The Los Angeles Lakers Are Lucky
I used to never believe in Lakers exceptionalism, or at least I would thumb my nose at the complaints from Midwestern fanbases. Now, I'm starting to see their perspective.
I, as a New York Yankee fan, often detect a kinship between Los Angeles Lakers fans and Yankees fans, especially since both fanbases can hear feeble cries from small market fan bases that are too scared to hold their favorite organization accountable for their timid spending. (Luckily for small market fans in baseball, Hal Steinbrenner’s lack of gall has weakened the status of the Yankees, allowing for the Dodgers to become the central power). It is a feeling of impenetrable foulness, that the small or medium market fanbase has towards the coastal elitist fanbase, and it never fails to make me smirk especially when it is directed towards me personally. Since when does the nature of sport mean that rich teams must cede control and wealth to the less fortunate, or the inept? Why are fans willing to let their teams operate without any resistance to their foolishness? It is possible that, at times, the fans in a small market city can exhibit a kind of compelling jealousy that blinds their ability to see an organization’s own failures.
The Luka Doncic trade has not been one of those exhibitions. The opposite of small market complaints has been the Lakers exceptionalism theory, the idea that no matter how chaotic and ineffective the Buss family might seem, their market and power will always allow them to make a deal that leaves them better than they were before the deal. A month ago, on February 2nd to be exact, Doncic was traded in a shocking deal that sent Anthony Davis to Dallas and him to Los Angeles. The deal felt fake from the moment Shams Charania tweeted it from his X account. He had to tweet that the trade was real in order to fully convince people who assumed they were being duped by a spam account. There’s a fog of surprise in this move, a sense of purgatory that clouds the reaction to this trade: If the Mavericks are willing to trade Doncic, what else might happen in the world? Will Trump send troops to Ukraine on behalf of Putin? It was a night on X that will be impossible to forget. Players like Doncic don’t get moved. He is 26. He has made it to five All-Star games in seven seasons. He is a superstar — highly successful and very famous. He, along with Kyrie Irving, led the Mavericks to an unlikely run to the NBA Finals. They’re supposed to be the ones pressuring management to move players. NBA fans have become familiar with players — LeBron James, for example — wielding their power, even if it is gauche when they do so.
The trade was brought to the general public by the ego of Nico Harrison, the general manager of the Mavericks and former executive of Nike. In a jointly reported piece on ESPN.com, Ramona Shelburne and Tim McMahon wrote that Harrison and Pelinka started to discuss the details of this trade in January at a Dallas coffee shop. The reasons, which have been widely debated, were this: Doncic, although he is very talented and very competitive, does not treat his body like LeBron James does, and is not a deranged worker like Kobe Bryant was. “I mean, who gains weight during the season when you’re playing 40 minutes per game”, a team source told ESPN. (Seldom has a quote from a team source been this hilarious. Doncic is a maniac). Harrison had his doubts about Doncic’s ability to lead a franchise to eternal glory. Writer and podcaster Charlotte Wilder has wondered if Nico Harrison got the ick — a phrase for when you’re dating someone and their personality becomes so unbearable that you’re icky around them. Indeed, it does seem that the ick was formed, and Harrison just couldn’t object to his beliefs any longer. And when Rob Pelinka put Anthony Davis on the table, Harrison jumped at the idea to put the big man in Dallas and the fat man in Los Angeles. In the weeks since the trade went down, reports have floated around the ether about Doncic liking hookah and having a taste for a brew. Fandom can turn the calmest brains into agitated ones, but it’s been hilarious to see how much Mavericks fans haven’t cared about this. Media members, this writer included, think it is odd that Harrison cares about Doncic’s weight this much. Sure, there’s an injury risk when someone’s weight continues to hover over the proper number, but if Doncic was gunning teams down while being hefty, then odds are that the Mavs should stick with the kid and allow for him to realize his eventual need to slim down. Here’s what we know: Doncic is a consistently wondrous player, a domineering talent that is indifferent to tough defense and clutch situations. There isn’t a player more dangerous in the playoffs, and few players can make shots in the half-court without the help of fouls like Doncic can. Minnesota fans still have gaudy nightmares about Doncic’s game-winning three against them in last season’s playoffs. This trade gives the Lakers, who were struggling to break out the pack in the West, a first offensive option alongside LeBron James, who of course is still excellent on offense but is also 40 years old.
