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The Mavs Made a Fatal Mistake Trading Luka Doncic | Insider Sabotage?
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Mar 7, 2025
The Dallas Mavericks just made one of the worst trades in NBA history—sending Luka Doncic to the Lakers without maximizing his value. Veteran sportscaster Damon Amendolara breaks down why this was a fatal mistake by Mavs GM Nico Harrison and why the decision reeks of internal sabotage or insider trading. Why didn’t Dallas shop Luka to the highest bidder? Was this a move orchestrated behind closed doors for reasons beyond basketball? Amendolara connects the dots, exposing how this deal could have been influenced by Mavs ownership or Harrison’s past ties to LeBron James. Don’t miss this deep dive into one of the most shocking and controversial trades in NBA history. #LukaDoncic #Mavs #Lakers #NBATrade #LeBronJames #NBA #DAShow
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all right let's start with this NBA
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Blockbuster because who thought they
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were going to wake up on Sunday morning
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and see Luca donic traded to the Los
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Angeles Lakers of all teams the Lakers
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grab one of the biggest brightest stars
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in the NBA and for what now I have a DA
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Deep dive on this right here on the
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YouTube channel so I got I knocked that
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out early Sunday morning got that up
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there for you for instant re action let
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me touch on that if you haven't seen it
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yet and then add some more context to it
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the biggest question I have and I think
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many people have is not why they traded
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Luca donic although that certainly is a
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glaring question as well my biggest
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question is how do you not let the
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league know he's for sale you know you
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don't need me to tell you this but when
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you have a
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25-year-old Mega Superstar who's under
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contract is eligible for the supermax
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which will keep him into contract with
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your franchise for even longer you've
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just come off the NBA Finals with him
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and he could win multiple MVPs before
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all is said and done if you're gonna if
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you're GNA part ways with him you should
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probably see what the market will hold
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right let's just see what the Market is
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going to bring back if we're going to
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sell let's make sure we absolutely max
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out and there's just no way there's just
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no way you could argue that somehow the
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Mavs got max value now even if you think
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that Anthony Davis is a really good fit
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for the Mavericks and even if you feel
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like defense which is what their GM
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niiko Harrison said was the reason they
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did this they wanted to get better
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defensively even if you believe
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that that is what drives all of this
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you'd of course open something up like
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this to the rest of the league to see if
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the other 28 basketball teams GM's
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owners wanted to jump into the mix if
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you had an incredibly valuable asset
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which the Mavs did and you were going to
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part ways with it you certainly wouldn't
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sell it to your neighbor without getting
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it valued you certainly wouldn't just
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push it off to a friend of yours before
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seeing what other buyers might spend on
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it unless you were doing a favor that's
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the only way unless you were doing a
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favor you can convince me if you want to
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really rationalize this that new
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ownership after Mark cubin said we don't
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think Luca donic is worth a
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supermax because he's not committed
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defensively or because he's not
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committed to his conditioning or because
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this year he's in injured and he doesn't
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seem like he's rushing to get back now I
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would disagree with that thinking but
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that's at least IR
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rationale you could say hey coaches in
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front office felt that Luca's defense is
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such a problem as we saw last year in
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the NBA Finals that even as great as he
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is offensively will never be able to
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legit legitimately win a championship
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because he doesn't take that side of the
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basketball seriously enough this is a
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chance for us to get better in a
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weakness and make ourselves an improved
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basketball team you can somehow wrap
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your mind around that if if if you had
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to but what you simply can't is if
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you're going to trade a generational
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star of which a guy has major value to
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almost everybody in the NBA that you
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wouldn't ask everybody in the NBA well
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what would you give us you wouldn't shop
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them
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around Brian wior went on ESPN and said
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that was the common theme all all night
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and morning long general managers
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coaches and players reaching out to him
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and saying he was available for a trade
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what what do you mean the fact that even
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the most inside of
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insiders
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Windor other GMS had no idea this was on
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the
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clock that is the biggest what the heck
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and I started going down a list of what
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the background is of the guy that traded
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Luca donic for Anthony Davis in a in a
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first-round draft pick and it turns out
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that nicoo
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Harrison is a longtime Nike
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employee who had LeBron James as one of
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his most important
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clients that to me smelled real fishy
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real fishy as I laid out in in the da
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deep die from earlier in the day Nico
