Anthony Davis doesn’t believe nobody knew about Luka Doncic trade

With the shock of the trade wearing off, Anthony Davis has doubts that everyone was as in the dark on the trade going down as has been reported.

It’s going to take quite some time for everyone to move on and accept their new circumstances in the Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis trade, players included. Luka himself said as much after Tuesday’s game against the Mavs, an emotional game for all involved.

But while so much of the focus was on Luka meeting his former team, there was also the return of AD and Max Christie to LA. The team honored Davis with a tribute video during the first quarter and both LeBron James and Austin Reaves spoke highly of their former teammates after the contest.

AD did not speak with the general media but did talk to Brad Turner of the LA Times in an exclusive interview. He was very open in the piece, discussing his reaction to the trade.

While this is a lengthy section of the article that begins talking about AD calling LeBron immediately after the trade went down, it paints a picture of AD’s thinking while ending with a pretty interesting quote (emphasis added).

“When it happened, I honestly didn’t know s—,” Davis recalled while standing in the hallways of Crypto.com Arena following the Lakers’ 107-99 win. “He’s been my running mate for six years ... so the first thing I wanted to do was call him. ... Obviously, I know there are going to be a lot of political things in the front office when they talk to me.

“The front office has to do what it has to do and obviously they’re going to do what’s best for the organization. So I don’t know if I ever got the ‘real’ about any of it. I don’t know what’s true or what’s not, coming from upstairs. So, my thing is I’m gonna go to my counterpart who I’ve been running with and see what’s going on, get his reaction and that’s all it was. We had a conversation. That was it.

“Everybody’s saying nobody knew and all this other s—. I just don’t believe it. But, hey man, I’m past that. I’m ready to move forward with Dallas, try to get a championship there with these guys. First off, getting back on the floor and get ready to compete. All the emotions, that s— lasted that night when it was just a shock.”

Honestly, I would expect AD to feel some type of way in this deal. After being included in so many discussions with the front office over the year, to have the wool pulled over his eyes and be traded himself has to feel like a painful stab in the back.

He noted multiple times in the piece that it’s a business and he’s moved on, but you can see there’s still some lingering pain there.

Realistically, there isn’t much to his claim. Jason Kidd has said he didn’t know. JJ Redick said he only found out the day of the deal. LeBron James said he didn’t know. Rich Paul said he didn’t know. And, obviously, Luka didn’t know. I don’t think all of those people are lying together.

It’s an unfortunate way for AD’s tenure in Los Angeles to come to an end. He’s likely going to have a whole lot of fans in California no matter where he’s playing to wind down his career.

And here’s to the day that he comes back to Crypto.com Arena and sees his jersey hanging in the rafters.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.