While long forgotten by some, the trade dubbed the worst of all time continues to have fallout, including for LeBron James and the Lakers.
You might think it’s time to let the Brooklyn Nets off the hook for making the worst trade in NBA history back on Draft Night 2013, but think again — because this trade continues to cause fallout for all parties involved, and many even not directly involved, such as the Lakers’ somehow-still-not-really-aging superstar LeBron James.
June 28, 2013 is a date that will live in infamy for Nets fans, because that is the day their then-owner Mikhail Prokhorov and his liaison Dmitry Razumov pressured team GM Billy King to give up three unprotected first-round draft picks and another first-round pick swap to the Celtics for an aging Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry. Prokhorov and Razumov wanted to win a title within five years and gave King a “win-now” ultimatum — hence signing the 37 year old KG, 36 year old Pierce, and 35 year old Jason Terry.
Predictably, Garnett and Pierce only played for two more seasons to middling success. The season after the trade, the Nets lost in the second round of the playoffs to LeBron James and the Heat, and it was only downhill from there.
After Garnett and Pierce retired, the Nets were terrible for years. The Celtics meanwhile used the Nets’ draft assets to land Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Besides the obvious reverberations this deal is still causing (the Celtics just won their first NBA championship with Tatum and Brown), there are many other indirect ripple effects still percolating, including the absence of a ring on the fifth finger of LeBron James’ shooting hand.
In short, the biggest consequence still being felt from the Nets-Celtics trade is the virtual end of the “win-right-now” team philosophy. The super team era, which was ironically ushered in by LeBron James himself when he teamed up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, all but died after the Nets’ trade debacle — with one major exception:
The Clippers going all-in to trade for Paul George and sign Kawhi Leonard.
And how well has that worked out for them?… Bueller? Bueller?
The slew of prospects and draft picks the Clippers traded away to the Oklahoma City Thunder to acquire George included cornerstones of the current stellar roster, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams, among others (and more to come).
So really the takeaway of trying to trade for a “win-right-now” team is that you will ultimately be building a young superstar team for the team you’re trading with.
All this means that the fateful Nets-Celtics trade is also indirectly responsible for LeBron James not winning a fifth NBA title as of yet with the Lakers.
Because even though LeBron somehow still seems ageless, he desperately needs more pieces around him right now before his window officially closes. But the Lakers aren’t giving it to him. Why? It’s just not worth it to trade assets or young pieces when “win-right-now” just doesn’t seem to work anymore.
For the Lakers, appeasing their star by drafting his son Bronny James (as unpopular as it may have been), and choosing the coach James wanted in JJ Redick, were a much better call than trying to build a winning team around LeBron James right now. As if Lakers fans needed any more reasons to hate the Celtics after falling behind 18-17 this summer in the championship trophies count, the fact that the incipient trade Boston made with the Nets eleven years ago is still preventing LA from winning an 18th championship may take the cake.
