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The NBA world spent about 20 minutes Sunday morning debating whether the Dallas Mavericks' trade of Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers was real. Seconds after ESPN's Shams Charania announced the deal — which sent Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick — the app exploded with questions about whether he had been hacked.
Brooklyn Nets forward Ziaire Williams was among those convinced the deal was fake. He was so confident that he made a bet with several of his teammates.
“I actually lost a bet. I lost a bet with a couple of guys because I thought it was fake. So I owe about $300 to some of these guys,” Williams said at Monday's Nets practice. “Shoot, Luka, I thought they were already building his statue [in Dallas]. Hey man, that’s the NBA for you. Nobody’s safe, and everybody has their own vision of what winning looks like. You just never know.”
Ziaire Williams said he lost a bet with his Nets teammates that the Luka trade was fake:
"I lost a bet with a couple of guys. I owe about $300… Shoot, Luka, I thought they were already building his statue [in Dallas]. Hey man, that's the NBA for you. Nobody's safe." pic.twitter.com/6exPeBU16F
— Erik Slater (@erikslater_) February 3, 2025
The Nets were on a team flight following a win over the Houston Rockets when news of the deal broke.
Nets players share reaction to ‘stunning' Luka Doncic trade
While Williams lost his bet, Day'Ron Sharpe said a large portion of the team was confident the trade was fake.
“When we first saw it, we were on the plane right after our game about to come back. We thought Shams got hacked or it was a fake account or something,” Sharpe said. “We all thought it was cap. But we saw ESPN post it, and Shams retweeted it on Instagram. So we were like, damn, that s**t is true. So we started calling people and everything.”
Not long after Charania confirmed the deal, the basketball world's reaction shifted from skepticism to outrage, especially among Mavericks fans. Dallas' decision to trade a top-five player in his prime was unprecedented in the modern NBA. Their subpar return — a soon-to-be 32-year-old Davis and one first-round pick — was fuel to the fire.
Mavericks fans were so angry that they protested outside of American Airlines Center. A few even held a funeral service featuring a blue coffin with the team logo on it.
Sharpe agreed with the fanbase's reaction.
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“I ain’t gonna lie, Mavs fans should be mad. You never know how it’ll play out. But if I was a Mavs fan, I’d be mad that they traded Luka,” the Nets center said.
Day'Ron Sharpe said the Nets were on the plane when the Luka Doncic trade broke and that they thought it was fake:
"We thought Shams got hacked or it was a fake account… I ain't gonna lie, Mavs fans should be mad… If I was a Mavs fan, I would be mad that they traded Luka." pic.twitter.com/HEzxJ7JnWR
— Erik Slater (@erikslater_) February 3, 2025
The Mavericks' decision to shop Luka Doncic exclusively to the Lakers has drawn unprecedented criticism within league circles. General Manager Nico Harrison said Dallas feels Davis' two-play impact gives them the best chance to compete for a title. However, the team would have received a historic haul had it opened the bidding to the rest of the league.
One executive told the Ringer's Howard Beck it would have been the biggest in NBA history.
Ironically, the Nets would have been among the team's lining up with historic packages for Doncic. Brooklyn has an NBA-high 12 tradable first-round picks but never got the chance to make its bid for the Slovenian superstar. The team also had reported interest in De'Aaron Fox before the Sacramento Kings traded him to the San Antonio Spurs.
While his team did not make a blockbuster acquisition, Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez said trade deadline drama makes the league more attractive to fans.
“I think this is the week that a lot of the sports fans read the media and talk about it, which makes our business more attractive,” Fernandez said. “You see it on tv, you see it on social media. I don’t see anything on social media, but I think people talk about it, which is good for all of us and for our business… It’s always shocking to see players of [Doncic and Davis'] caliber traded… Some of the people when we heard about it [said], ‘Well, is that true or not?’
“But at the end of the day, it’s two really good players being traded. Whatever the thought process is with that, I’m not the one that put it together, but we got to see what happens after and people will be able to see if that’s a good or a bad trade.”
