or without the player’s knowledge, although a player can request a trade themselves.

The Dallas Mavericks GM, Nico Harrison, will most likely go down as the biggest dummy in NBA history. Harrison created and enacted a trade that will affect and impact the Western Conference’s balance of power for years. The trade took place between the Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Mavericks traded Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and the Lakers’ 2029 first-round draft pick.

There are a couple reasons why this trade is taking the athletic world by storm. The two key players in this trade are Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis. Doncic was the franchise player for Dallas, receiving the torch from former franchise player, Dirk Nowitzki, who is now retired. Nowitzki led Dallas to its one and only NBA Finals win and ring in 2011, and to this day, is seen as the best player in the franchise’s history so far. Doncic was expected to not only follow in his footsteps, but surpass him and take his title. Fans expected him to stay in Dallas for his entire career, seeing as he was only 25 years old and still not in his prime. Doncic put up incredible numbers throughout his seven seasons with Dallas, averaging 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.2 steals in his 422 games with the team.

Another reason for the public’s shocked reaction to this trade is whom Dallas received in the process: Anthony Davis. Davis is 31 years old and is way incredibly past his prime. On top of being past his prime, Davis is known for his lack of stamina when it comes to injuries, having not played an entire NBA season since 2017, when he was with the Pelicans.

Harrison stated that he thinks defense will win championships, and that is reasoning as to why he decided to trade Doncic. Why trade one of-if not the best-active player in the NBA for an old man who cannot even play more than a dozen games anymore? The question will most likely go unanswered, and Doncic will go on to drop dozens of triple-doubles on the Lakers, continuing his superstar success somewhere else. Mavericks fans are devastated by this news as Doncic was undoubtedly supposed to be a Maverick for life.