Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves relived the shocking Anthony Davis trade with the Dallas Mavericks for Luka Doncic. Reaves, who was in a group chat with Davis at the time, received a text from his former teammate that he disregarded as a joke. Then, his phone wouldn't stop going off, as was the same for the rest of his Lakers teammates, as the early hours of Sunday, February 2, 2025 was a very memorable night for many.
Reaves told the story of how he found out that Davis, along with Max Christie, were headed to the Mavericks in an interview with The Old Man and The Three podcast.
“The first thing I looked at when I pulled my phone up, AD [Anthony Davis] said, “They traded me.” And if anybody knows AD, I don't know if you know AD very well, he jokes around a lot. So I literally laughed, and I put my phone down. My phone kept going off, and I was like, ‘What the hell?’ So I pulled up Instagram and I seen Sham's tweet or post or whatever,” Reaves said. “I called Aaron and Reggie, and I was like, ‘What the f***?' And they were like, ‘There's no way this is real.” And I was like, ‘All right, cool. Let me know if you hear anything else.’”
One of the Lakers' assistant coaches, who was with Christie at the time of the call, confirmed to Reaves that the deal for Luka Doncic, was, in fact, real.
“I call one of our assistant coaches, Bo,” Reaves added. “And I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ And he was like, “Uh.” And that's all he said. And I was like, ‘Uh, what?’ Like, he was like, “It's real.” And I was like, ‘Okay, how do you know that?’ And he was like, ‘I'm sitting by Max Christie.’”
Doncic, Reaves, and the Lakers lost 4-1 in their opening-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Rivals speculate Lakers' Austin Reaves gets $40 million annually
Upon entering a contract year, Lakers guard Austin Reaves could get $40 million annually on his next deal. Reaves' value has skyrocketed over the past two seasons, as he's entering a new plateau in his career ahead of 2025-26, according to The Athletic's Dan Woike.
“The Athletic spoke with team and league sources who expect Reaves to earn more than $35 million a year on his next deal, with sources from two teams (neither being the Lakers) speculating that he could command more than $40 million a year,” Woike reported.
The Lakers started training camp this week.
