On February 8, 2024, the Dallas Mavericks pulled off a trade that sent Grant Williams, Seth Curry, and a 2027 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets for PJ Washington and two second-round picks. Little did everyone know at the time that it would eventually bear fruit for both Washington and the Mavericks in the form of an NBA Finals appearance after they took care of business in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a 124-103 victory.

Even Washington couldn't seem to believe his fortune; he went from a Hornets team that was 10-40 at the time to a Mavericks team that has Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. And in the aftermath of their Game 5 win over the Timberwolves, Washington took to Instagram live to celebrate his serendipity while appearing to take a shot at his former team in the process. Even Daniel Gafford couldn't hide his joy after the Mavericks rescued him from the woeful Washington Wizards on the same fateful day.

“Bottom to the top. Tell them Gaff, we went from the bottom to the top, n***a. From the bottom to the top!” Washington exclaimed.

Now, PJ Washington still has some plausible deniability when it comes to those words. But his former college teammate in Kentucky, Tyler Herro, threw all that out of the window with a hilarious comment that spurred an even more hilarious response from the Mavericks forward.

“how you go from Charlotte to the finals, you really made it out the mud with this one,” Herro commented on Washington's live stream.

“How you go from Charlotte to the NBA Finals? Tell 'em again! How you go from Charlotte to the NBA Finals?” the Mavericks star said while cackling non-stop.

Here's to hoping that the luck of all the readers of this article right now turns like PJ Washington's did beginning on February 8, 2024. The question now is whether or not the Mavericks can seal the deal to win their second championship in franchise history — cementing quite a turn of events for both Washington and Daniel Gafford.

Mavericks rescue PJ Washington (and Daniel Gafford) from NBA hell

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As mentioned earlier, the Hornets had a 20 percent win rate this past season when they traded PJ Washington away to the Mavericks at the trade deadline. But it's not like the Hornets have had much success over the course of Washington's four and a half-year stay in Charlotte.

The Hornets had a bit of success during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, but even that is hard to qualify as such. They made the play-in tournament in 2021 and 2022, but didn't exactly give a good account of themselves. Entering the tournament as the 10-seed on both occasions, they proceeded to lose both games by a combined 56 points.

It has only gone downhill for the Hornets since then, with LaMelo Ball being unable to shake of the injury bug. And then the Mavericks came calling for PJ Washington, a player they showed interest in signing during the 2023 offseason, and Dallas, as a result, got itself a fearless two-way forward who's more than capable of making big shots in the fourth quarter.

But Washington wasn't the only one to escape the basketball version of hell. The Hornets might be bad, but at least they have a franchise cornerstone in Ball. Brandon Miller has shown flashes of being a future star as well. Meanwhile, Daniel Gafford was playing for perhaps the team with the bleakest outlook in the entire association — the Wizards.

The Wizards, apart from perhaps Deni Avdija, have little in the way of young building blocks. Kyle Kuzma might be the next to go, Jordan Poole's stock has dropped precipitously, while Bilal Coulibaly, despite being a solid player for his age, is yet to show an advanced offensive game.

For the Mavericks, Gafford has been everything they've needed and more to form an athletic center group with rookie Dereck Lively II. Gafford works best with a dynamic floor general alongside him, as seen back in 2021 when the Wizards made the playoffs with Russell Westbrook in town. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving have brought out the best in him, and the rim protection he provides ensures that the Mavs have a strong defensive backbone for 48 minutes.

The thing about PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford is that they're still both so young (25 years old) and they're both under contract for two more years. Nonetheless, the job is not yet done. Their fortunes may have taken a 180-degree turn (or 360 degrees, if you ask Jason Kidd), but the Mavericks have one more hurdle to clear, and that is a Boston Celtics team that stands in the way of their quest to win it all.