Steve Kerr reveals most controversial Suns trade he made
02/12/2025 10:07 PM
There is no trade in NBA history that stacks up to the overall impact of the Dallas Mavericks’ decision to trade Luka Doncic away to the Los Angeles Lakers. Everyone outside of the small contingent that knew of the trade’s development was shocked, and for good reason. The Mavericks fanbase is understandably irate, although it’s gotten to the point where the vitriol towards the front office, particularly towards general manager Nico Harrison, is reaching worrying levels. But this is not a new phenomenon in today’s NBA, as Steve Kerr, former general manager of the Phoenix Suns, made a controversial trade of his own back in the day.
Kerr took over as general manager for the Suns prior to the start of the 2007-08 season. By this time, the iconic Seven Seconds or Less iteration of the squad was coming off three straight playoff heartbreaks, and Kerr, in a bold decision, decided to trade away one of the most crucial pieces of the team in Shawn Marion to bring in Shaquille O’Neal from the Miami Heat — a perplexing decision considering that O’Neal didn’t exactly fit the team’s run-and-gun style.
As a result of this trade, Kerr’s safety was threatened by some very livid Suns fans.
“I traded Shawn Marion for Shaq and I got death threats. Our security in Phoenix looked into it. I was never overly concerned. I took it for what it was, which was an angry fan typing away,” Kerr said, via Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
Steve Kerr on the most controversial trade he made during his stint as Suns GM: "I traded Shawn Marion for Shaq and I got death threats."
Those threats were investigated by team and NBA security. pic.twitter.com/RnHUx8TLY5
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) February 13, 2025
Even with Kerr’s huge gambit, the Suns still fell short in the playoffs, and in the first round no less. They ran into the San Antonio Spurs, of all teams, and lost in five games. The following year, O’Neal’s only full season in the Valley, the Suns missed the postseason entirely. Maybe there are times when general managers need to listen to their fans more.
Suns’ SSOL era dies along with the Shawn Marion-Shaq trade
The Seven Seconds or Less Suns team remains one of the best squads in NBA history to not win a championship. They just couldn’t get over the hump even though the Steve Nash-Amar’e Stoudemire-Shawn Marion trio was as good as it can get at the time.
Perhaps in a more three-point progressive league, this Suns team would have thrived. But they were stuck in a slow-paced, big man-centric era, and felt that they had to trade Marion to acquire a dominant big man to pair with Stoudemire. However, this only stripped Phoenix of its identity, and it led to a down 2008-09 season before they returned to their pace and space roots and made it to the Western Conference Finals in 2010.
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