With the recent news of the Los Angeles Lakers trading several strong assets for five- time NBA All-Star Luka Doncic, NVD students are shocked and taken aback. When considering the move from both the Lakers’ perspective and Doncic’s former team, the Dallas Mavericks’ perspective, many fans of the Lakers, of the NBA, and of the sport in general have plenty to say regarding the value and emotion surrounding the trade.
Recent bandwagon fan (someone who recently started rooting for a team because of recent success) of the Los Angeles Lakers, Austin Pae, shares why he became a fan of this team so heavily involved in such a consequential trade.
“I started following the Lakers because I love LeBron James. He’s my favorite player and one of my favorite people in the world. Not only is he the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), but he’s also a great team player and really good in general, which is why I’m such a big Lakers fan,” Pae said.
Pae was shocked by Doncic’s move to the Lakers, mainly because of how it would help his idol already on the team.
“I feel like his presence on the team will be really good for the Lakers and for LeBron. Having more good players in general helps a team succeed and will help LeBron’s legacy if they win a lot more,” Pae said.
When asked about how he felt about the trade’s value for the teams involved, Pae first made it clear that he didn’t know much but was just happy that it seemed like his favorite team “won” the trade.
“I don’t care honestly about the value and whatever, all I know is that the Lakers got Luka Doncic and they’re now definitely going to win the championship,” Pae said.
Another student at NVD, junior Lucas Ahn, labels himself as a fan of the NBA in general, and not any specific team. He explains his initial thoughts on the trade from an unbiased perspective.
“I don’t really have a favorite NBA team, I started watching basketball a few years ago and just kind of watch the sport for fun, so I would say there’s not a specific team I follow the most. I honestly think that the Lakers definitely won the trade, I think the Mavs were idiots and they 100% lost the trade in value and everything,” Ahn said.
Ahn also provided his personal opinion on why he believed Doncic was traded at all from the Dallas Mavericks.
“I think that Luka was traded because the Mavs wanted to improve their defense, and Luka is not that good at playing defense. Also, I heard that the Mavs kept telling Luka to lose weight and not be so fat, and he wasn’t listening to them. I’m not sure if this is true but maybe he was traded because of that?” Ahn said.
Ahn thought that it was a generally smart move and that it would help the team succeed.
“Luka being traded to the Lakers is a good move because even though he’s not playing super well right now he’s always going to be a good offensive player and he takes a lot of attention away from players like LeBron and Austin Reaves so that they can score more,” Ahn said.
NVD junior Noah LaDew echoed these beliefs as he introduces his fandom and what he thinks about the “winner” of the trade.
“My favorite NBA team is the Bucs, my family is from Wisconsin so I’ve been following them. I don’t care that much about either team but I feel like the Lakers won because of how they got Luka by giving up only a couple picks and Anthony Davis,” LaDew said. “Luka should make the Lakers really competitive and they probably can win the championship or at least make a deep playoff run.”
He also believed that this take seemed to be the consensus belief of most NBA fans.
“Everyone else also thinks that the Mavs were dumb for making this trade, it doesn’t make sense to trade away your best player in their prime,” LaDew said.
Although these NVD fans come from different fandoms and perspectives, they seem to mostly share the belief that the Lakers won this trade, while the Mavericks lost.
“I’d much rather be in the Lakers position than the Mavs’ right now,” Pae said.
