The trade heard round the world: what the Luka Doncic deal can teach us about PR

by Jeff McCrum

Even if you don’t follow basketball, it is likely you have recently heard people talking about one of the biggest trades in NBA history. On February 2, the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic, one of the top young stars in the league, to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis and little else. The trade was universally panned by both experts and casual basketball fans; Doncic was perceived to be untouchable, and had just led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last season. What is the main lesson that this blockbuster trade can teach us about public relations? 

Transparent communication is crucial. 

The Mavs did a poor job of explaining to their fans and the general public why they made this deal. While Anthony Davis is a great player, he is 7 years older than Doncic and has been far more injury-prone. (In fact, in his first game as a Mav, he suffered an injury and didn’t play for weeks.) Mavs GM Nico Harrison has only offered vague platitudes about why Doncic was traded, infuriating fans of the team, who have gone so far as to protest outside of the arena. When massive and shocking decisions like this are made by an organization, stakeholders will want to know why; if answers aren’t readily available, trust in that organization will plummet. 

Another issue this causes is that the void caused by a lack of explanation will be filled by the media, publics, and stakeholders coming up with their own theories about why a decision was made, which could be completely untrue. For instance, a popular theory is that Mavs owner Miriam Adelson doesn’t care about the Mavs winning games; she is only concerned with building casinos, and could potentially leverage the Mavs losing fans in Dallas because of this trade to move the team to Las Vegas. While there is no viable proof that this theory is remotely true, enough people have talked about it that it is being discussed on numerous TV shows and podcasts. 

While messaging after a decision like this has been made is difficult, there needs to be real effort made to effectively and transparently communicate why it happened. If you can’t, you risk forever losing the trust of your most important stakeholders. 

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