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Anthony Davis not buying Lakers’ front office spin on blockbuster Luka Doncic trade
NY Post
Anthony Davis said he doesn’t believe that “nobody knew” in the Lakers’ organization about the blockbuster trade with Dallas for Luka Doncic before it rocked the NBA earlier this month.
During an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Davis recalled reaching out to LeBron James — his longest-tenured Lakers’ teammate — via FaceTime to get some insight into the trade because he wasn’t sold that everyone was in the dark about it.
“The front office has to do what it has to do and obviously they’re going to do what’s best for the organization. So I don’t know if I ever got the ‘real’ about any of it,” the Mavericks’ big man said. “I don’t know what’s true or what’s not, coming from upstairs. So, my thing is I’m gonna go to my counterpart [James] who I’ve been running with and see what’s going on, get his reaction and that’s all it was. We had a conversation. That was it.
“Everybody’s saying nobody knew and all this other s–t. I just don’t believe it. But, hey man, I’m past that. I’m ready to move forward with Dallas, try to get a championship there with these guys. First off, getting back on the floor and get ready to compete. All the emotions, that’s — lasted that night when it was just a shock.”
Davis added that he understood it was “the nature of the business” and he is focused on getting healthy after suffering an adductor strain — as well as making sure his wife and kids get settled in Dallas.
Davis said he found out he was being traded via a phone call from Lakers vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka after he watched the Lakers defeat the Knicks in New York on Feb. 1 from his home in Los Angeles while recovering from an abdominal strain.
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In the NBA, and really in any league, it’s always about the chase for the stars. It’s about the path to get there — via drafting and developing, via free agency, via a blockbuster trade — and envisioning what those moves could become. The Knicks went through the chase for years before landing Jalen Brunson (free agency), OG Anunoby (trade), Mikal Bridges (trade) and Karl-Anthony Towns (trade) in a span of around 27 months between July 2022 and Oct. 2024. Brooklyn remains scarred by its failed Big 3. The Suns went for the splashes of Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to form a Big 3 alongside Devin Booker, too.