New York City will always play a small part in the Luka Doncic trade that stupefied the NBA.
A few hours before they acquired the generational superstar in a middle-of-the-night deal with the Dallas Mavericks, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Knicks on Feb. 1, 2025, in their annual trip to Madison Square Garden.
Lakers head coach J.J. Redick knew before he left for the Garden that day that the trade was nearing the finish line.
“I found the steam room at the hotel and was just in a really thoughtful space, I thought,” Redick recalled Sunday. “And then Coach Ty [Abbott] walked in and was like, ‘What the [expletive] is wrong with you?’ I guess I was stressed out, but I managed it well during the game.”
Sunday marked one year since that whirlwind day. ESPN first reported the trade — which sent Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick back to Dallas — minutes after midnight EDT on Feb. 2, while it was still Feb. 1 in Los Angeles when Lakers fans found out.
It was fitting, then, that the Lakers were back at the Garden for the trade’s first anniversary — and that Doncic dominated, even in a losing effort, 112-100, against the Knicks.
Playing at MSG for the first time as a Laker, the 26-year-old Doncic dazzled with 30 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists in 37 minutes.
He had 10 points, four rebounds and three assists in the first quarter alone, including an electrifying 71-second stretch in which Doncic made a 3-pointer, found Rui Hachimura for an alley-oop dunk and then drilled another 3-pointer.
In the second quarter, after Josh Hart made a 3-pointer for the Knicks, Doncic answered on the other end by sinking a step-back 3-pointer — over Hart. Ever the showman, Doncic tapped Hart on the backside after the ball swished through the net.
Doncic delivered an even more impressive highlight late in the third quarter when he unleashed a spin move on Landry Shamet, then stepped back and made another tough 3-pointer.
That happened right in front of Knicks superfan Spike Lee, whom Doncic pointed to on his way back up the court, earning a smile from the Oscar-winning filmmaker.
But Doncic managed only three points in the fourth quarter as the Knicks (31-18) pulled away for their sixth consecutive win. Doncic finished 10-of-23 from the field, including 5-of-14 on 3-pointers.
Helping to fuel the Knicks’ win were 12 points, seven rebounds and 13 assists from Jalen Brunson, who was teammates with Doncic for four years in Dallas.
Much of the attention Sunday revolved around 41-year-old LeBron James, who might have been playing his final game at the Garden, the arena he has long acknowledged is his favorite.
It was therefore a bit symbolic that Los Angeles’ first basket Sunday was a Doncic lay-up off of a full-court pass from James, considering the Lakers’ passing of the torch was put into motion when Doncic arrived last year.
James has said he was out to dinner in the city when he found out about the Doncic deal and that he initially thought it was a “hoax.”
Doncic was similarly stunned, having expected to spend his entire career with Dallas, the team he led to the NBA Finals less than eight months before he was traded.
Mavericks fans revolted, holding protests outside of Dallas’ American Airlines Center and calling for the firing of general manager Nico Harrison. When the Mavericks fired Harrison in November, they were just 16-28 since trading Doncic.
Dallas fans can take some solace in the fact that last year’s post-trade slide helped them net the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft lottery, landing them a new phenom in Cooper Flagg.
But the Mavericks’ loss of the dynamic Doncic remains the Lakers’ gain — and that was on full display Sunday night.