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Harrison spent 19 years at Nike handling
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the basketball side of marketing and the
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basketball Client List and that's of
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course a massive part of Nike's brand
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and that means that he developed
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relationships with many many players and
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certainly people around the NBA which is
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how you jump from sneaker executive to
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basketball general manager now I'm not
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here to say that that's that's somehow
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criminal because there's plenty of
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basketball Executives decision makers
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agents it's what have you that have
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elevated through the ranks of personnel
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departments to now kind of control the
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league right this has happened multiple
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places the Knicks are one of those the
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Lakers have been one of the those
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wherever LeBron has gone he's had his
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his group of of non-traditional
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basketball Personnel people kind of
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around him helping make decisions so
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that's not unique that niiko Harrison
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got this job what is unique is that
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niiko
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Harrison
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basically automatically started to
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elevate all of the guys that he ever
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worked with okay first of all he moved
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to Dallas for this job many moons ago
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okay so he has roots in Dallas and
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certainly that helps becoming the
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general manager of the Dallas Mavericks
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one of his clients was Jason kid the
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moment that he's hired to be the GM of
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Mavericks Jason kid is named the head
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coach one of his clients was Michael
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Finley back when Finley played for the
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for the Mavericks one of his clients was
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Dirk novitzki when novitzki was a star
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for the Mavericks he steps into this
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this position of power Michael Finley
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becomes his second his right-hand man
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his second Lieutenant okay now you have
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a guy who has deep Nike roots and whose
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most significant client was LeBron James
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obviously now he began in the early
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2000s Michael had retired Kobe was
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massive and then LeBron carried the the
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Baton after that it seems just a little
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bit
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strange that you don't open up the
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bidding to the rest of the NBA and
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instead one team that happens to be
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Lebron james'
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team I don't know why the Mavericks felt
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like he was dispensable that seems crazy
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to me at 25 years old you know after
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just a couple months ago going to the
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NBA finals but for some reason they did
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for some reason the Mavericks felt like
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this was unfeasible in some way shape or
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form and when they did the ownership
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clearly had an edict hey you got to get
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rid of Luca right this does not feel
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like this would be something a general
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manager would do and have to convince
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his owners of it seems like they'd have
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to be in cahoots because obviously your
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GM's head is on the line with this could
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be a generational mistake this could be
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an all time bad trade so you got to you
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got to have the support of your
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owners but when you do have the support
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of your owners to make this
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trade and you do it under cover of
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secrecy on a Saturday night when nobody
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in the league knew that Luca was
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available makes you wonder why he went
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there and that makes it feel as though
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the Mavericks had washed wanted to wash
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their hands of Luca for some reason okay
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but why he went to the
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Lakers that's the real fishy part now
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why they didn't let why didn't they want
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him in Dallas anyway that's that's also
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a questionable decision but why he got
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shoveled to the
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Lakers that that's that's one that will
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that will we will wonder for a long time
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it's a it's a home run for the Lakers
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because clearly it gives LeBron an elite
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scorer next to him as LeBron Fades out
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and then also it gives the Lakers a face
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the franchise in Los Angeles Hollywood
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stardom Etc after LeBron does end up
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walking away for the Mavericks they give
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them a temporary window to win a
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championship it's as long as Anthony
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Davis can stay healthy he's having a
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very good season this year obviously
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he's 32 so you're talking about this
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year maybe next year you're teaming him
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up also with a guy in Kyrie Kyrie Irving
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who is volatile at best so you know
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again how long as your window it just
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seems insane to have traded LCA donic at
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this point in his career and get nothing
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back besides 32y old ad and a draff pick
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it seems absolutely insane and I could
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only explain it as some insider trading
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going on between sneaker people that run
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the
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NBA so we go into Super Bowl week and
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the jumping off point is a mega
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Blockbuster for the NBA before the trade
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deadline
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