“A lot of emotions, not much sleep … I’m just glad it’s over.” Those were 25-year-old Slovenian basketball phenom Luka Dončić’s succinct and surprisingly vulnerable initial thoughts on Tuesday night after his first rendezvous with his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, when his Lakers hosted them in Los Angeles. It was a highly anticipated game, the culmination of weeks of NBA drama following the biggest blockbuster trade in league history, when Dončić was traded for 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis. Davis was sidelined on the bench with an adductor strain on Tuesday, which slightly dampened the dramatic potential. But with both Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison and minority owner Mark Cuban joining Lakers GM Rob Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss in attendance, the tension was palpable. There’s really no such thing as a hands-clean breakup, but this one has been particularly messy, and as much as the basketball itself has started to round into shape for both clubs, the wounds from the parting have only just begun to heal.
Related: ‘Vital and essential’: the film paying tribute to the weird world of NBA Twitter
The “wins” and “losses” of the trade have been covered ad nauseam. The basketball of it all, the Xs and Os, what might work, what might not, have been dissected to death. The drama, trying to figure out what conspiracy theories could have been at play to set it into motion, has made for unassailably compelling television. But, as is the case in many sports sagas, the human element of it all seems to have gotten somewhat lost in the shuffle.
As anyone who has been unceremoniously and unsuspectingly dumped can attest, even if it’s ultimately for the best in the long run, it hurts. Add to that the disorienting vertigo of being uprooted and sent to a new city overnight, and throw in some loud media discourse narrating the entire experience, and it’s easy to see why trades aren’t ever as simple as shuffling deck chairs. “When you move on, or they move on from you, it’s very emotional, obviously, and very taxing,” LeBron James told reporters on Tuesday when asked how he thought his new teammate handled the emotionally charged circumstances. “There are probably a lot of things going on in his head that don’t even involve the game itself. And with that said, I thought he handled it tremendously.”
The Mavericks have responded to widespread criticism for trading away their young perennial MVP candidate and franchise face by, in true post-breakup fashion, dragging Dončić’s name through the mud in what seems like an almost daily stream of targeted leaks, alluding to his alleged drinking, lack of dedication to fitness and work ethic, among other gripes. That has certainly fanned the flames of keeping the transaction in the public discourse, even as both teams involved purport to embark on their respective title chases.
“Awkward as shit” was how Dončić’s former teammate Kyrie Irving described their first duel as players on opposing teams when he spoke to the media after Tuesday’s game in Los Angeles. And there were certainly plenty of awkward moments, like when a subset of one side of the Crypto.com Arena crowd chanted “Thank you, Nico!”, referring to the maligned Mavericks GM who was, fortunately, sitting on the opposite side of the arena on the Dallas bench.
Davis did get a touching tribute video on his return to LA, complete with a standing ovation from the crowd, and was visibly moved by the gesture. Both Davis and his personal experience have been largely sidelined, with most of the discourse focusing on how the Mavericks could be so foolish as to trade away a young superstar who wanted to stay, and on the aforementioned bad-mouthing from the organization in the weeks since. But all reports indicate that Davis, a top-10 player in his own right, didn’t see the trade coming either, and, much like Dončić, expected to be the face of his franchise for the long haul.
“I miss being around him every day,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said of Davis before Tuesday’s game. “He’s a wonderful human being.” James had similar sentiments. “Our friendship goes without saying,” he said after the reunion, where he and Davis shared a courtside laugh for presumably their first time since the swap. “He’s one of my best friends.”
The midseason transition to a new franchise likely wouldn’t have been easy regardless, but for Davis, he’s been handed the sisyphean task of trying to win over a fanbase that feels so slighted by their franchise’s decision-makers that they’ve taken to the streets. To his credit, Davis has handled the impossible situation with grace, empathizing with the feelings of Mavericks fans from day one: “I understand it,” he said at his introductory press conference of the outrage from the fans at trading away their crown jewel. “But it’s my job to play basketball and come in and do what I’m supposed to do and give the fans hope and reassurance on why Nico brought me here.”
We asked Redick, who as the Lakers’ coach is not only at the nexus of this specific trade, but who has also experienced being traded against his wishes (ironically, to the same Mavericks team that moved Dončić), what the experience of being dealt away is like from a player perspective. He said that his first trade, from the Orlando Magic to the Los Angeles Clippers, was a bit easier as he and his now-wife hadn’t had kids yet at the time (both Dončić and Davis are parents). Of the eventual move to Dallas (by way of New Orleans), he told the Guardian: “I wanted to be somewhere that I had a chance to win a championship. Ideally that would be somewhere that was closer to home [in Brooklyn, where his family stayed behind], ideally somewhere drivable. That didn’t happen. I got traded further away. But it was a blessing in disguise, and I didn’t realize it until [recently]. Because I got to play with Luka for two and a half months, and now I get to coach him.”
Dončić and Davis will perhaps see such silver linings eventually, or maybe they’re already beginning to. But steadily progressing or not, the scars will take time to heal. “The closure is going to take a while, I think,” Dončić told reporters after Tuesday’s contest. “It’s not ideal, but I’m glad this game is over. It was a lot of emotions. We’ll go little by little, and every day is better.”
