by Paul Teetor
LeBron James was so pumped up by the arrival of fellow superstar Luka Doncic this week that he promptly went out and became only the second player – ever – to score 40 points after he turned 40 years old.
The other player to do that?
Some guy named Michael Jordan.
You might remember him. He’s the only other player legitimately in the debate over the greatest hooper of all time – the so-called GOAT – along with LeBron.
But when Jordan staged a comeback with the Washington Wizards, he was no longer a great player and tarnished his legacy of all those great years with the Chicago Bulls by staying too late at the party.
When LeBron scored 42 points Thursday night Doncic wasn’t playing yet – he is supposed to make his Lakers debut Monday night against the Utah Jazz. But he sat on the bench and yukked it up with everyone around him as LeBron put on a show of athletic brilliance and career longevity against Steph Curry and the rest of the Golden State Warriors. He hit 14 out of 25 shots, 8 out of 10 foul shots, inhaled 17 rebounds and handed out eight assists in a 120-112 victory.
It was a stunning display of all-around skill and mental will power, and for the first time in four years, it was possible to envision the Lakers making it all the way to the NBA Finals and maybe even winning a title. That’s how well they were playing after winning 12 out of 14 games and ascending to fourth place in the Western Conference.
Actually, the Laker hot streak began two days earlier, the day after the news of the stunning Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic trade broke the internet and electrified the NBA. The news was such a seismic shock that the man who broke it – Shams Charina, ESPN’s senior NBA reporter – had to post again 10 minutes after he first posted it: “Yes, this is real. My phone has not been hacked.”
As the Doncic news was sinking in, the Lakers were destroying their cross-town rivals the Clippers – their former tenants at the venue named after a sketchy financial institution — 122-97.
It was a total beatdown and it was led by a rejuvenated LeBron with 26 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. After the game he said all the right things about losing his sidekick AD and gaining Doncic, who likes to control the ball just as much as LeBron does.
He said he called Doncic right after the trade was made to welcome him and tell him how excited he was to play with him.
A few hours later Doncic returned the compliment.
“It’s just like a dream come true,” Doncic said. “I’ve always looked up to him. There’s so many things I can learn from him, and I’m just excited to learn everything and now I get to play with him. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Doncic was asked about the criticism from some sports “experts” – not including All Ball – who say the two superstars will not be able to play together because they both like to control the ball.
He dismissed the concerns.
“We both make our teammates better. Our IQ is very high. That’s going to help everybody,” he said. “I’m just excited to work with him.”
Then the whole post-trade vibe began to get weird on both ends of the trade.
First Doncic met with Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka and requested – translation: demanded – that he find a replacement for Davis, a center who can defend the basket and throw down lob passes from Doncic whenever his man leaves him to double team Doncic. Someone like the two centers he played with in Dallas, Derek Lively and Daniel Gafford.
Pelinka followed orders and made a stunning trade with the Charlotte Hornets for Mark Williams, a 6-foot-11, 23-year-old former lottery pick out of Duke – the same school where Redick was a big star – who was averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds a game in the few games he had played.
The only catch was that Williams had a long injury history, but other than that he fit the bill perfectly. So Pelinka paid a steep price – the Lakers first round draft pick in 2013 and Dalton Knecht, the Lakers star rookie who already had a 37-point game last month and was the best shooter on the team.
But on Saturday night the Lakers announced they had “rescinded” the trade because Williams was unable to pass his physical and get a clean bill of health. So now they had to welcome Knecht back, tell him never mind, we still love you. All Ball suspects he will forever after think of basketball as more of a business than as a game, but he’s got to be happy to be back in LA instead of stuck in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Then, just when you thought the whole post-trade vibe couldn’t get any stranger, Davis got hurt in his very first game for the Mavericks. Remember, that has always been the knock on him – that he’s great but brittle and too often unavailable – and indeed he was on the injured list when the Lakers traded him.
But he was finally ready to play for the Mavs Saturday night. He dominated with 26 points and 10 rebounds – and then was hauled off to the locker room with what was described as a “lower body injury, a core muscle injury.”
Monday it was reported that Davis had a “strained left adductor muscle,” would be out for at least a month and probably will need surgery that would end his season.
Dallas fans who had organized a boycott of the Mavericks for shipping out Doncic were in shock for the second time in a week. Their consolation prize, AD, turned out to be just as advertised: great but injury prone.
And no one could say exactly when he would return – most likely next season.
Lakers fans could barely restrain their laughter.
Contact: [email protected]. ER