Jeanie Buss on Lakers keeping Luka Doncic trade talks secret

Last year's Luka Doncic trade is still fresh in the minds of NBA fans, and it was a humongous gift from the heavens to a Los Angeles Lakers team that had seemingly gone stale. The Lakers gave up the seemingly 99-cent store-type price of Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a future first-round draft pick to the Dallas Mavericks for Doncic, and just like that, a Mavericks team that was coming off a trip to the NBA Finals started plunging into the outhouse.

According to reports, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and then-Mavs executive Rob Pelinka negotiated this trade for several weeks and kept their talks top secret. Lakers governor Jeanie Buss recently reflected on the deal during an appearance on the podcast "Pretty Tough with Maria Sharapova," and she said the trade talks were kept a secret so that former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wouldn't find out.

“The Dallas team wanted Anthony Davis and he was on our team. Conversations started, but it was important they remained private…. Those conversations started in the beginning of January… Rob Pelinka, our general manager, was able to do that all without it leaking to the media because I think Mark Cuban might’ve jumped in front of a train to keep it from happening... Nobody knew including Luka, and Anthony Davis, and LeBron James. We had a game in New York that night, and the coach knew this was going to happen but he still had to play the game, and we won the game that night. It wasn’t a distraction.”

Cuban had purchased the Mavericks in 2000, but he sold his share of the franchise in late 2023. Had he still been in charge in early 2025, it is extremely unlikely this trade would have been possible, as he has made it clear that he never would have traded the guard.