As Luka Doncic gets set to make his return to Dallas for the first time to face the Mavericks, it’s still hard to fathom them trading him to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster deal for Anthony Davis.
Everyone was caught off guard by the trade, including Doncic and Davis themselves, as there was no indication that the Mavericks were shopping the 26-year-old superstar.
Reality has now set in for everyone involved, but on the night it happened, Austin Reaves revealed that he and the rest of the team were super shocked and actually thought Davis was pranking them when he notified everyone in the Lakers’ group chat, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“Me and Bron were talking in the locker room after the game,” Reaves told ESPN. “It was like, if we play like that and add AD to that, we could be dangerous.”
As the Lakers’ bus navigated through midtown Manhattan traffic, Reaves pulled out his phone to scroll Instagram. He came across a post citing ESPN Shams Charania’s report that the Lakers had just traded Davis and Max Christie — fresh off 15 points against New York — to the Dallas Mavericks in a deal for Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic.
“First thing, I was like, ‘Oh this is [false],” Reaves said. “‘He got hacked.’”
Instantly, Reaves’ phone began to flood with incoming texts. “The group message started going crazy,” he said. “AD, texting the [team] group message, was like, ‘They traded me.’ And I was like, ‘OK, AD is bulls—-ing with us.’ He’s a kid at heart, had his fun. He literally has a prank TV show. I thought it was one of those.”
Then he received a message from Lakers assistant coach Beau Levesque.
“Bro …,” Levesque messaged.
Reaves called Levesque immediately.
“This ain’t real,” Reaves said, a statement posing as a question.
“Umm … I think it’s real,” Levesque said, sitting on the Lakers’ last bus to leave MSG, about 15 minutes behind Reaves. “I’m sitting right by Max.”
Davis has been hosting a new prank show on TBS called “Foul Play,” so him pulling a fast one on his teammates after a big win would not have been that farfetched.
The deal ended up being real though, and so far the Lakers have reaped the benefits of it as Doncic should have them in championship contention for years to come, especially with Reaves leveling up as well.
Things haven’t gone quite as well for the Mavericks, although Davis is back healthy and trying to help Dallas make one last push to the playoffs with the Play-In Tournament just around the corner.
Anthony Davis has ‘no emotions’ playing Lakers for first time
Wednesday’s game should be an interesting one as Luka Doncic returns to Dallas for the first time since the trade. He at least has the benefit of playing against the Mavericks once already in L.A. last month, which should help him be able to deal with the emotions of his return.
Davis, on the other hand, will be facing the Lakers for the first time since the trade after missing the game at Crypto.com Arena due to injury. As he gets set to play against his former teammates, Davis said he has ‘no emotions’ for the game.
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