Jeanie Buss Reveals the Biggest Threat to the Luka Doncic Lakers Trade Nobody Knew About

The Luka Doncic trade to the Los Angeles Lakers is already one of the most talked-about deals in recent NBA history. Over a year later, Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is now pulling back the curtain on just how close it came to never happening.

In a clip shared on Instagram from her upcoming appearance on Pretty Tough with Maria Sharapova, Buss opened up about the behind-the-scenes work it took to get Doncic to Los Angeles.

Buss said the conversations first started in early January 2025, right when LA was dealing with the wildfires. She made clear that a trade of this size needed her direct sign-off.

"Those conversations started the beginning of January, right? I'll never forget that's when all of Los Angeles was on fire. In order to trade somebody like Anthony Davis, it would have to be with [my] approval and… certainly getting a player of Luka's caliber and him being at the beginning end of his career was just an extraordinary opportunity."

But pulling it off meant keeping it completely quiet, and that fell entirely on Rob Pelinka. He managed the whole process without a single leak getting out, and as Buss explained, that was not just smart. It was the only way.

Jeanie Buss on Why the Luka Doncic Trade Had to Stay Secret

That is when she got to the part that really stuck.

"But it required a lot of strategy and a lot of small steps in order to pull it off. And Rob Pelinka... was able to do that all with it out leaking to the media, because I think Mark Cuban might have jumped in front of a train to keep it from happening."

Cuban had already sold his controlling interest in the Mavericks to the Adelson-Dumont family before the trade. But Buss clearly believed he still had enough influence, and enough will, to kill the deal if word had gotten out. Cuban's own public comments since have backed that up. He has repeatedly said the trade was a mistake and confirmed he only found out it was done when Nico Harrison called him that night.

Buss also noted that nobody on either side knew what was coming, not even Doncic himself.

"Nobody knew, including Luka. And Anthony Davis. And we had a game in New York that night. And so the coach knew that this was gonna happen, but he still had to play the game. And we won the game that night... Then all the world turned upside down."

With Doncic sidelined by a hamstring injury and the Lakers up 3-1 against the Houston Rockets heading into Game 5, the trade's full value is still being written. But Buss's account makes one thing clear: without the secrecy Pelinka maintained, none of this Lakers chapter might have happened at all.

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