Lakers owner Jeanie Buss didn’t hold back about how she pulled off arguably the biggest NBA trade ever with Dallas for Luka Doncic last month.
During an interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition” on Monday, Buss recalled Anthony Davis being unhappy with his role in Los Angeles before trading the big man to the Mavericks.
“Anthony Davis was complaining about where he was being played and he wasn’t happy,” Buss said. “So I think this was a positive for both teams. They got what they were looking for; we got what we were looking for. And I didn’t realize it was going to be international news like it was, but that’s the power of the Laker brand and its ability to draw big names who want to write their own chapter in Lakers history.”
Buss explained that the Lakers needed a new piece after losing to the Nuggets in the playoffs the last three years.
“We gave up a lot to get Luka Doncic We’re happy we have him,” she said. “We have lost the last three years in a row to the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs, and we really didn’t have anything that was going to look different going into the playoffs again.”
During an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show” last week, Buss said, “when the opportunity came up, we were not looking to move Anthony Davis.”
Along with Doncic, the Mavericks traded Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to Los Angeles for Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick in a three-team deal.
Utah received Jalen Hood-Schifino, a 2025 second-round pick via the Clippers and the Mavericks’ 2025 second-round pick.
Buss also said she took a page out of her dad Jerry Buss’ book to quietly pull off the trade of the season.
“You know, I learned from my dad — and I point to when the Lakers traded for [Basketball Hall of Famer] Pau Gasol — people hadn’t heard about it,” Buss told NPR of the blockbuster deal in 2008. “[Spurs coach] Gregg Popovich in San Antonio and [former Mavericks owner] Mark Cuban in Dallas threw a fit that we ended up with Pau. They never got a chance to bid on him or probably talk Memphis out of trading him to us.
“You realize in our business that a lot of the rumors are planted by people in the industry who are trying to curry favor with the media. There’s kind of this ‘write good things about me as general manager and I’ll feed you my inside information. Then we both win.’
“In this particular case, I felt that if anybody heard about the trade through a rumor that there would be many parties trying to undermine it. When Pau Gasol came from Memphis to L.A., we won two championships because of it.”
Both Doncic and Davis said they were shocked by the trade, which shook the NBA world to its core on Feb. 1.
During an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Davis recalled reaching out LeBron James — his longest-tenured Lakers teammate — via FaceTime to get some insight into the trade because he didn’t believe that “nobody knew” in the Lakers’ organization 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,” Davis 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.”
The Lakers honored Davis — who helped bring a championship to the franchise alongside James in the 2020 NBA season — with a tribute video during LA’s 107-99 victory over the Mavericks last Tuesday.
Davis recorded 26 points and 16 rebounds before suffering the adductor injury in his Mavericks debut, a 116-105 win over the Rockets on Feb. 8.
