The NBA is still reeling from arguably the biggest/most surprising trade in NBA history. In early January, the Dallas Mavericks shocked the NBA world by trading their franchise star, Luka Doncic, for Anthony Davis (with a few other notable pieces involved).
On Tuesday, Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison was forced to answer to Doncic for the first time since the trade. Doncic dropped a triple-double, leading his Lakers to a victory and, in the process, creating an image that will live on in the annals of NBA history.
Early contender for photo of the year pic.twitter.com/TKVkE28cn3
— lynz (@lynziekate) February 26, 2025
This storyline is noteworthy and all, but you're probably wondering what this has to do with the Sacramento Kings (the bedrock of this website).
Well, last night's events inspired this tweet from one of the biggest fixtures in the Kings' Twitter community:
Nico Harrison really freed the Sacramento Kings organization from being associated with the worst decision involving Luka Dončić
— J r u e (@thatl0calguy) February 26, 2025
In turn, that tweet motivated us to put together a post to flesh this thought out.
Nico Harrison's decision absolves the Kings of their sins of the past
As many Kings fans recall in their nightmares, the Kings had the chance to draft Doncic with the second overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. Instead, since they already had De'Aaron Fox, they chose to go with big man Marvin Bagley III.
Since then, the Kings have had to live with the agony of watching Doncic blossom into one of the greatest offensive players of all time while leading the Mavericks to two conference finals and one NBA Finals appearance. Meanwhile, the Kings are stuck in the dreaded middle class of the Western Conference.
However, like "J r u e" stated in his tweet, the Kings can stop feeling this sense of shame. Think about it. While the Kings made the mistake of passing on Doncic, one could argue that they did not know for certain the type of player that he would eventually become. And this is true. No matter how highly-touted a prospect is, no one is ever a 100% sure thing in the draft.
On the flip side, Harrison had Doncic and decided it was a good idea to get rid of him. That was despite having years of triple-doubles and monster playoff performances to analyze before he made this decision.
The Kings still messed up by not drafting Doncic in the first place, but they didn't mess up as badly as Harrison and the Mavericks (probably) did by trading him. So, for that, the Kings can emotionally move on from their sins of the past.