The Dallas Mavericks trading Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis has been unanimously scorned to the point where the consensus is that it’s the craziest trade in NBA history. In that context, the ongoing belief is that the Mavericks will regret what they’ve done.
To be fair, though, nobody will know this until Dončić and Davis, among others, take the floor. That doesn’t change the fact that this was a deal that nobody saw coming. It could go down as the worst NBA trade ever, but everyone would have to look at some of the worst NBA trades ever agreed upon to evaluate it comparatively.
Let’s examine the worst trades in NBA history that were not only extremely lopsided but also ruined one of the franchises in the process.
Bucks Trade Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Lakers (1975)
In 1975, the Milwaukee Bucks dealt Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley to the Lakers for Elmore Smith, Brian Winters, Dave Meyers, and Junior Bridgeman.
You know it’s a bad trade when hardly anyone today has heard of the players in this deal outside of Abdul-Jabbar. Many have brought this trade up as the precursor for the Dončić trade. There are three distinct differences, though.
One, Abdul-Jabbar requested a trade out of Milwaukee, while Dončić did not request one out of Dallas. Two, the Mavericks got an all-time player back for Dončić, even if they didn’t get a player quite as good as he is. The Bucks did not receive anyone as good as Davis. Three, Abdul-Jabbar was the best player in the NBA, while Dončić is currently one of the best.
This trade spawned five championships for the Lakers, while the Bucks didn’t return to the NBA Finals until nearly 50 years after their 1974 run. It’s fair to say that this was perhaps the first badly lopsided trade in NBA history, and it might not be too crazy to suggest that this is the kind of payoff the Lakers want from Dončić and the payoff the Mavericks should fear Dončić could give them.
Warriors Trade Kevin McHale, Robert Parish to Celtics (1980)
While the Lakers struck gold by getting the best NBA player of the 1970s, the Celtics pulled off a fleece themselves when they acquired two of the best players in franchise history in the 1980s. Boston traded the rights to Joe Barry Carroll to the Golden State Warriors for the rights to Kevin McHale and Robert Parish.
The Celtics had the No. 1 pick in the 1980 NBA Draft and decided to roll the dice on McHale and Parish instead of Carroll. Parish was productive, but no one thought he’d turn into the player he’d be in Boston.
Doing so helped Boston win three championships, with a lot of it being because of McHale and Parish. The Warriors, by contrast, never came close, and Carroll was infamously nicknamed “Joe Barely Cares.” He wasn’t the biggest NBA bust by any means, but the Celtics altered franchise history with this trade.
Hornets Trade Kobe Bryant to Lakers (1996)
There are a lot of all-time players who were traded on draft night that ultimately changed their franchise’s fortunes — Scottie Pippen, Dirk Nowitzki, even Dončić — but the one that changed the landscape of the league was the Charlotte Hornets’ decision to deal Kobe Bryant to the Lakers for Vlade Divac.
Bryant was a hot-shot high school prospect who didn’t have the highest stock coming into the league because prep-to-pros prospects were considered risky at the time. These players were boom-or-bust and there had never been a guard who was drafted straight out of high school, making the selection even riskier. Bryant clearly had potential, but no one knew just how good he was going to be.
That included the Hornets, who decided they wanted Divac, an above-average borderline All-Star center, instead of Bryant. That set the course for the Lakers to have one of the best offseasons ever, as getting Divac off their payroll led to them signing Shaquille O’Neal and forming one of the best duos in NBA history.
It sounded like Bryant wanted L.A. more than anything. However, Charlotte had his rights and could have changed so much about NBA history post-Michael Jordan. Because they went for the win-now talent instead of Bryant, the Lakers won five more titles.
Nets Trade 3 Unprotected 1st-Rounders, Pick Swap for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce (2013)
In 2013, the Celtics traded Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry, and D.J. White to the Brooklyn Nets for Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, MarShon Brooks, and Keith Bogans (sign-and-trade) along with three unprotected first-round picks (2014, 2016, and 2018) and a pick swap in 2017.
Throughout NBA history, plenty of teams have benefited from getting high-quality draft assets from incompetent executives. Most notably, this happened with Ted Stepien, who was so bad at making trades that the NBA introduced “The Stepien Rule” so that teams couldn’t easily give up all their draft assets.
Well, the Celtics still managed to find their way around that when they stole the Nets’ future in the 2010s. The Nets got all of the aforementioned Hall of Fame players toward the end of their respective careers, which led to two playoff appearances and just one playoff series victory.
The Celtics, on the other hand, are now the reigning NBA champions after the 2023-24 season, and they primarily have the Nets to thank for that. In 2016 and 2017, the Nets were among the NBA’s worst teams but had no choice but to fork over top picks that resulted in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Since the Celtics drafted them, they’ve been among the NBA’s best for several years. The Nets have rebounded somewhat from this trade, but knowing that they could have had Tatum and Brown has to sting.
Lakers Acquire Russell Westbrook From Wizards (2021)
In 2021, the Lakers traded Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell, and the draft rights to Isaiah Jackson to the Washington Wizards for Russell Westbrook.
This was one of those trades where it’s not like the Wizards really benefited much from it, but man, oh man, this was one of the most epic backfires in the Lakers’ history. Los Angeles destroyed most of the core of a championship team, hoping that Westbrook would raise their ceiling. That gamble came up snake eyes.
While Westbrook was a flop, the players the Lakers tried to replace the collateral tradees with made it even worse. Kuzma and Caldwell-Pope were the glue of those Lakers teams; replacing them would not have been easy. Long story short, the Lakers tried to replace them (and Alex Caruso) with over-the-hill veterans, making for one disastrous season.
As clearly depicted, the Lakers were involved in some of the worst trades ever. Sometimes, they benefited, and sometimes, they suffered. It shows what happens when a team benefits from a bad trade and when they’re on the opposite end of one. It may not be long until the Dončić trade makes a list like this.
When it’s all said and done with this Dončić deal, this could be the Boston Red Sox trading Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees-level bad. Of course, if Dallas wins a title, then this wouldn’t look too bad, but if L.A. wins six, then it does.
