Donald Trump Calls Luka Dončić Trade the Worst in Sports History
Donald Trump walked into the American Airlines Center on Wednesday night to fire up a political base. He ended up pouring salt into one of Dallas sports’ deepest wounds.
Speaking from the home floor of the Mavericks, Trump veered from politics into basketball and took direct aim at the franchise-altering deal that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025. He didn’t hold back.
“I must tell you, I don't understand the trade,” Trump told the crowd. “That trade is... What do I know about basketball? I would say that it's not going to go down as the greatest trade in the history of sports, it might go down as the worst trade in the history of sports.”
The line hit a raw nerve in a building that once celebrated Dončić as its future. Instead, his departure still hangs over the franchise.
A trade that stunned the league
On February 2, 2025, the Mavericks detonated their own foundation.
In a three-team deal, Dallas shipped Dončić, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Lakers. In return, the Mavericks received Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick.
The reaction was instant and furious. Nearly everyone questioned it. Mavericks fans protested. The move cost general manager Nico Harrison his job by November 2025. The gamble on Davis never came close to matching the certainty Dončić represented as a perennial MVP candidate and the face of the franchise.
The fallout was swift. Davis lasted just one season in Dallas before the Mavericks moved him to the Washington Wizards, a short and turbulent stay that only sharpened the sense of regret.
Dallas did catch one break: lottery luck. The Mavericks landed the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and used it on Cooper Flagg, quickly installing the teenage forward as the new cornerstone of a full-scale rebuild. The organization has turned the page. The fan base hasn’t completely.
Trump made clear he hasn’t either.
“That's not good. That wasn't good. Maybe we could redo that trade. I redo deals all the time. We got to redo,” he said, leaning into his reputation as a deal-maker. “We got to redo that deal. I don't get that deal. You know some deals you understand. I understand deals, but that one I didn't quite get. Somebody from Dallas, I'm sure, can explain it to me.”
From Babe Ruth to Luka Dončić
Trump didn’t just call the Dončić move bad. He put it on a podium few deals ever reach.
He told the crowd it has a case as one of the worst trades in sports history, then immediately reached for the one transaction that, in his mind, still sits alone at the top.
“You know the worst trade in the history of sports, right?” Trump asked, as supporters in the Lone Star State roared back. “The great Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth (for) $100,000. At that time, that was like $10 million, I guess, because Boston needed money, so Babe will always be the worst trade. But is it Luka?”
The comparison was deliberate. The Boston Red Sox sold Ruth to the New York Yankees after winning three World Series, a move that reshaped baseball’s balance of power for generations. Trump framed the Dončić deal in the same light: a franchise icon, moved at his peak, for a return that already feels painfully light.
For Dallas, the question now is unavoidable. As Cooper Flagg grows into his role and the Mavericks try to build something new, Dončić’s shadow and that trade will keep drifting back into the conversation.
Especially when the criticism echoes inside their own arena.
