Your 2025 NBA Champions! The Los Angeles Lakers!
Finals MVP Nico Harrison! (Just kidding, LeBron James due to the Celtics selling out to stop Luka Dončić)
I’ve never been one to buy into NBA conspiracies. The “frozen envelope” makes no sense. The league has not benefitted from media market “giants” like San Antonio or New Orleans receiving timely #1 picks. I’m less dismissive of NBA conspiracies where the league is covering up a negative (Michael Jordan gambling suspension), as those affect everyone’s bottom line whereas forcing a positive (special calls for a player, winning draft lottery) is at the detriment of 29 other teams.
But Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers? The rational LeBron James fan in me says this trade happened because:
- Nico Harrison is a big Nike / Kobe Bryant guy & has a rapport with Rob Pelinka
- A tumultuous bidding war wouldn’t net a player better than Anthony Davis
Before you non-Laker fans imagine some schmuck team gutting their roster to acquire Luka, remember this regarding a public auction:
- Luka can tell certain teams he won’t re-sign with them, giving him the power to choose his destination
- Teams can potentially alienate their star players
- Any trade Dallas makes is a “bad one” – The Dallas Mavericks front office will look even worse for extensively negotiating with the league to take pennies on the dollar for a 26 year old top 5 player
People look at players on long contracts like Rudy Gobert or Kevin Durant and say the Dallas Mavericks should have got a similar haul. I challenge you to check the playoff bracket, and find a team that both offers a better package and will be able to re-sign Luka Dončić. Mind you, Luka has no obligation to let a team gut themselves for him just so he can drag a roster to a first round out in a city he doesn’t like living in. Given the circumstances of the trade, could Nico Harrison have gotten a better deal? Absolutely. A significantly better deal? Absolutely not.
Nico Harrison, in his ego-driven stupidity, did not have as much leverage as you think he did. “You want to trade Luka because of a b and c? Then he’s not worth x y and z. If you don’t want to play ball, you can try your drawing out the most infamous trade in NBA history publicly!”
The delusional LeBron James fan in me sings a different tune. He says that we should stop blaming Nico and understand that the league owed LeBron for carrying the league despite a decade of misfortune. From 2015-2025, how many times did LeBron James have a “fair shot” at winning it all? Good fortune via injury, front office competence, etc is part of the game. But winning a title in 2 out of 4 opportunities that you have a “fair shot” says a lot! Not exaggerating:
- 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers – Kyrie Irving & Kevin Love injury in the NBA Finals
- 2017 & 2018 Cleveland Cavaliers – Kevin Freaking Durant joined a 73-win Golden State Warriors team
- 2019, 2021, 2022 Los Angeles Lakers – Lebron James or Anthony Davis hobbled/out with injury
If we include his Miami Heat years, he’s still a 50% chance of winning a championship if his team avoids catastrophe. He caused the loss in 2011, won it in 2012 and 2013, and then the Miami Heat (and Dwyane Wade’s knees) simply ran out of gas in 2014. For 15 straight years, LeBron James has given you a 50% chance of winning an NBA title given his #2 stays healthy and the front office doesn’t severely mess things up.
And counting. Lakers in 5 over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Lakers in 6 over the Golden State Warriors. Lakers in 7 over the Boston Celtics.
NBA fans get another iteration of Lakers x Celtics. LeBron James earns his 5th Finals MVP, but this time in a Jaylen Brown fashion.
Michael Jordan started sweating after the 3-1 comeback in 2016. The Last Dance served just as much as a reminder of who Jordan was as it did a celebration of what the Chicago Bulls accomplished in 1996. Little did MJ know, LeBron James will win a championship that tops his magnum opus in degree of difficulty.
And we get to witness it.