Austin Reaves was just minutes from his hotel when his phone started blowing up. On ‘The Young Man & The Three,’ the Lakers guard revealed how he first learned that Anthony Davis had been traded: straight from AD himself in the team group chat. At first, Reaves thought it was a joke, but once he saw Shams’ report and got confirmation from a coach, he realized the blockbuster deal was real.
“We’re five minutes away from the hotel, and our group chat starts going crazy,” said Reaves. “I hardly ever look at the group chat because they talk about whatever and I thought they just texted about a win. But the first thing I look at when I pull my phone up is that AD says ‘They traded me.’ And if anybody knows AD, he jokes around a lot. So I laughed and I put my phone down. My phone kept going off so I pulled up Instagram and I saw Shams’ post. I called Aaron and Reggie and I was like ’What the f*ck?’ And they were like ‘No way this is real.’ Then I called one of our assistant coaches and he was like ‘Uhhhh.’ He was like ‘It’s real’ and I was like ’Oh sh*t this is real.”
Only a select few people knew the Luka trade was going down. Everybody else found out as it happened, including Austin Reaves and most of his Lakers teammates. He was understandably crushed to see Davis and Christie join the Mavericks, but he embraced the arrival of Luka Doncic and is looking forward to what they might accomplish together.
“I was hurt at the time because I had a good relationship with Max and I had a really, really good relationship with AD,” Reaves added. “I was with AD for four years and with Max for three so being around them every day for a year and then it’s like they’re just gone. We got Luka though, incredible player, generational player. Nobody thought he would get traded at that age but everything happens for a reason and I’m really excited about what we got.”
The Mavericks broke all historical precedent when they traded Doncic in February. Typically, someone of his caliber wouldn’t get traded unless he specifically asked to be moved but Dallas GM Nico Harrison felt his team was better off with someone else. It was a shocking decision that had the entire NBA reeling, not least of which the Lakers players themselves.
For years, the team’s identity was built around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but that all changed overnight. Now, the Lakers are on a new timeline, and while their goals are the same, the locker room has changed a lot with voices like Luka, Deandre Ayton, and Marcus Smart creating a brand new identity.
The Anthony Davis trade sent shockwaves through the Lakers, and Austin Reaves’ story shows just how sudden and surreal it was for the players. Losing friends and teammates hurts, but with Luka Doncic in town, Reaves and the Lakers know their future is still loaded with potential.
