Dallas Mavericks superstar Anthony Davis counters the popular narrative surrounding blockbuster trade to his new team.<\/p>\n
Three and a half weeks ago, a seismic event rocked the basketball world. A team that made the NBA Finals only a few months ago, the Dallas Mavericks, traded away their 25-year-old superstar Luka Doncic<\/a> (turns 26 on Friday) to the Los Angeles Lakers. The media narrative so heavily focused on Doncic, that it somehow overshadowed the other massive piece in the deal: Anthony Davis.<\/p>\n Davis may not be the caliber of player that Doncic is, but he’s no slouch. “The Brow” touts a slew of accomplishments, including being named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, 10 All-Star appearances, five All-NBA honors, five All-Defensive appearances, and of course, his 2020 championship with the Lakers.<\/p>\n According to Broderick Turner, the writer for The Los Angeles Times who conducted a recent interview with Davis, the new Mavericks centerpiece took everything in stride. Turner wrote<\/a>, “[Davis] processed it almost immediately and understood it was ‘the nature of the business’.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides the major names of the players involved, the trade blew up in large part due to its shocking nature, even amongst those at the top of the food chain. No executive around the league outside of Nico Harrison and Rob Pelinka knew the trade was occurring, and even Danny Ainge\u2014GM of the Utah Jazz<\/a> and tertiary party in the Doncic\/Davis exchange\u2014had no idea he was helping facilitate the mega-deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Allegedly, even previous majority owner Mark Cuban<\/a> and Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd<\/a> remained in the dark until the 11th hour. Davis was recovering at home from a previous injury when Pelinka called to deliver the news. \u201cWhen it happened, I honestly didn\u2019t know s\u2014.”, Davis told Turner. Like most everyone else, Davis was blindsided, so his first reaction was to call his friend and former teammate LeBron James<\/a>.<\/p>\n Davis explained further, “I don\u2019t know what\u2019s true or what\u2019s not, coming from upstairs. So, my thing is I\u2019m gonna go to my counterpart who I\u2019ve been running with and see what\u2019s going on, get his reaction…” While Davis didn’t divulge any details about the conversation, he did come away with a certain impression.<\/p>\n “\u201cEverybody\u2019s saying nobody knew and all this other s\u2014. I just don\u2019t believe it.”<\/p>\n Davis isn’t alone in his skepticism. Others, such as popular sports media personality Bill Simmons, went even further and suggested the Mavs organization may have ulterior motives<\/a>. In part jest, Simmons opined that the new owners may have traded Doncic as a way of kicking off a move from Dallas to Las Vegas. “the [NBA] owners have always wanted the Vegas team…And the first way to do this would be basically to torpedo the Mavericks franchise\u2019s relationship with their fans by trading Luka Don\u010di\u0107.”<\/p>\nA Move Shrouded In Mystery<\/h3>\n
Trying To Make Sense Of The Senseless<\/h3>\n