"I thought it was fake."
That’s how six-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler said he felt when he heard the news earlier this month that the Dallas Mavericks had traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in return for Anthony Davis.
It was a move that is widely considered to be the most shocking trade in NBA history. The Mavs sent away their 25-year-old, once-in-a-generation talent, who has made the All-NBA First Team in five of his seven seasons in the league and last year carried Dallas to the NBA Finals. In return they got an injury-prone forward who is six years his senior.
“I just always thought when you use the words ‘untradeable’, ‘untouchable’, you think Luka Doncic is one of those guys,” Butler told The National as he visited Dubai to launch his Big Face Coffee brand in the region.
“I was baffled by it. I'm still baffled by it. It just doesn't look right.”
Butler himself was traded just days later. Having made it abundantly clear that he wanted out of the Miami Heat, the star forward was dealt to the Golden State Warriors on February 6, joining a modern-day dynasty that has won four championships in the past decade, led by the greatest shooter in NBA history, Steph Curry.
When asked last weekend about what Butler’s arrival meant to the team, Warriors veteran Draymond Green proclaimed “he’s brought back that belief. We are going to a win a championship.”
Butler is equally enthused. “I just know that we can do something special over there because everything that they do is always and only about winning,” he said.
But how will the pairing of Butler and Green work, given they are both renowned as being amongst the most headstrong players in the league?
“I don't think we're headstrong,” said Butler. “I think if you're on the outside looking in, it may look like that. But when you get around either one of us, you know that we just want to win and we'll do whatever it takes to win.”