Luka Dončić waltzed into Dallas on Wednesday and hung 45 points on the Mavericks in a take-that performance that had to have general manager Nico Harrison -- and anybody else who had anything to do with quite possibly the dumbest trade in sports history -- absolutely dying inside and wondering,

But at the time of the deal, when Dallas acquired a package headlined by Anthony Davis in exchange for the cornerstone who’d just led the franchise to the NBA Finals the previous season, Dončić faced plenty of rumors about what went wrong to prompt Mavericks and general manager Nico Harrison to make such a seismic move.