It was the trade heard around the world.
The Dallas Mavericks were trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.
No one believed it was real at first.
Everyone thought the person who reported the trade was hacked.
That person being ESPN’s NBA insider Shams Charania.
No, he wasn’t hacked.
Charania went on The Young Man and The Three podcast, and revealed what went down that infamous night and the moment he got the news to share to the world and change the course of the NBA forever.
“It was Saturday night right after the Knicks Lakers game in New York,” Charania recalled.
“The Lakers won, it was a big win for the Lakers.
“I was really preparing for my flight to Bristol the next morning because it was a big trade deadline week.
“Obviously the De’Aaron Fox trade was heavy on my mind, Jimmy Butler getting traded was heavy on my mind.
“I was just preparing and getting to get myself ready for this flight in the morning and it was about 11:05 when I got, this is what you call it in my space, a ‘tip’, you know, you get a tip, you get tipped off on something.
“About 11:05, I got tipped off that there’s something going on with the Lakers and Mavericks…
“My hands were shaking, you had to make sure like every detail was right.
“You had to make sure there was no typo and I just remember my hands were trembling. I didn’t have a graphic to go with it because it was so sudden.
“You don’t have time to prep for a Luka Doncic graphic beforehand.
“So by the time I heard about it, to the time I put it out, probably five to seven minutes went by.
“Five confirmed sources on it and then after that my phone was a mess.
“I had up to like 300 text messages.”
And with one single post on X, Charania broke the internet.
It was arguably the biggest trade in NBA history, and most certainly the biggest of this century.
It was hard to fathom at the time, and it’s still hard to fathom now.
Doncic and LeBron James were now teammates.
The Mavericks willingly sent its global superstar, a top-three player in the league, right out of town.
It made no sense then, and it makes no sense now.
Charania’s hands were shaking for good reason, as the future of the NBA rested on his fingertips.
