Trump Calls Luka Dončić Trade the Worst in Sports History
The boos in Dallas have long since faded. The anger hasn’t.
Years after the Dallas Mavericks stunned the league by shipping Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, the deal is still a sore spot in North Texas. On Wednesday night, it was dragged back under the spotlight by someone who has nothing to do with basketball operations — but plenty to do with a microphone and a crowd.
Donald Trump, speaking at a Republican midterm convention inside the Mavericks’ own arena, American Airlines Center, took aim at the franchise’s front office for the 2025 blockbuster that redefined the team.
“I must tell you, I don't understand the trade,” Trump told supporters. “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.”
In Dallas, that wound doesn’t need salt. It’s still open.
The trade that shook Dallas
On February 2, 2025, the Mavericks detonated their own future. In a three-team deal, they sent Dončić, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris to the Lakers. In return, Dallas received Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick.
Shock rolled through the league. Nearly everyone questioned it. Mavericks fans didn’t just complain on social media; they protested.
The fallout was swift. General manager Nico Harrison was fired in November 2025, months after the trade’s consequences became impossible to ignore.
Davis, the supposed centerpiece of the return, barely settled in. He lasted just one season in Dallas before being moved again, this time to the Washington Wizards. The Mavericks were left with a future pick, Christie, and a fan base still wondering how a generational playmaker was allowed to walk out the door in his prime.
The only real lifeline? Luck.
Dallas landed the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and used it on Cooper Flagg, now positioned as the young face of a franchise trying to reinvent itself after willingly parting with the last one.
“We got to redo that deal”
Trump, standing on the Mavericks’ home floor, tapped into the same disbelief that has lingered in the city ever since.
“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. “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.”
The line drew laughs and applause from his crowd, but in basketball terms, it cut close to the bone. Dallas is trying to move on with Flagg and a new era, yet the shadow of Dončić — thriving in Los Angeles — still hangs over the franchise.
Trump’s comments didn’t just revisit the move. They elevated it into a different kind of conversation: where does this rank among the worst trades in sports history?
From Luka to the Babe
Trump has a personal No. 1 on that list, and it sits in baseball’s distant past.
“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?”
The Boston Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees after three World Series titles remains one of the sport’s most infamous decisions — a move that helped launch the Yankees’ dynasty and cursed Boston for generations.
Trump wasn’t ready to elevate the Mavericks’ Dončić gamble above that, but he placed it on the same discussion board. That alone tells you how the deal is perceived well beyond Dallas.
Inside the American Airlines Center, the franchise is busy trying to script a new story around Cooper Flagg and a reset roster. Outside, the rest of the sports world still looks back at February 2, 2025, and asks the same question Trump did from center stage:
How do you ever explain letting Luka Dončić go?
