In 1919, I like to assume sports fans were shocked when the Boston Red Sox sold star slugger Babe Ruth to their arch rival New York Yankees. Ruth, at the time of the trade, was 24 years old and went on to become one of the greatest baseball players of all time in New York, wearing the pinstripes. In Boston, what followed was an 86-year World Series championship drought, otherwise known as "The Curse of the Bambino." The Ruth deal turned into the ultimate warning about what could happen when a sports franchise trades a young generational talent as they are about to enter the peak of their powers.
Well, I don't want to overreact, but is there a chance we may be seeing the modern-day version of that deal right before our very eyes? On February 1, 2025, just last month, the Dallas Mavericks, less than nine months after being three wins away from an NBA title, sent Luka Dončić, a top-three player in the world and just 26 years old, to the Los Angeles Lakers, and it is already looking like it could be one of the most catastrophic deals a team has ever made in NBA history.
The immediate aftermath? The Mavericks have utterly fallen. The star player they got in return, Anthony Davis, has played just two and a half quarters for the team, and just this week, Kyrie Irving tore his ACL and is out for the remainder of the season, at the very least. Mavs fans are angry, gutted, and distraught—and they should be. When they went to sleep that Saturday night, a week before the Super Bowl, they thought they would be contending for titles for the next decade. Now, they are theorizing if the organization made that Dončić trade to anger them to the point where the team could move to Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, in the City of Angels, with Dončić getting healthier and more comfortable by the day in his new home and alongside teammate LeBron James, who is still playing at an All-NBA level, the Lakers have soared to the top of the Western Conference standings and look like they have a real chance to win the championship this spring.
Everything that could go wrong for Dallas has happened since the trade. Irving is done for the year, and based on reports, Davis might decide to shut it down himself and get healthy for the 2025-26 season. Now, the Mavericks' once-promising season and future could be in jeopardy without Dončić. Fans are furious, attendance is declining, and all of a sudden, a team that looked like it should be considered a contender for years to come is now struggling to even stay in the playoff race with its two aging stars on the sidelines. In the meantime, Dončić and James have turned the Lakers into a dominant force in Los Angeles, who appear poised to go on a deep postseason run starting next month.
There are eerie parallels to the Curse of the Bambino. The Mavericks and general manager, Nico Harrison, may now have to live with years, if not decades, of regret after letting a generational talent leave, much like the Red Sox did after Ruth. Given the Lakers’ history of bringing in stars, it looks more and more likely that the Mavericks could endure the pain the city of Boston had to live with as their former star won titles elsewhere and became one of the all-time greats. Though only time will tell, it feels like we're watching the NBA's version of the curse happening in real time right now.
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