The NBA is not new to sudden trades. The typical NBA regular season is from October to June, But the NBA is a year-round league. Why? Because in the off-season, NBA teams trade-off underperforming or unhappy athletes. The off-season is when NBA fans are on high alert for any rumors regarding player trades. The NBA has witnessed some of the most absurd trades over the years, some leading to NBA championships and some leading to worsened team performances.

One such absurd trade which shocked the NBA was when a future basketball Hall of Famer was traded to a losing L.A Clippers team in the 1993-1994 NBA season, which he says was “one of the best seasons” of his career.

A Hall of Famer talks about his sudden trade to the Clippers in 1993

Dominique Wilkins is a 7x NBA All-Star who got inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2006. Drafted into the Atlanta Hawks in 1982 as the 3rd overall pick, the 6’8 small forward eventually became Atlanta’s all-time leading scorer. In his 10 NBA seasons for the Atlanta Hawks, he managed to score an incredible 23,292 points!

However, NBA fans were shocked to hear of the Atlanta Hawks legend’s sudden trade to the L.A Clippers. Dominique Wilkins was a free agent at the time.

In a recent interview, the basketball Hall of Famer talks about how he felt regarding the sudden trade. Wilkins said, “I was having one of the best seasons of my career!” as he expressed his disappointment with the Atlanta Hawks front office.

When asked about what exactly triggered the sudden trade, the former NBA star had a one-word answer: “Money.” At the end of the day, the NBA is a business and basketball is a spectator sport for many. It is only obvious that NBA franchises will look to make money in order to survive in the highly competitive league.

However, I’m a firm believer that it’s not always about the numbers. Eventually, NBA franchises want to win championships and one of the ways to do that is to build team chemistry.

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Since ‘team chemistry’ is a subjective concept, each NBA franchise may interpret what’s good for the team differently. However, one has to agree that suddenly trading-off an NBA player who is performing to the best of his capabilities and actually showing results seems kind of odd.

The NBA’s history of sudden trades and their consequences

Dominque Wilkins isn’t the only NBA player to go through such a sudden trade. The NBA is notorious for its sudden trades and many trades over the years have shocked NBA fans to their core.

Some of the most shocking sudden trades were: Wilt Chamberlin to Los Angeles Lakers in 1968, Dennis Rodman to the Chicago Bulls in 1995, Shaquille O?Neal to the Miami Heat in 2004, Allen Iverson and Chauncy Billups’ swap in 2008, Carmelo Anthony to New York Knicks in 2011,? and Dwight Howard to Los Angeles Lakers in 2012.

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However, sudden decisions of this magnitude are a double-edged sword. Some of the sudden NBA trades mentioned above saw major success like Wilt Chamberlin’s trade to the Los Angeles Lakers which won them an NBA championship that year and Dennis Rodman’s trade to the Chicago Bulls in 1995 which led to 3 NBA championships.

However, most of these trades are made from a financial point of view and not with the mindset of winning a championship. NBA franchises like to play the long game as their main objective is to survive in this highly competitive league. What are your thoughts on NBA’s ‘trade’ culture? Let us know in the comments below!