Donald Trump Critiques Mavericks' Luka Doncic Trade
The chants and cheers inside American Airlines Center on Wednesday night weren’t for Luka Doncic, or for any Maverick at all. They were for Donald Trump. But the former president still found a way to reopen one of the deepest wounds in recent Dallas sports history.
Standing on the same floor where Doncic once controlled games, Trump turned his attention to the franchise-altering trade that sent the Slovenian superstar to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025 — and he didn’t hold back.
“I must tell you, I don't understand the trade,” Trump told the crowd. “That trade is... What do I know about basketball? I would say that it's not going to go down as the greatest trade in the history of sports, it might go down as the worst trade in the history of sports.”
The line landed hard in a building that still bears the emotional scars of that decision.
A deal that shook Dallas
On Feb. 2, 2025, the Mavericks detonated the core of their franchise with a three-team deal that stunned the league. Dallas sent Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Lakers. In return, the Mavericks received Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick.
The reaction was immediate and furious. Fans protested. Nearly everyone questioned the logic of moving a generational 25-year-old playmaker for an older, injury-prone star and a distant draft asset. The backlash never really eased.
By November 2025, general manager Nico Harrison was out of a job, the trade forever tied to his tenure.
The basketball fallout was just as brutal. Davis lasted only one season in Dallas before the Mavericks flipped him to the Washington Wizards. Christie never came close to filling the void. The 2029 pick remains a far-off mystery. The only real lifeline arrived from the lottery.
Dallas lucked into the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and grabbed Cooper Flagg, immediately anointed as the new face of the franchise. The Mavericks are now trying to rebuild around the teenage phenom, hoping time and talent can wash away the memory of the Doncic deal.
But memories linger. Especially when someone with a microphone decides to poke at them.
‘We got to redo that deal’
Trump didn’t just mention the trade. He circled it, hammered it, and came back to it again.
“That's not good. That wasn't good. Maybe we could redo that trade. I redo deals all the time. We got to redo,” he said, drawing laughs and groans in equal measure. “We got to redo that deal. I don't get that deal. You know some deals you understand. I understand deals, but that one I didn't quite get. Somebody from Dallas, I'm sure, can explain it to me.”
It was part punchline, part indictment. In a city that once believed it had its next Dirk Nowitzki locked in for a decade, the idea of a “redo” isn’t a joke. It’s a fantasy.
Dallas can’t bring Doncic back with a stroke of a pen. The Lakers have built around him. The Mavericks are starting over.
Still, the line cut straight to the heart of how that trade is remembered: as something inexplicable, a move that even a politician known for hyperbole can casually label one of the worst ever.
From Luka to Babe Ruth
Trump didn’t stop at basketball. He zoomed out to the broader sports landscape and reached for the most infamous comparison he could find.
“You know the worst trade in the history of sports, right?” he asked the crowd in the Lone Star State. “The great Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth (for) $100,000. At that time, that was like $10 million, I guess, because Boston needed money, so Babe will always be the worst trade. But is it Luka?”
There it was: Luka Doncic, mentioned in the same breath as Babe Ruth, not for titles won or records shattered, but for the manner of his departure.
The Boston Red Sox selling Ruth to the New York Yankees a century ago remains the gold standard of franchise regret. Trump wasn’t ready to dethrone that infamous deal. Yet by even placing the Mavericks’ decision in the same conversation, he underlined how that February night in 2025 still haunts this franchise.
Dallas has Cooper Flagg now, a fresh start and a new direction. The franchise talks about development, patience, and a long runway back to contention.
But as long as Luka Doncic is starring in Los Angeles and the echoes of that trade still bounce around the very arena where it was felt most, one question will keep surfacing — from fans, from pundits, and now from a former president on a rally stage:
Will the Mavericks ever truly escape the shadow of the deal that sent their superstar away?
