NBA players have one goal: to win a championship with the team they are drafted by. In the NBA, players get traded for other players all the time. Some players choose to, and others are forced to leave their teams. Some end up being one of the biggest trades in NBA history.
One big trade was On July 9, 1968, when the 76ers traded Chamberlain to the Lakers for Darrall Imhoff, Jerry Chambers, and Archie Clark. Chamberlain was such a big force that he was traded twice with championship results. Sending Chamberlain to the Lakers led to one of the league’s first super teams, as he joined legends Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. On June 16, 1975, the Bucks traded Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley to the Los Angeles Lakers for Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Elmore Smith, and Brian Winters. Kareem Adul-Jabbar won championships and held the all-time scoring record that Lebron James broke.
In 1996, Vlade Divac was traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Charlotte Hornets for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant. The trade was historic and helped transform the Lakers into a dynasty and the late great Kobe Bryant won 5 rings with the Lakers. The last trade I would like to talk about happened on Monday, February 2025 when the Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis was traded to the Dallas Mavericks for one of the top three best players on the planet Luka Dončić.
The trade was kept a secret between both teams, as both players didn’t know they were going to get traded until the day it was posted that they would be traded.
Even the teammates of Anthony Davis and Luka Dončić were shocked about the trade, including the whole world. They were shocked and could not believe that it was real. Both players believed that they were going to end their careers by staying on the teams they were already on. Anthony Davids wanted to be a Laker for life just like the late greats Jerry West and Kobe Bryant and also like Magic Johnson. Luka Dončić wanted to be a Maverick for life just like Dirk Nowitzki.
Luka and Anthony Davis looked sad when getting off the plane to meet with their new team. There are some pros and cons to this deal for each side. The pros for the Lakers are that the Lakers get a top 3 player in the NBA. The cons are they lose one of their best defenders and their only center. The pros for the Mavs get one of the best defenders in the league and their defense gets much better with Anthony Davis. The cons are they lost a top 3 player in the league and got an injured pron player.
Anthony Davis said this about the deal” “I was shocked,” Davis, wearing a full Mavericks sweatsuit, said after Dallas held its morning shootaround at Wells Fargo Center before facing the host Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night. “I had no idea.”I had just sent the team a text about congratulations on the win against the Knicks, a big win, and then looking forward to Tuesday’s game against the Clippers, as far as standing purposes. And then, found out like an hour later I was no longer with the team. I was in shock. Had no idea that it was happening” But, I mean, now I’m kind of over it, and just kind of getting ready to play with Dallas.”In an interview with Luka Doncic said shocked and disbelief when he first learned about his trade to the Lakers from the Mavericks, calling it a “big shock” and saying he “had to check if it was April Fool’s Day,” indicating that he was initially surprised and not expecting the move at all.
Legend Shaq O” Neal shared his thoughts on the trade and said“, I think Dallas has probably won the trade because AD goes into a natural position with better players around him…Of course, (the Lakers) got two top players– LeBron and you got Luka. I don’t see who else they got. I don’t see them going far… They have no size. Both those guys aren’t great defensive players, so I think Dallas won the trade,” and he stated this on The Big Podcast with Shaq. Only time will tell if this ends up being the worst trade in NBA history or the best trade in NBA history.
