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LeBron James had a three-letter response in a group chat when he found out that Anthony Davis had been traded as part of a deal that sent Luka Dončić to the Lakers earlier this year.
“WTF,” the NBA superstar wrote on the February night one of the biggest trades in NBA history took place, according to details in NBA journalist Yaron Weitzman’s new book “A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers.”
Bronny James, LeBron’s son and a rookie with the Lakers, was the one to post the NBA-shattering breaking news from insider Shams Charania in the players’ group chat.
Bronny, like the rest of the sports world that night, was unsure if the post had been a hack.
That’s when Davis entered the chat, according to the book.
“Did these [N-word] just trade me?” Davis wrote in the group chat before wishing his now-former teammates luck and leaving the group.
That prompted James’ three-letter message in the group chat.
The trade to send Dončić to the Lakers remains one of the most controversial deals in recent memory and put a target on the back of Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, who became vilified by fans in Dallas, calling for his firing in the days and weeks after the trade.
The firestorm that followed might explain the somewhat cloak-and-dagger approach that Harrison took when initially meeting with his counterpart in LA, Rob Pelinka. The two GMs first met up for coffee a half-mile away from American Airlines Arena to first discuss the trade.
“Pelinka wore a black hoodie; Harrison, dressed in a black beanie and dark zip-up vest, opted for a more incognito look,” Weitzman wrote in the book.
Davis averaged 20 points in nine games with the Mavericks following the trade – injuries hampered his ability to be on the court – and Dončić averaged 28.2 points per game once he joined Los Angeles.
The Mavericks lost in the play-in round of the postseason, while the Lakers were taken out in five games by the Timberwolves in the opening round.
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