Some of the NBA’s biggest stars were left in shock after hearing about the bombshell trade involving Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis.
It emerged on Saturday night that the Lakers are sending Davis, a 2029 first-round pick and Max Christie to the Mavericks, in exchange for Doncic – one of the stars of the NBA – Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris.
The trade, one of the most seismic in NBA history, shook the sporting world to its core. And, as word spread across social media, many of basketball’s top stars were among those struggling to process the news.
Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Jalen Brunson were among those left stunned by the news of Doncic’s departure from Dallas.
‘Insane. It’s crazy. It’s crazy,’ Durant said. ‘I would have never though Luka Doncic would get traded at this age, mid-season… the NBA is a wild place, man. If he can get traded then anybody’s up for grabs.
He added: ‘For everybody involved, I’m sure their heads are spinning right now… this has got to be the biggest trade I’ve seen since I’ve been in the league or since I’ve been watching the sport, this is insane.’
‘WOWWWWW NO F WAY,’ 76ers star Embiid wrote on X. His Philadelphia teammate Maxey echoed Embiid’s sentiments. ‘HUH!!!!’ he posted online.
Brunson, who faced the Lakers on Saturday night with the Knicks, could not hide his surprise, either. The New York star posted a series of tweets after the game.
‘Holy s***,’ he wrote. ‘Wow… April fools right?’ Josh Hart, also of the Knicks, added ‘Huh?????’ while Heat star Tyler Herro tweeted ‘wtf????’
Alex Caruso of the Oklahoma City Thunder echoed the thoughts of many NBA fans when he assumed the news was fake.
‘Nah shams gotta be hacked,’ he posted, referencing Shams Charania of ESPN, who broke the seismic news on Saturday night.
LeBron James, meanwhile, angrily hit back at claims he wanted Davis out of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Bill Reiter, the NBA Insider for CBS, told his channel that he had heard talk last year within the Lakers organization that James was growing frustrated with teammate Davis.
‘It wasn’t that AD was going to be traded, it was just something to keep an eye on – that LeBron is frustrated with AD and doesn’t think that it is working,’ Reiter said of what he heard in 2024.
James, 40, hit back abruptly on X, replying to the video clip with a Pinocchio emoji and a clown emoji plus the comment: ‘You a fkn lie!!!’
