It’s been 36 days since the Atlanta Hawks took the court for Play-In basketball as their season came to an end at the hands of the Chicago Bulls. Meanwhile, Hawks fans are now witnessing a Conference Finals matchup that features a player who wore a Hawks hat on draft night in 2018.
Luka Dončić has led the Dallas Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals for a second consecutive season. Unfortunately, the Hawks lone run to the Eastern Conference Finals was already three years ago, back in 2021.
Thursday on The Steakhouse, Steak Shapiro and Sandra Golden lamented the draft-night trade where Atlanta swapped the third-overall pick, where Luka Dončić was selected, in favor of Dallas’ fifth pick Trae Young and a 2019 first-round pick that turned into Cam Reddish.
“Luka Dončić had an Atlanta Hawks hat on and was our draft pick, and it was a great draft pick,” Shapiro told Golden as the two shared their thoughts on watching Dončić score 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter, leading the Dallas to a 108-105 win over the Timberwolves. “That kid Luka Dončić could be the greatest player in Hawks history,” Shapiro said he told his children as they watched the 2018 draft.
However, shortly afterward the Hawks made the trade with Dallas.
“And literally he was gone in five minutes,” Shapiro said, adding that he believes the Hawks “lost the trade.” As Shapiro went on to state that seeing Dončić’s play in his second conference finals in addition to the thought of the five-time All-Star reaching the NBA finals, is “hard for me to watch.”
“I think it’s weird as Hawks’ fans if you’re not bothered by it, because I’m irritated too,” Golden said.
Trae Young responded to a video of Shapiro’s take on X with a thinking face emoji.
However, Trae’s father, Rayford Young, took to X alluding there was more to the draft-night trade. Young infers Dončić forced the Hawks into the decision.
“If this upsets you, imagine how bad it would’ve been if Luka would’ve just announced it “I’m only going to Dallas, to be with my mentor Dirk & the owner that flew to Spain 5 times to hang with me & my family!” He was NEVER COMING.
Young is currently set to enter the fourth year of a five-year, $215 million rookie extension while Dončić’s first-team All-NBA achievement qualified him for a super-max extension which could reach upward of $346 million, the largest contract in NBA history.