It has been 16 days since the Dallas Mavericks shockingly traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. In those 16 days, there have been a lot of narratives woven about why the Mavs would make such a drastic move. According to their GM, Nico Harrison, they did so to bring defense to the team as it leads to championships.
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NFL legend Shannon Sharpe doesn’t believe that is all. Quoting an article by The Athletic, Sharpe spoke about how, in November, Luka was sidelined for five games with a wrist injury. That was not entirely true. In fact, Mavs had given Luka this time off to get his conditioning right. Doncic failed. And it seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Sharpe added that this would be the first season where Luka isn’t playing 60 games, whereas Anthony Davis has played less than 60 games in four of the last six seasons. This made Sharpe and NightCap co-host Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson wonder if the real reason for the Doncic trade has been revealed yet.
“Something ain’t making no sense,” intervened Johnson. “Whatever the true reason is, that they traded Luka, it hasn’t been said yet.”
Sharpe, on the other hand, believes there were two pertinent reasons “Two things can be true. I believe they had grown frustrations, trying to tell Luka about his conditioning. I also believe they didn’t want to pay him 450 million dollars,” said the former NFL tight end.
While Sharpe did make valid points, Luka wasn’t eligible for $450M, but rather a $345M extension spanning five years.
Unc Shay then gave an analogy, comparing the situation with the NFL.
“Coach Belichick, he resigns, Tom Brady is in Year 5. You don’t think people were gon go like, ‘Hold on, you still got a guy who’s in his prime. What’s really going on’?” Sharpe said.
Brady, in his 5th year in 2005, was already a 3x Super Bowl champ. Even though Luka hasn’t achieved that kind of success yet, he was well on his path with Dallas at one point. Rick Carlisle left the Mavericks in 2021 when he still had two years on his contract. Sharpe believes there was a deeper reason for Carlisle to leave 23-year-old Doncic right when he was ascending into superstardom.
Both Sharpe and Johnson went on about how Carlisle leaving should’ve been a red flag, because no coach wants to leave a talent as rare and unique as Doncic. However, it seems that they were unaware of the tension between Carlisle and Doncic that had existed from the Slovenian’s rookie season in 2018-19.
However, Johnson did leave us with some food for thought. “When it comes to any sport, it’s all about what? Your superstars. And they have to do what consistently, outside of updating your resumes, you have to perform. At any point in Luka’s career, have his numbers decreased? What are we arguing about?” said Ocho.
While we have yet to hear what Doncic’s side of the story is, we could gather possible reasons from the Mavericks’ side.
Mavs wanted to trade Doncic for two main reasons
Nico Harrison, who spent a considerable portion of his Nike career around Kobe Bryant, was accustomed to seeing greatness in a certain way. However, when it came to Luka, Harrison could not see the same qualities. Sure, Luka performed at a high level whenever he was out on the court, but Harrison was worried about the culture within the team that Doncic was inculcating.
“There are people who fit the culture and people who come in and add to the culture,” Harrison said after the Doncic trade. “Those are two distinct things. I believe the people who are coming in are adding to the culture.”
The Athletic reported how Harrison had cultural issues associated with the conditioning and lifestyle choices of the 25-year-old star.
Then comes the significant matter of money. Doncic would’ve been eligible to sign a $345 million supermax in July. He had all the intentions of doing so.
However, according to sources from the league, the mega-deal was never going to be on the table. Ever since Mark Cuban left, Harrison called all the basketball-related shots, and he was not convinced about offering Luka that kind of money.
