The 77 Stages of Grief (CONT'D)
And tonight foists the toughest stage yet on those mourning the Luka Dončić trade when the Mavericks match up with the newest Laker head-to-head for the first timel
Really couldn't believe it.
So said Dirk Nowitzki last Friday in his first official statement in response to the big trade made by his beloved Dallas Mavericks.
A trade stunner that turned Lakerland into Lukaland.
Amazon's newly signed NBA studio analyst for next season pretty much summed things up perfectly. Even three full weeks and change later, Nowitzki speaks for a lot of people both based in Dallas and far, far beyond.
Luka Dončić, you see, will be playing against the visiting Mavericks on Tuesday night in downtown Los Angeles. He'll be wearing No. 77 in Lakers purple and, well, yeah …
It hasn’t gotten any more believable for a lot of us.
In the wee hours of Feb. 2 in Cleveland, with virtually no one in the NBA prepared for such a swap in the middle of the night or the middle of the season, Dallas agreed to voluntarily exit the Luka Era after less than seven full seasons. Without warning they agreed to send him to Tinseltown in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and one future first-round pick. Dončić literally had to be roused from his Saturday night sleep to be informed of the deal by phone.
Yet naturally now, with a bit of distance from the initial shock, you have begun to hear more of the whispers that the Mavericks had somehow concealed for months. Whispers via league sources suggesting that Dallas' decision-makers, most notably general manager Nico Harrison, no longer wanted Planet Mavericks to orbit around Dončić and had grown determined to trade him by this summer at the latest
The timetable, even more stunningly, then got moved up suddenly … presumably because Dončić's former co-star, Kyrie Irving, is turning 33 in March and doesn't have infinite time to form a similarly successful partnership with Davis.
In his own limited public commentary on the matter to date, Harrison explained in part — via a pre-game press conference from Cleveland — that the Mavericks believe the trade got them ahead of "a tumultuous summer," referring to Luka's looming eligibility for a five-year, $345 million supermax contract extension in July.
Yet all the Mavericks have known since, of course, is a tumultuous present.
Tumult, in fact, that is unlikely to simmer down any time soon and has only been exacerbated by the fact that Davis has been sidelined until at least March 6 (and almost certainly longer) by an adductor strain sustained in what looked for a half like it would be a storybook Mavericks debut.
I have said it before and say it again here for posterity: I never would have made this trade and know I am certainly not alone there. Yet I am duty-bound to cover this trade and keep covering it and, to help get you ready for one of the most anticipated Revenge Game duels in NBA history tonight on TNT at 10 PM ET, wanted to re-share all the pertinent coverage of this blockbuster from The Stein Line so far.
I've written four lengthy pieces on the ins and outs of this megadeal to date. In inverse order chronologically:
The Trade
San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, with two full weeks now to let the details sink in, called it "still the craziest trade I've ever seen."
Luka Dončić traded ... one week later
DALLAS — The most unexpected trade in NBA history is officially one week old.
Luka Dončić has been traded ... really
The phone kept ringing with the same tip all week. One team called. Then a second. Then a third.
Those four chapters — especially the two most recent entries — will help you understand how we got here. There will be much more coverage to come, too, but we're going to try to focus our immediate energies on what might happen on the floor tonight.
On how snarly, for starters, Dončić figures to be at the mere sight of Harrison, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd and anyone else in the building he perceives to be responsible for his banishment. It certainly can't hurt his readiness that the 25-year-old is coming off of his best game as a Laker in Denver after three very muted performances by Dončić standards as he adjusts to a totally new life alongside LeBron James.
Two more significant curiosities: How it will look to see P.J. Washington operating as the Mavericks’ primary Luka defender … as well as how Dallas plans to attack Dončić and the defensive frailties that the Mavericks believe they know better than anyone.
My Slovenian pal Professor Iztok Franko has one of his trademark X-and-O and data-fueled lookaheads to preview 48 minutes that inhabitants of the Mavericks’ universe have been openly and understandably dreading:
I also plan to come back later today with a special Numbers Game preview piece as prepared by NBA researcher extraordinaire Keerthika Uthayakumar. Mavs at Lakers — Mavs at Luka — demands its own bespoke Tuesday serving of numbers to try to meet the moment.
During a pregame press conference before Davis' bow as a Maverick on Feb. 8, Kidd was reminded that the pre-Mark Cuban Mavericks abruptly dealt him away in a somewhat similar manner early in his third NBA season. It probably ranked as the most shocking trade in team annals until Feb. 2, 2025.
"You see yourself playing for an organization for a long time ... until you get called back to the locker room and you're told that you've been traded to Phoenix," Kidd said that afternoon.
"It shocks you because you don't know about that side of the business."
It shocks you because, for Dallas to initiate Luka's exit when and how it did — when he hadn't asked for a trade and clearly believed he was on course for the same one-team, one-town legacy that Nowitzki enjoyed if he desired it — makes it several degrees more shocking than Kidd's exile on the day after Christmas in 1996.
“I’m sure,” Nowitzki said last Friday at his appearance for local radio station The Ticket (96.7 FM), “he wanted to finish his career like I did.”
Really can't believe it.
Still.
The Stein Line is a reader-supported newsletter with both Free and Paid subscriptions available … and those who opt for the Paid edition are taking an active role in the reporting by providing vital assistance to bolster my independent coverage of #thisleague. Feel free to forward this post to family and friends interested in the NBA and please consider becoming a Paid subscriber to have full access to all of my posts.
As a reminder: Tuesday editions, on this and every Newsletter Tuesday, go out free to anyone who signs up, just as my Tuesday pieces did in their New York Times incarnation.
Hope Luka drops 50 in a blowout win, checks out and chugs a beer at mid court like Stone Cold Slovene Austin.
it still makes me sick. i hope he breaks Wilt's record tonight