The Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks will forever be intertwined in the scope of NBA history. Dallas shipping Luka Doncic to the Lakers is the most shocking trade ever made, and it will be discussed for years to come. Austin Reaves recently reopened the wound Mavs fans are surely still reeling from, chatting about Doncic’s first game back in Dallas:
“The first game we played in Dallas… I will never see something like that in my basketball career,” Reaves said on a recent episode of The Young Man & The Three. “That was insane. They fouled Luka like the first two minutes of the game and it started… I don't know if it was fire Nico or f*** Nico (Harrison). I can't remember which one it was, but like it was from tip off to the end of the game, just going crazy and like every time Luka scored it was like that and he went crazy in the first half too. He went crazy.”
Doncic expected to be a Mav for life, but his time in Dallas came to a brutal end.
What happens with Luka and Mavs now?
Just as the Lakers and Mavericks will forever be linked, so will Doncic and Dallas. From now until he retires, and perhaps even after that, every time Doncic visits the Mavs in Texas, there will be rumblings.
The same Nico Harrison chants that haunted the Mavericks organization upon Doncic’s first return to the American Airlines Center will still be there 10 years down the road.
At next season’s games, they will be present. Five years from now, they will be present. During Doncic’s final game in Dallas before he retires, the chants will be present.
Unfortunately for Mavs fans, who had no say in the deal (and will forever make the organization know their thoughts on the matter), Lakers fans will be able to hold the trade over them forever.
Obviously, Dallas landing the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, thus adding Cooper Flagg, has softened the blow a bit. They actually have a decent roster heading into the 2025-26 season.
But nothing will ever take away from the pain of losing Doncic. He was supposed to have a statue standing next to Dirk Nowitzki’s.
Now, he’ll have a chance to become a legend for the Lakers. And for as long as he’s donning the purple and gold, stories like Reaves’ will inevitably keep trickling out.