The Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis trade was such a shock that Shams Charania's initial report, broken after midnight, was met with disbelief from the NBA world. Many went as far as to wonder whether the ESPN insider had been hacked, or if they were somehow looking at a fake account.
The trade between the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers came with virtually no warning, to the point that Rich Paul—Anthony Davis's agent and a longtime LeBron James ally—didn't know it was coming. Two-plus weeks later, Paul says he's glad to have been kept in the dark, and seems at peace with his client's move to the Mavericks.
Appearing on the Gil's Arena podcast published Tuesday, Paul says he only found out about the trade shortly before it was made public by Charania.
"99.9 percent of the time, I'm going to know what's going on," Paul said. "The one time I didn't was the one time we all didn't, per se, know what was going on. It was a shock to everybody. Who was in it was a shock. I always knew the affinity that was had for AD from Nico's perspective, so the destination wasn't really a shock. The timing of it was a shock, and obviously who was involved was a shock.
"But you don't move mountains with everybody knowing. You can't. And so, I'm glad I didn't know, and I'm glad that whoever else didn't know, because it probably wouldn't have happened if you did know. Because now you start to open up the opinions and conversations and different cans of worms. So you can't get those things done with people knowing. And everybody's gonna have their issues about it, that's not my place. The only thing I can do, whatever happens, guy get there, O.K. how can we make this situation the best we can make it is how I look at it."
While the Davis trade was a shock, Paul doesn't seem too phased by the breakup of two of his most high-profile clients. He had a busy deadline overall, with a number of his other top players—De'Aaron Fox, Brandon Ingram and Zach LaVine among them—being dealt.
Paul was most focused on trying to steer his guys to good personal situations, and made sure to remind the audience, virtually anyone can be traded, but the contract follows.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why Anthony Davis’s Agent Was ‘Glad’ He Didn't Know About Trade Before it Happened.