No amount of Dallas heat can make Mavericks fans any less ornery from this move. We’ve never seen a move quite like it, it could go down as one of the most shocking trades in history. The James Harden trade in 2012 that stopped a budding dynasty in Oklahoma City was a pesky cap trade; the Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul trade was a veteran swap for two guys at the end of their rope with their teams. Most trades in the NBA don’t brew like instant coffee. This trade is seemingly without any intense provocations, besides the ick that Harrison has formed in his mind. It’s changing a lot of what my preconceived notions were: I suppose that it is natural to begin to agree with people who you once laughed at, if only because the situation at hand could be the most ridiculous example of the dogma you once clowned. I find myself often rolling my sight organs at this trade and how it has turned the Lakers from a droll team to an exciting one. It’s been weird watching Doncic on the Lakers because of how silly the trade is. We didn’t get a chance to be excited about this like we get in the offseason when someone signs in free agency, or forces a trade in July. It was a shock and then a sudden normal that has yet to settle in. The Mavs have let their frustration cloud their judgment and now an air of entitlement flows in Los Angeles again. I’m embarrassed for feeling this way; it is an affront to my coastal elitism, even if the coast is in the West. However, the Lakers have a history of moves like these, that completely transform the franchise in a manner of seconds. When Kobe Bean Bryant was struggling with his mortality in a sea of mediocrity, the Lakers traded for the Spainard Pau Gasol, and made it to three straight NBA Finals, winning two of them. Bryant, a Black eccentric who spent time in Italy growing up, found his spiritual match with Gasol, a cerebral and skilled big man who understood and connected with Bryant’s intellectual nature. Gasol changed Bryant’s career overnight. Of all the great teammates Bryant had, there are days I wonder if Gasol is his most monumental teammate. He helped turn the book on Bryant, allowing the report on him to go from moody prick — may Allah rest his soul — to a titan, and a basketball icon. (This is especially true if you remember the end of Shaq era, which was marred with accusations of sexual assault, snitching, and insubordination). Shaq is his best teammate, and Bryant was a great player throughout his career, but the “Black Mamba” era does not become as important as it became without Gasol’s contributions. LeBron James signed with the Lakers in 2018 despite the organization’s issues since Bryant’s achilles injury. While his business dealings began to blossom in Los Angeles, a possible reason for him wanting to go there, he is also the greatest athlete since the millennium. The Lakers were a likely destination for a man who is obsessed with basketball history. Surely, the Doncic move will end up being another example of Lakers exceptionalism? They need not to be competent; only fame is required for success. Nobody fails upward like the Los Angeles Lakers do.
Compare these other teams and you’ll find that the Lakers definitely get lucky, but their branding is also special, a rare combination of history, notoriety, and legit success. They’re the most important team in Los Angeles, even with the Dodgers becoming the 1927 Yankees. The Lakers know this too. Jeanie Buss, whose father owned the team and helped manage them to new heights, recently went on The Rich Eisen show and pontificated on the connection that Doncic has with Kobe, who attended a Lakers game a month before his death that Doncic played in. (Kobe said hello to Doncic in Doncic’s native Slovenian language). Buss was unabashedly telling this story. They fully attend to make this part of the narrative. They’re geeked about the move because it extends their championship window if they can get another big man to pair with Doncic, especially after James retires — if that ever happens.
As the season chugs along, I’m looking for cracks in the Doncic armor. Was Harrison a rogue agent? Perhaps. Maybe Doncic is a fat bastard who likes happy hour too much. Back in Dallas, Davis got hurt in his first game with the team, a downer since he was looking spry in the first half of his first game. It surprised nobody that he got hurt. There’s a reason why the Lakers were comfortable dealing him for Doncic, even though Davis is represented by Klutch Sports, the agency of Rich Paul, LeBron’s best buddy. As for Doncic, he struggled with his shot a tad bit since his trade to the Lakers. The Lakers skyrocketed to second in the West within a month, though, and Doncic is the new franchise player. James has even notably ceded control to Doncic, not an easy thing for the Akron native to do. He’s now allowed to be a free safety, and play off the ball more for the first time since he played with Kyrie Irving. On Sunday night, Doncic made quick work of the Clippers, hitting stepbacks with ease, and throwing baseball outlet passes to LeBron. A thought finally rained down on me: This is the new normal. The Lakers create success at a whim.