There are good trades and bad trades. Funnily enough, the same trade can be good and bad, depending on what side you look at. The Babe Ruth trade comes to mind when talking about one sided trades. This is especially true considering only money was sent back to Boston while New York got one of the best players of all time. However, there’s a trade that often gets overlooked when talking about bad deals.
Do you remember the 90s? I wasn’t born yet, so I don’t. But you can get a pretty god idea based on a few certainties. The boy band craze was in full swing and we all started to embrace Justin Timberlake as a star. Computers were coming along, but weren’t good yet, so only nerds how to use it. And the Dallas Mavericks sucked every year.
No matter what moves Dallas made to improve the team, none worked. That’s hard to believe with Jason Kidd on the roster. But it happened anyway. A serious change was needed if the team was going to be good.
First, something off the court had to change. That change came in the form of Don Nelson. Nelson was named head coach and GM of the Mavericks. Dallas’ new coach had a great career up until that point, so bringing him in would undoubtedly breathe fresh air into the franchise.
After that, draft night came. Nelson was armed with the sixth overall pick. It was with this pick that the new GM worked magic.
Dallas drafted Robert Traylor. That’s exciting, right? Obviously not, nobody has anybody who he is. But coming out of college, he was a well-sought out player. The Milwaukee Bucks wanted him the most, so they traded their two first round picks that year for Traylor.
Milwaukee has the official honor of drafting the players at nine and 19, but they were the players the Mavericks wanted. When the 19th pick was read, the name Pat Garrity was called. But the ninth pick was more important. The ninth pick was Dirk Notwitzki.
I don’t think I need to say much about Notwitzki, but I will just to be clear. He was the MVP of the 2007 season. He’s sixth all-time in scoring. He led Dallas to its only championship in 2011 and won the MVP of that series.
That alone makes the deal worth it, but let’s take a look at the other facets of the trade. Garrity is the next most important deal in this. He wasn’t good, but he was essential Dallas. Almost as quickly as the Mavs got him from Milwaukee, they sent him, Martin Müürsepp, Bubba Wells and a future first round pick to the Phoenix Suns for Steve Nash.
Nash never got a championship with Dallas, but he helped the immediate turnaround that Nelson spearheaded. From having the sixth overall pick, the team went on to four straight 50-win seasons. Plus, the experience he got with the Mavs helped lay the ground work for his later success back in Phoenix.
Finally, we look at Robert Traylor. He is the alpha and the omega, where this trade started is also where we will end. Traylor never did anything of note in the NBA. He owns career averages of 4.8 points and 3.7 rebounds per game while struggling with his weight.
Unfortunately, Traylor weight problems led to a heart attack in 2011. He was 34 at the time.
Milwaukee will always have this trade over their head. One bad pick led to two Hall of Famers beginning to show their game. This will always go down as one of the worst trades in all of sports history.
