With Luka Dončić trade, NBA again proves it does drama better than anyone

This trade really has so many layers. So much depth.

Enormous figures involved: Luka Dončić, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson. A back-room deal under the cover of darkness, one like we haven’t seen since the Baltimore Colts skipped town.

The Lakers and Hollywood. Slovenia and Texas. Alcohol and weight loss. A Las Vegas billionaire and a pending $350 million bill. A legend in the making with a reigning king.

Basketball fans will feast on this trade for years.

People will remember where they were when ESPN’s Shams Charania delivered the news, at 9:12 p.m. on the West Coast. Kevin Durant was on the bench. Stephen Curry was at a charity poker tournament. LeBron James was at dinner.

Some dad was trying not to yell and awaken his family. Some romantic evening was interrupted. Some video game session ended.

Many were asleep, their fix waiting for them in the morning. Then they went and discussed it over brunch and at church and at the dog park.

On a random Saturday night, the NBA flexed. This weekend declared the league’s perennial magnetism. For all the criticism it endures, all the talk of declining ratings and waning interest, the NBA can still break the internet better than Kim Kardashian. How to fix the NBA has become a national conversation. Shorter season. Fewer 3-pointers. More defense. Even commissioner Adam Silver is pedaling less product as a solution.

And, out of nowhere, Mavericks GM Nico Harrison said, “Hold my beer” — presumably to Michael Finley.

What’s being dubbed the most stunning trade in history is a flex of the NBA’s addictive quality. Drama. It’s the element that best explains why the discussion of the league’s brokenness coincides with massive new television deals. This league’s ability to seize attention, to suddenly and dramatically deliver the unexpected, is unmatched. Downright opioidic. The trading of Luka deserves a made-up word.

Now we pull up to the buffet, fork and knife in hand, napkin on lap, waiting for more information. More details. More plot twists. And it all leads up to Feb. 25, when Davis returns to the Lakers’ Crypto.com Arena. Which sets the runway to April 9, when Luka returns to Dallas. Silver will be wishing for 15-minute quarters then. Oh, to imagine the amount of trash talk Dončić might hurl at the Mavericks that night.

In that sense, Luka is the NBA. Flawed, perhaps hopelessly, and yet immensely fascinating. Jaw-dropping talent engulfed in reality-show chaos. Seductive as much for the computability as the incomparable skill. The tendency to captivate compensating for yet-resolved shortcomings.

So many say they’re done watching, shifting their energy to something more worthy, something better. Allegedly, they’ll read a book instead of indulging. Watch other sports.

But somehow, they always end up back. Yes, you, the one commenting on NBA topics about how they don’t watch. You’re back here for this. Because the NBA is elite at drama.

The Mavericks really just traded away Luka and gave the keys to their kingdom to Kyrie. LeBron didn’t demand a trade — this was his chance to unite with Curry or Durant — and instead will try it out next to his evolutionary figure. And they both better work because Victor Wembanyama just got a point guard in De’Aaron Fox.

And the Jimmy Butler saga continues.

Perhaps, this trade, this trade season, simultaneously highlights the issue. Or, for those governed by a growth mindset, the solution.

The NBA is most gravitational when it’s transactional. The drama is most often tied to player movement and personalities, off-the-court dynamics and relationships. Certainly, games without these storylines are the ones that make 82 games and 48 minutes feel long.

But without fail, this league will deliver something that reminds its fans why they’re so hooked. It can be sheer theater. This is why NBA trade season and free agency tend to take over.

However, the scintillation of player movement and relationship drama can make the games feel like dinner after dessert. The NBA’s challenge is not finding gimmicks to make its product more widely watchable. It’s to master its drama to the degree of conjuring it.

Part of why the NBA has this unique appeal is the randomness. The suddenness. Sure, the craziness happens during a predictable period of the season. But what will happen is the mystery that manipulates.

The trick for the NBA is manufacturing the drama when it’s not beating the world over the head. That’s what the NBA Cup is about.

The games have a natural drama to them. The stakes. The twists and turns of a season. The little dramas that play out nightly. The NBA and its media landscape can for sure do a better job selling that to its base.

But it all seems to pale in comparison to these moments. The monster trades. The beefs. The heartbreak. The miraculous.

Which makes it curious why the punishment for spending too much is limiting maneuverability. Why the league is trending toward more homogenized coverage through corporate partners rather than letting the goods get unearthed.

This is the NBA’s bag. While it is worthy of criticism and could use some changes, this weekend showed it’s still the best at this. Drama. Our drug of choice.

More on the stunning Luka-Anthony Davis trade:

(Top photo of LeBron James and Luka Dončić: Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)