The NBA ended this week its period for exchanges. The last days of the transfer window, closed on Thursday (6), were agitated in the US Basketball League, with dozens of realized negotiations, including Jimmy Butler’s trip to the Golden State Warriors to partner with Stephen Curry .
But no movement drew so much attention as Luka Doncic to Los Angeles Lakers, with Anthony Davis on his way to Dallas Mavericks. Several respected US media analysts have classified the exchange as “the most shocking in NBA history.”
And it was only possible because of a relationship built around Kobe Bryant.
Lakers star from 1996 to 2016, the ace is the link between the general manager of the Los Angeles team, Rob Pelinka, and Dallas team, Nico Harrison. Dead in the early 2020 in a helicopter accident, he continues, five years later, with his fingerprints in the league, especially as a reference for players who grew the idolizing.
In many cases, there was indeed a close relationship. In the final stretch of his career and in the early years of retirement, Bryant placed some young talents under his wings, with advice and analysis of video games- as he did with Jayson Tatum, champion last year as a big name of Boston Celtics, Kobe’s Lakers Enemy.
With Harrison and Pelinka, the craftsman of the recent bombastic negotiation, the connection was even stronger. The approach dates from 2002, when each of them realized that he was facing two other ambitious young people.
At the time, Bryant, 24, was already a three -time NBA champion. The Philadelphia boy had just broken his contract with Adidas and became a coveted figure in the very high sports tennis market, which has in the basketball stars its main poster boys.
Rob Pelinka, 32, was his manager. In March of that year, Kobe had decided to leave the agency that represented him-the SFX, by Arn Tellem-and convinced Pelinka to accompany him. Nico Harrison, 29, was the NIKE in charge of courting the athlete.
The wing-wing played with a pair of Nike in one day, with one of Reebok the next, then used Converse. He stirred the companies, looking for a lucrative deal, and was chased by Harrison, who went to all Lakers games at home in the 2002/03 season.
Bryant initially ignored Nico, but in the US summer of 2023, he signed a contract of $ 40 million for five years with Nike, renewed and expanded several times-today Nike has the “Kobe” tennis line, used by prominent sports athletes.
The player, Rob and Nico began to live and forged a friendship. For a decade, they traveled to Nike commitments and also spent a vacation together. When there was the tragic Bryant air crash, the families of Pelinka and Harrison supported each other.
Five years later, the two were discussing “the most shocking exchange in NBA history.” Pelinka, after years of relationship with Lakers’ owners because of Kobe, became 2017 team leader. Harrison, established as a respected Nike executive, was called in 2021 to manage Dallas Mavericks.
In a bold work, with negotiations such as the exchange for Kyrie Irving, Harrison set up a team that reached the NBA final in 2024. Six months later, he understood that it was time to give up his best player, Luka Doncic, idolized by fans .
The main reason reported is Slovenian’s difficulty in shaping. Frequently overweight, Doncic had followed injuries and this season played 22 of 49 possible games for Dallas. His resume is very impressive for someone 25 years old, but even so, Nico saw the time to do something drastic.
Keeping Luka in the long run would certainly mean, in NBA rules, to offer him the next year the maximum contract of $ 345 million for five seasons. Harrison did not like the idea of allocating such investment to someone with durability issues and decided to anticipate the problem.
Instead of announcing an auction, which could have earned him succulent offers, Nico identified a target: Anthony Davis from the Lakers, directed by old friend Rob. And led an ultra -secret negotiation, which only came to light when in fact completed.
Absolute confidentiality was the only way. Both teams have a history of great transactions that have been running because they leaked ahead of time, and the repercussion of the MAV’s attempt to get rid of Doncic would be potentially fatal to the negotiations.
Nico Harrison had a coffee with Rob Pelinka in Dallas on January 7, and established conversations of which they were only aware of each one: Patrick Dumont, the majority shareholder of the MAVs, and Jeanie Buss, who represents the lakers’ owner family .
“As there was already a partnership, a history of travel around the world, with Nico and me working around Kobe Bryant, the discussions had a trusted web. These types are intricate, complicated. When the concept of the business was presented, We said: The only way to have these discussions is to keep them restricted to general owners and managers, “Pelinka said.
“There was a commitment to this. If we broke this commitment and spoke to other people, this day would never happen,” he added, in Doncic’s presentation with the yellow shirt. “Confidence was at the center of everything.”
When the hit came to fruition and was reported in the X by ESPN reporter Shams Sharania, there was a recurring initial reaction: “Was” the social network account was invaded? ” “It’s real, people,” replied Sharania, and the basketball world was in shock.
How can Dallas actively have sought to negotiate a guy who, at 25, has been in the official NBA national team five times? Among the players still active, they only did more often part of the LeBron James (40 years, 13 times), Kevin Durant (36, six times), James Harden (35, six times) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (30 times), James Harden (35) .
“I understand the magnitude. The easiest thing for me would be to do nothing, and everyone would applaud me for it. But we believe in the decision that was made. Time will say if I’m right,” Harrison said, trying to explain that the genius of Defense Davis, 31, will be more productive than offensive genius Doncic, 25.
Harrison also established with Davis a connection via Nike, has a long relationship with him. And Davis was very close to Bryant, her mentor. In his most striking moment in Lakers, he defined a decisive game against Denver Nuggets in the last ball, on his way to the 2019/20 title, and acted as a child in the backyard, shouting the name of who mimicked: “Kobeeee!”.
Now he is a player of Dallas Mavericks. Luka Doncic, another of the many young players who have approached Bryant somehow, is the face of the Los Angeles Lakers future.
And everything has to do with Kobeeee.
