Luka Doncic was intentionally stabbed in back by Mavs, ESPN's Tim MacMahon, author of new book "The Wonder Boy," says

04/01/2025 07:24 PM

Luka Doncic’s trade to the Los Angeles Lakers has been deemed the biggest and most shocking trade not only in NBA history, but potentially in sports history. The deal involving the Dallas Mavericks sent the Solvenian superstar to a conference fival and, in the process, angered 28 other teams given what the Mavs got back in the trade.

The Mavs-Lakers trade happened on a Saturday night, February 2, 2025, at about 10PM PST, which is about midnight in Dallas. It was so shocking, that ESPN’s Shams Charania was accused of being hacked.

ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, who has spent years covering the Dallas Mavericks and the NBA at large, had just completed writing a book about called, “The Wonder Boy: Luka Doncic and the Quest For Greatness.” The book is about Doncic and a franchise’s attempt to keep their star happy.

MacMahon recently joined ClutchPoints’ show, “Sitting Courtside,” hosted by Jerry Donatien, to discuss the massive trade, give away little nuggets from his new book, and explain what it was like to write a book while covering the league.;

In this portion of the interview, MacMahon breaks down how the Mavs traded Luka Doncic, from “kissing his butt” to “stabbing him in the back.”

“Basically what happened here was Luka got his butt kissed by the organization for six years,” Tim MacMahon, author of ‘The Wonder Boy’ told Jerry Donatien and Tomer Azarly on an episode of ClutchPoints’ Sitting Courtside. “And I think you could argue, rightfully so from a strategy perspective. He’s that level of superstar. After getting his butt kissed for six years, he got stabbed in his back midway through his seventh season.

“And it’s just simple fact of the matter. That’s what happened. He got traded in the middle of the night, intentionally blindsided, intentionally shocked by it because they felt like we can’t let this leak. We can’t let Luke have any idea this is coming. We can’t let his agent, Bill Duffy, have any idea this is coming.”

Luka Doncic was eligible to sign a five-year supermax contract this summer with the Mavs worth up to $345 million. Reports at the time of the Lakers trade indicated that the Mavs either had concerns that Doncic would not agree to the deal or wasn’t worth it.

Over time, it became clear the trade was more about the Mavs losing confidence in his ability to stay healthy and be worth the deal.

“Nico Harrison managed up and convinced Patrick Dumont that this supermax for Luka would be a bad investment. I've had a difficult time finding anybody around the NBA who would agree with that assessment. That’s what happened. And so again, a pivotal moment was Cuban selling majority share of the franchise and as a result having zero say.”

For a Mavericks organization that just boasted Dirk Nowitzki as its franchise star for 21 years, bringing in the next European star during Nowitzki’s final year felt like a proper passing of the torch.

Dallas’ frustration levels with Doncic and his conditioning were known, but no one ever imagined him being traded.

“I knew that the frustration with [Doncic] was high,” MacMahon said of the Mavs’ mindset before trading Doncic to the Lakers. “I just couldn’t imagine it hit the threshold of you have to trade them. And you mentioned that word loyalty. And again, I think that is it is an especially important word for the Dallas Mavericks fans who had Dirk for 21 years, with one franchise, never been done before.

“We’ll see if it’s ever done again. I mean, obviously, odds are against it. The statue outside the arena where there were these protests, literally says, “Loyalty Never Fades Away.’ I’ve reported on Luka’s flaws, conditioning, petulance that you see sometimes, I don’t know, I’d say fairly often.

“I’ve reported on that stuff. The one thing you cannot say about him was that he lacked loyalty.”

You can watch the full episode with Tim MacMahon, author of the new book “The Wonder Boy: Luka Doncic and the Quest For Greatness,” on ClutchPoints’ platforms including YouTube and Twitter.

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