Jaylen Brown summed up what many fans thought when Luka Dončić was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.

In the second season of Netflix’s Starting 5 docuseries, Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown is shown reacting to the blockbuster February 2, 2025, deal that sent Luka Dončić from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in a three-team trade with the Utah Jazz.

“That might be, like, one of the worst trades of all time,” Brown said in the footage, which appears just before the two-minute mark of the premiere episode.

The deal sent shockwaves across the league. Dallas parted ways with its franchise cornerstone, receiving Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick from Los Angeles. Utah joined the transaction by acquiring Jalen Hood-Schifino and two 2025 second-round picks.

What made the trade even more remarkable was that neither Dončić nor Davis had requested to leave their teams, and both were still firmly in their primes. The move not only stunned fans and analysts, but also left players across the NBA scrambling to process the shift in power.

For the Lakers, acquiring Dončić meant securing a five-time All-NBA First Team guard whose playmaking and scoring had defined Dallas since 2018. For the Mavericks, the return of Davis — a perennial All-Star — marked a dramatic shift, especially after the lucky addition of top overall draft pick Cooper Flagg.

The new season of Starting 5 explores much more than the Dončić trade. It follows MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyrese Haliburton, Kevin Durant and James Harden throughout the 2024–25 campaign, capturing triumphs, setbacks and behind-the-scenes moments.

Haliburton’s run to the Finals stands out as one of the show’s most dramatic arcs. The Indiana Pacers guard led his team to a Game 7 showdown against Gilgeous-Alexander’s Oklahoma City Thunder, only to suffer a torn Achilles in the decisive contest.

Durant and Harden provide veteran perspective in the series, navigating their own late-career challenges while the league continued to be shaped by a younger generation of stars.

Still, it is Brown’s unfiltered reaction to the Dončić trade that may linger longest. His blunt assessment reflects the disbelief many inside the league shared, adding to the debate over whether the deal will ultimately be remembered as a bold turning point or one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history.