{"id":145491,"date":"2026-01-31T16:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/145491\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T16:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:29:19","slug":"a-reporters-first-person-account-of-the-night-the-mavs-shockingly-traded-luka-doncic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/145491\/","title":{"rendered":"A reporter\u2019s first-person account of the night the Mavs shockingly traded Luka Doncic"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was shortly after 11 p.m. on that infamous Saturday night<\/a> when, literally as my wife and I returned home from a Richardson Symphony performance, the text came.<\/p>\n

\u201cHate to do this on a Sat. night \u2014 but are you available shortly?\u201d<\/p>\n

In three-plus decades of sportswriting I\u2019ve had many sources reach out with all manner of news, but I could not have fathomed the size and devastation of this incoming bombshell.<\/p>\n

Moments after replying to the source that, sure, I\u2019m available, ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania sent the tweet that rocked the sports world, especially in Dallas.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mavericks<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Mavericks fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Unbelievably, Luka Doncic<\/a> was being traded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m assuming it\u2019s the news that ESPN just tweeted?\u201d I texted back to the source.<\/p>\n

\u201cYup,\u201d came the reply.<\/p>\n

Had I not been in the middle of texting this particular source, I, like much of the rest of the world, would have assumed Charania\u2019s X account was hacked.<\/p>\n

Personally, the loom of Sunday\u2019s one-year anniversary has induced flashbacks and sporadic PTSD.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Not because I missed breaking the news of the most controversial trade in NBA history by minutes, if not seconds. Or because Charania\u2019s 11:12 p.m. tweet has 113.2M views compared to the 2.6M of my 11:14 p.m. tweet that was updated at 11:19.<\/a><\/p>\n

Charania has said his hands trembled that night. My recollection is that my mind ping-ponged between racing to get the story online and attempting to analyze the deal.<\/p>\n

Was I missing something? Granted, Doncic was not without flaws, but he already was one of the most gifted offensive players in NBA history and still a month shy of turning 26.<\/p>\n

Mavericks management\u2019s reasoning became clear just after midnight, starting at 12:10 a.m. to be precise, when GM Nico Harrison<\/a> got on a call with colleague Mike Curtis and I and patiently answered all of our questions.<\/p>\n

But my phone had been blowing up for the better part of an hour. Fans were apoplectic, their initial shock quickly boiling to anger. My first question to Harrison was about the fans and what he would say to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I understand why they would be shocked initially. But I do believe that we positioned ourselves to win now and also win in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s ultimately the goal and why we\u2019re here. I think it\u2019s one of those things where it\u2019s my job to make the tough decisions that put our goals first and foremost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listening to Harrison that night, it didn\u2019t seem that he grasped the full gravity of the trade, or the intensity of fans\u2019 feelings about Doncic. Harrison for the next few weeks said he understood the extent of fan disappointment, but at season\u2019s end he admitted he didn\u2019t.<\/a><\/p>\n

A year later, the fact Anthony Davis has only played 29 games as a Maverick<\/a> certainly has erased any notion of merit on Dallas\u2019 side of the trade \u2014 especially as Doncic in the same span has played 67 games as a Laker and averaged an NBA-best 31.4 points.<\/p>\n

Doncic is coming off his 88th career triple-double, the latest one attained in the first half alone. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Rationalize all you want about other factors, but the bottom line is since the trade Dallas is 32-49; the Lakers are 51-31<\/p>\n

A year later, what most resonates about the trade is its senselessness. That late-night Feb. 1, 2025, bombshell is the highly risky, irrational oops that never can be undone.<\/p>\n

If we didn\u2019t know better, we\u2019d wonder if the NBA mocked the Mavericks by sending Doncic and the Lakers to American Airlines Center eight days ago,<\/a> tormenting Dallas fans one last time before the anniversary.<\/p>\n

To Dallas\u2019 astoundingly great luck, the arrival and rise of Cooper Flagg has been a bright ray of hope and excitement, but with Doncic back in the building the air was thick with gloom, regret and, yes, ongoing anger. <\/p>\n

Can\u2019t speak for anyone else, but I probably won\u2019t be going to any symphony on Sunday night. If I do go out, I\u2019ll probably have my phone silenced by 11:12 p.m. and if I can at all help it, I won\u2019t be on X.<\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was shortly after 11 p.m. on that infamous Saturday night when, literally as my wife and I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4643,732,102,104,2582,103,4646,4281,3080,6538,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-145491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-headlines","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-dallas-news","14":"tag-luka-doncic","15":"tag-mavericks","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nico-harrison","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}