A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers<\/a> (Doubleday), veteran hoops writer Yaron Weitzman reveals that an unsuspecting stakeholder\u2019s Sabbath observance put the trade \u2014 and indeed, the future of the NBA \u2014 on hold. It\u2019s one of a few fun Jewish details in the deeply-sourced book (whose author is Jewish, in case the name didn\u2019t give it away).<\/p>\nSecrecy was essential to the trade. Don\u010di\u0107, then 25, was beloved in Dallas, where his future with the Mavericks seemed utterly secure. Because mere rumors of a developing trade would irreversibly damage their relationship with Don\u010di\u0107, the Mavs had to negotiate below the radar of the scoop-hungry NBA media. For that reason, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison only told his Lakers counterpart, Rob Pelinka, that Don\u010di\u0107 was on the market. In turn, Pelinka only told his boss, Lakers owner Jeannie Buss.<\/p>\n
It took three weeks for the blockbuster deal to come together, with the Lakers\u2019 Anthony Davis \u2014 a future Hall-of-Famer in his own right \u2014 and a first-round draft pick headed to Dallas in return. By Jan. 31, a Friday night, the terms were in place.<\/p>\n
But the Lakers couldn\u2019t pull the trigger \u2014 yet. For salary cap reasons, they needed to complete a separate trade with the Utah Jazz \u2014\u00a0and before the Jazz could accept, they needed to do a trade with the L.A. Clippers that involved another four players, including 16-year veteran Patty Mills. Because Mills was in the last season of his contract, league rules required his agent to certify that no future contract had been agreed to under the table.<\/p>\n
There was just one issue, Weitzman reports: Mills\u2019 agent, Steven Heumann, was observing Shabbat and therefore offline. \u201cThis meant that all parties had to wait until an hour after sundown on Saturday night,\u201d Weitzman writes. \u201cIn the meantime, Pelinka and Harrison [the respective general managers of the Lakers and Mavericks] agreed to keep the details quiet. Neither side wanted to risk anything leaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
What if something had leaked? It\u2019s possible and maybe likely that the deal would have fallen apart. Mavericks fans would have rioted \u2014 perhaps literally \u2014 to stop a trade. Competing offers might have come in from other teams. Or Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s agent might have tried to force him to a different destination. But the gag order held, and the next Laker dynasty began.<\/p>\n
Ironically, Heumann (who did not immediately respond to an inquiry), wouldn\u2019t have known that he was holding up The Luka freaking Don\u010di\u0107 Trade even after Shabbat, because none of the adjacent teams or players or agents was wise to the NBA earthquake they were facilitating. Instead, his observance inverted an experience many Jews are familiar with \u2014\u00a0the excruciating wait for Shabbat to end so you can start working \u2014 by giving it to non-Jews. (Now let Pelinka try turning off his phone for 25 hours.)<\/p>\n
The trade was as consequential as it was surprising. It rejuvenated the league\u2019s most iconic franchise from also-ran to championship contender and doomed the Mavericks \u2014 led by Don\u010di\u0107 to the NBA Finals the season prior \u2014 to irrelevance. Mavericks fans \u2014 who might have kept 100 Shabbats in a row if it meant keeping their hero in town \u2014 will hold Harrison in contempt for decades. And one man\u2019s Jewish observance will always be a small part of a landscape-altering basketball story.<\/p>\n
A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers hits shelves Oct. 21. The Lakers season starts Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Louis Keene is a reporter for the Forward. His work has also been published in The New York Times, New York magazine and Vice. He is based in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A final hangup on the blockbuster Luka Don\u010di\u0107 trade is one of a few Jewish anecdotes in NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-228643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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