Luka Doncic and Lakers exceptionalism

They did it again. They always do it. But will it matter?

Good morning. What the f—? What the entire and complete f—? Whatever, let’s basketball.

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Death in the Sickroom; Edvard Munch; 1895

The Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick. The Mavericks … traded … Luka Doncic … to the Lakers.

Marc Stein

’s reporting indicates that Luka did not request a trade, but the Mavericks franchise had trepidation about the coming mega max contract extension he’d be eligible to receive given his fitness and injury history. There have long been rumors that generally matched the appearance that coming into training camp in excellent shape wasn’t all that important to Doncic, and that he enjoyed his time off.

That said, he’s played at least 61 games every season of his career (he probably won’t quite make that this year) and, um, has five straight top-10 MVP finishes, with three in the top five, and carried the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last season, and is 25 years old. He is at worst the fourth or fifth best player in the world and the type of player supermax contracts were designed to compensate. The league wanted to give incumbent teams an advantage in signing the super-duper stars, the caliber of player who can make All-NBA and compete for MVPs. Luka is that. Dallas apparently disagreed to some extent.