{"id":71574,"date":"2025-04-07T16:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T22:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/?p=71574"},"modified":"2025-04-08T12:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T18:45:07","slug":"what-about-us-luka-lakers-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/what-about-us-luka-lakers-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"What About Us?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic smiles during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the passage of time since the Dallas Mavericks traded their cornerstone player, Luka Doncic<\/strong>, to the Lakers, the deal remains universally incomprehensible. Sure, justifications have been offered such as Doncic\u2019s defensive limitations, as well as his diet and conditioning habits that were thought to get in the way of his defensive abilities as well as to make him more vulnerable to injury. But the guy is a singular talent who, at age 25, led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last year, was in consideration for league MVP, and is a generational force offensively.<\/p>\n

He is also the face of the franchise and has been since he took the baton from Dirk Nowitzki<\/strong> after playing together with Dirk for a year. Luka viewed Dirk as a role model \u2014 a player who stayed with the same team for 21 years and led that team out of the NBA rubble to an NBA championship. A generation of Mavericks fans appreciated Dirk\u2019s loyalty, and for kids who started their fandom at age 5, they would have never known a Dirk-less Mavericks team until they were 26. Luka would have taken them to age 46. There was a reason that Luka signed with the Mavericks at age 19. He hoped to emulate Dirk\u2019s career arc. Luka was as popular a player as you could have (though yes, we sometimes had to overlook the whining to referees). If you are going to antagonize a fan base, you\u2019d better be right. So far, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who agrees with the Mavericks move.<\/p>\n

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Read More<\/h3>\n

Read more from our “Winners and Losers” columnist Bob Latham by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And that\u2019s what saddens me about the whole deal \u2014 it seems that no value was put on Luka\u2019s loyalty to the team and desire to be a lifer. Rather, it was something to be feared \u2014 that he would soon be eligible for a \u201csupermax\u201d contract extension that would have averaged about $69 million per year. It\u2019s worth noting that Anthony Davis<\/strong>, the primary player for whom Luka was traded and who is 6 years older, is locked into a contract that averages $62 million per year. Davis is a superb player but with his own history of missing games due to injury.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how you value the sort of mutual loyalty that kept Dirk and the Mavericks together for two decades and that most Mavericks fans were hoping would be the same for Luka. But the fans\u2019 desires in that regard do not appear to be something that was valued by the Mavs\u2019 front office. Jerry Seinfeld<\/strong> once observed that with the player movement in sports, what you are really rooting for is \u201claundry.\u201d It\u2019s the jersey that counts, and who is wearing it is interchangeable. As an aside, the Mavericks have been so cursed after the trade that they really may just be playing jerseys since they are hurting for healthy players to wear them.<\/p>\n

I would have put a premium on a potential lifer rather than a shiny new, or in this case older, object. And I would have found ways to address Luka\u2019s alleged conditioning liabilities. For instance, I might have brought in Colonel Nathan Jessup<\/strong> from \u201cA Few Good Men\u201d (played by Lakers\u2019 fan Jack Nicholson) who rejected a suggestion from his subordinate officers that a sub-par Marine, Private Santiago, be transferred off the base at Guantanamo Bay. \u201cTransfer Santiago? Yes, that\u2019s the thing to do. Wait, I\u2019ve got a better idea. Let\u2019s transfer the whole squad. No, let\u2019s transfer the whole division off the base. … Wait a minute. Maybe we should consider this for a second. Maybe it\u2019s our responsibility to train Santiago! I think I read that somewhere once. And I\u2019m thinking, Colonel, that your idea of transferring Santiago, while expeditious and painless, might not be quite the American way. Santiago stays where he is. We\u2019re going to train the lad.\u201d It will be interesting to see what Luka looks like in about six months if he follows the Lebron James fitness regimen.<\/p>\n

If the training\/reshaping of Luka by the Mavericks did not work, they could have resorted to the insight of the eloquent NFL coach Bum Phillips<\/strong>, who faced criticism of running back Earl Campbell<\/strong>\u2019s fitness late in his career. When the press learned that Campbell could not finish the 1 mile run in training camp, Phillips was asked if he was concerned about it. \u201cNo,\u201d he replied. \u201cWhen it\u2019s first down and a mile to go, we won\u2019t give him the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sad fact is that Luka was on his way to a statue someday being erected outside whatever Mavericks\u2019 arena exists in the future. That seemed to be his preference, and it was certainly the preference of the fans \u2014 he would have complimented the Dirk statue very well. Instead, Mavs fans will have to adjust to the rotating cast of characters that fill the jerseys over the next 15 years.<\/p>\n

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\"BobBob Latham is a partner at the law firm Jackson Walker, L.L.P., and a World Rugby board member. A compilation of his best columns titled \u201cWinners & Losers: Rants, Riffs and Reflections on the World of Sports,\u201d is available for purchase at amazon.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the passage of time since the Dallas Mavericks traded their cornerstone player, Luka Doncic, to the Lakers, the deal remains universally incomprehensible. Sure, justifications have been offered such as Doncic\u2019s defensive limitations, as well as his diet and conditioning habits that were thought to get in the way of his defensive abilities as well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":71577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3048,21,4],"tags":[43,17422],"class_list":["post-71574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-winners_losers","category-perspectives","tag-basketball","tag-luka-doncic"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/sportstravelmagazine.com\/what-about-us-luka-lakers-trade\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"What About Us?","url":"http:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/what-about-us-luka-lakers-trade\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/what-about-us-luka-lakers-trade\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/10015547\/AP25062196947664-1-150x150.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/media.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/10015547\/AP25062196947664-1-scaled.jpg"},"articleSection":"Basketball","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jason Gewirtz"}],"creator":["Jason Gewirtz"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"SportsTravel","logo":"https:\/\/www.sportstravelmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/sportstravel-logo-simple-1.jpg"},"keywords":["basketball","luka doncic"],"dateCreated":"2025-04-07T22:06:09Z","datePublished":"2025-04-07T22:06:09Z","dateModified":"2025-04-08T18:45:07Z"},"rendered":"