“This dude just bought a $15 million house, just closed like last week in Dallas. Apparently, he cried when he found out.” Former Mavs star Chandler Parsons revealed the predicament of Luka Doncic after the trade. Being the face of the franchise, and leading them to NBA finals, nobody expected them to part ways. Despite the brutal nature of the trades in general, Dwyane Wade finds a silver lining that will benefit the league in the long term.

On X, the Heat legend previously shared a GIF of himself where he uttered ‘I Love It’ about the trade. Recently, on his podcast, he shared his first thoughts when he got to know about the trade. “I’ve been a player, I’ve been involved in my own leaving of a team, traded in the team. I’m now on the other side of it as well, in the investor side of the league. So my mind goes into like ‘What does this mean overall?’ and so I started to calculate everything.”

Post-retirement, Dwyane Wade purchased a minority ownership stake in the NBA and WNBA teams. First, in 2021 with the Utah Jazz and then in 2023 for the Chicago Sky. “And so first of all I said to myself before all the reports come out I said ‘Oh this wasn’t no players was involved in this decision. This was billionaire business. This was at the top. The last 12 to 15 years, the players have decided right what we want to do. This was the owners, the governors, the billionaires deciding what they want to do.”

The 3x NBA Champion’s assessment and his first thoughts were right on point. Nearly a month ago, Nico Harrison invited Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and the most shocking NBA trade started to take shape. This meant that one of the biggest international stars now plays in the biggest market. “25 years old gets traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, the biggest Market in the world for sports…Luka was number six in Jersey sales right coming in Dallas; Luka now shoots to number one in Jersey sales with the Lakers.” That’s why Dwyane Wade praised the billionaires.

“So now internationally you got the top International player in LA, so the viewership, the ticket sales everybody Europe Spain they all coming in to LA. We know how this, so I’m looking at the business and I’m like ‘Yo hold up, this was an amazing business decision by billionaires.” So, who knew about the deal before it actually happened?

The billionaires kept Dwyane Wade’s former teammate in the dark.

Not just players from either team, but even other executives around the league had no clue about the trade. One Western Conference executive told ESPN, “Unfathomable.” While an Eastern Conference executive texted: “I’m stunned.” Not just those executives, but even the third team involved in the trade, the Utah Jazz had no idea. Danny Ainge only came to know when it was too late for them to do anything about it.

Davis was home in Los Angeles, recovering from the core injury as that night the Lakers beat the Knicks. Dwyane Wade’s former teammate LeBron James too had no idea. In fact, he was out having dinner in New York when he got a call from Pelinka. Being a billionaire himself, the Lakers superstar only knew minutes before the announcement from Shams Charania on X.

The more details come out, the more absurd the trade gets. Even though not everybody is on board, this reveals how the business in the NBA operates. In the near future, we will truly know the extent of this deal and how other teams take advantage.