Chanse Frenette (@chansef.bsky.social)

Rich Paul: I didn't know about AD-Doncic trade before it happened Rich Paul, one of the biggest agents in the NBA, revealed that even he was caught off guard by the blockbuster trade that sent his client Anthony Davis from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Dallas Mavericks for Luka Doncic.The Klutch Sports Group CEO discussed the deal during a live taping of the "Gil's Arena" podcast at NBA All-Star Weekend, explaining that this was a rare case where he didn't know about a trade beforehand."It's a partnerial thing in most cases," Paul said. "Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, I'm gonna know what's going on. The one time I didn't was the one time we all didn't, per se, know what was going on. It was a shock to everybody. Who was in it was a shock, right?"Paul added that he was aware of Mavs general manager Nico Harrison's "affinity" for Davis, but the trade still shocked him."I always knew the affinity that was had for AD from Nico's perspective, so the destination wasn't really a shock," he said. "The timing of it was a shock and obviously who was involved was a shock, but you don't move mountains with everybody knowing. You can't. "So I'm glad I didn't know and I'm glad whoever else didn't know, because it probably wouldn't have happened if you did know. Because now you start to open up the opinions and the conversations and different cans of worms, so you can't get those things done with people knowing."Davis is currently sidelined after suffering a left adductor strain in his Mavs debut and is reportedly expected to miss multiple weeks. https://thescore.com/nba/news/3221297