Unpacking the NBA's worst-ever trade: How the Mavericks sent franchise star Luka Doncic packing, forever reshaping league history.
The trade deadline has come and gone, so the entire NBA world is still talking about the trades that happened this year, as well as the trades of the past.
And if you're talking about trades, there is one that absolutely has to be brought up.
In a recent article by Bleacher Report's Andy Bailey, he ranks what he believes are the 50 worst trades in NBA history. And quite unsurprisingly, the Dallas Mavericks' trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers last season is at No. 1.
"Doncic was arguably the single most valuable trade asset in the NBA. And Dallas moved him without negotiating with anyone but the Los Angeles Lakers," Bailey writes. "All the Mavs got back was a post-prime and injury-prone big man, one potential role player and one first-round pick. It's more than fair to declare this the worst trade in NBA history. And there's still plenty of time for it to look worse."
The Mavericks had just made the 2024 NBA Finals when they traded away their franchise player. And while they lost to the Boston Celtics, they were in a good spot to contend as long as they had Luka at the center of what they were doing.
But that all changed in February of 2025 when the unthinkable happened.
ESPN's Shams Charania made a shocking post on X at around midnight that changed the NBA world and sent Doncic to the Lakers. And it has been the talk of the league ever since.
More strange things came out of Dallas when they got the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft with just a 1.8 percent chance.
But Bailey does not think that makes the Luka trade any less horrible.
"Dallas may have been bailed out by the miracle of the 2025 draft lottery and Washington's interest in Davis, but even Cooper Flagg is going to have a hard time erasing the sting of this trade."
So while the rookie phenom will do his best to take the pain away, this will be trade that will be talked about for the rest of the team's history.