The Dallas Mavericks stunned the sports world when they traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February.
Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison was the man behind the shocking trade. He was so frustrated with Doncic’s conditioning that he traded the 26-year-old superstar to the Lakers for Anthony Davis and Max Christie without talking to other teams.
It has been known for quite a while that Harrison and Patrick Dumont no longer wanted to build around Doncic. However, Tim MacMahon of ESPN recently revealed a shocking Doncic-Jason Kidd tidbit.
On “The Right Time with Bomani Jones” podcast, MacMahon disclosed that Kidd was getting frustrated with Doncic as well.
“The level of frustration that Nico had [with Luka] at the time was high,” MacMahon said. “By the way, J-Kidd’s was too. I think J-Kidd’s tried to distance himself from it, but J-Kidd’s frustration with Luka was also quite high.”
Doncic appeared in 422 games with the Mavericks. He averaged 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists and made five All-Star teams and five All-NBA teams.
Dallas lost to the Boston Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals in five games. The team missed the playoffs this year after trading Doncic.
Meanwhile, the Lakers are the third seed in the West. Doncic and Co. are tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the 2025 playoffs at 1-1.
According to Tim Cato of DLLS, Kidd resents Harrison for trading Doncic. While Kidd may have been frustrated with Doncic, the Hall of Famer didn’t want the 26-year-old traded.
Kidd has been Dallas’ head coach since 2021. The NBA legend is 179-149 in the regular season and 22-18 in the playoffs.
