It's time to hate the Lakers. Again.
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Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you.
It's been a little over 36 hours and I thought I'd be over the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade by now.
I'm not.
This deal sucks, man. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't make sense. Short term. Long term. Somewhere in the middle. It screams, "Hey, this is a bad idea!" But the Mavericks did it anyway. There's a reason we all thought this trade was fake.
TRADE GRADES: Here are our grades for the deal. As I'm sure you can imagine, Dallas didn't do too well here.
I don't need to break down the details here. You've surely seen them all by now. You know exactly how much this deal sucks — well, unless you're a Laker fan. Then it's great for you.
But that's the thing, man. It's always great for you. I cannot think of a time in my life when it has not been great for Lakers fans.
It always works out. Why? No idea, man. Because it's the Lakers. That's the only answer I have at this point. And you can't say it's not valid because look at how many stars they've lucked into.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was traded there for some dudes you'll never remember. They got Magic Johnson because of a stupid coin flip. Shaquille O'Neal chose to go there on his own and they drafted Kobe Bryant thanks to a draft-day trade for Vlade Divac. But then, years later after Shaq leaves, they trade for Pau Gasol with Kwame Brown, guys. Kwame. Brown. Then, LeBron James became the team's savior after Kobe's Achilles tear.
And, now, this. Luka Doncic for just one draft pick.
This is Laker exceptionalism in the flesh. It's the reason we hate Lakers fans so much. They're always photoshopping other team's stars into their uniforms. Do you know why they do it? Because it actually happens, man. They know it's real. There's never any rhyme or reason to it, but it's real. This Doncic trade is proof.
I've been chill on my Lakers hate in recent years. The bubble title was a nice enough story and, frankly, they haven't been good enough for me to care otherwise.
But that period is over now. Clearly, this team needs some haters. They've got a pretty good one in me.
The Spurs are back, too
Some of you probably don't even know that the Spurs traded for De'Aaron Fox last night amid all the chaos going on in the NBA.
It was another massive three-team deal between the Spurs, Kings and Bulls where, of course, the Bulls somehow trade Zach LaVine away and draw the least value in the deal.
Regardless, though, this is a legitimately great deal for San Antonio. They got Fox while keeping:
Stephon Castle, who has been a very promising rookie player for them.
Devin Vassell, who has shown promise as a scorer.
A reasonable amount of future draft picks.
And, obviously, the big win is getting to pair Victor Wembanyama with an All-Star point guard in his second year.
San Antonio is going for it. Wemby is good enough that it's a good idea to do so. The team also didn't completely mortgage its future just in case this doesn't work out.
The Lakers are getting stars for nothing and the Spurs are making smart moves again. Is it 2003 outside?
TRADE GRADES: This one was a stunner. Good on San Antonio.
WOP WOP WOP WOP WOP
Just wanted to give a shoutout to Kendrick Lamar, who won five Grammys on Sunday night for "Not Like Us." He got:
Song of the Year
Best Rap Song
Best Performance
Record of the Year
Best Music Video
And he had the entire stadium screaming the lyrics to his song.
Drake gotta be somewhere punching air right now. Can't wait until the Super Bowl.
Quick hits: Beyoncé wins best Country album ... Boooooo America ... and more
— Beyoncé won Best Country Album and she couldn't believe it. Caroline Darney has more here.
— Here's Charles Curtis on why Canadian fans are booing the U.S. National Anthem at games these days.
— Meg Hall has our WNBA free agent tracker humming. This league is going crazy.
— Christian D'Andrea has a new mock draft out with Shedeur Sanders going to Cleveland. Nice.
— Even the Grammys knew how stupid the Lakers-Mavs trade was.
— Here's Luka Doncic's message to Mavericks fans after their team completely let them down. This is so sad.
That's a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading today. Have a great Monday and a great week. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
This article originally appeared on For The Win: It's time to hate the Lakers. Again.