Jazz GM says Lakers got 'a gift' with Luka Dončić, and that other NBA GMs agree with him

Jazz GM says Lakers got ‘a gift’ with Luka Dončić, and that other NBA GMs agree with him

Posted by author February 13, 2025 NBA

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It’s hard to think a move in NBA history, if not sports history, that inspired more fervor than the Los Angeles Lakers’ trade for Luka Dončić.

It wasn’t just the Dallas Mavericks were willing to part with a 25-year-old global star who has made five straight All-NBA first teams. It wasn’t just that they got a 31-year-old Anthony Davis in return. It wasn’t just that they executed the trade in the dead of night without warning Dončić, who very clearly didn’t want to leave. And it wasn’t just that they blamed his conditioning, via leaks to reporters, on his way out.

What made fans outside of Dallas most annoyed is that the Lakers once again got a superstar, and this one might have been the easiest to grab yet. And it’s not just fans who think that.

Speaking to the broadcast during a game against the Lakers, Utah Jazz general manager Justin Zanik, who had a hand in the trade as the third team by taking on Jalen Hood-Schifino’s contract, said he agreed with the sentiment that the Lakers received “a gift,” and that he isn’t the only NBA executive who thinks so:

“Obviously, [Lakers general manager] Rob Pelinka even said it in his press conference introducing Luka, that it was a gift. And I think that’s how a lot of my colleagues — don’t want to speak for them — but how we all kind of felt. But Nico and Dallas, they do a great job. They obviously had their reasons wanting to improve their defense and obviously getting a top 50 player on their own right there, they decided that was in their best interest.”

Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, on his way to becoming the most-loathed figure in Dallas sports history, conceded he only spoke to the Lakers about a possible trade, despite Dončić being one of the most valuable assets in the league.

Slovenian basketball player Luka Doncic speaks as Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka (L) looks on during a press conference introducing Doncic as the newest member of the Los Angeles Lakers, at the UCLA Health Training Center, in El Segundo, California on February 4, 2025. Slovenian star Luka Doncic said February 2, 2025 he thought he'd spend his entire NBA career in Dallas, thanking fans in Texas for making it feel like home a day after the Mavericks abruptly traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) — The Luka Doncic trade is going to be controversial at best for a very long time. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Preventing the trade from leaking was apparently such a priority that the Mavericks reportedly accepted a smaller package rather than allow L.A. to gauge Dončić’s interest in an extension, which would have tipped him off that a move was coming.

As for the Jazz’s role in the trade, Zanik doesn’t seem too bothered:

“Where we were, with having some extra space and [Jazz owner Ryan Smith] giving us great resources to use that stuff to pick up things that are a benefit to the Jazz, we were able to execute on that. Obviously, it kind of re-shaped the Western Conference. When we are up there with those guys here very soon, maybe I’ll care a little bit more being the third team.”

As fate would have it, the Jazz handily beat the Lakers in the same game.