NBA

The Lakers don’t get players gifted to them

I named 4 people. Luka Doncic, Pau Gasol, Magic Johnson, Anthony Davis. They were also gifted Chris Paul at one point, and the commissioner voided the trade because it was so lopsided. No team in sports history has EVER been gifted the type of stuff the Lakers have been gifted.

You name a number of reasons why players like to sign there as FAs. That's clearly a thing also. That's how they got Shaq. To some extent, it's also how they ended up with Kobe (told New Jersey not to draft him). And many many more. I'm specifically talking about TRADES where the Lakers were gifted stars.

The Pau Gasol trade is a perfect example of this. He did not get traded for nothing. He got traded for his brother, Marc.

Can you find ONE source from the time that trade happened, calling it anything other than one of the most lopsided trades in history? There was universal condemnation of that trade at the time. Marc was a 2nd round pick who had never played an NBA game. Unproven 2nd rounder for a win-now All-Star? They immediately won 3 championships because of that trade! And you're trying to pretend like it was fair value because Marc turned out to be good. You're using hindsight to create revisionist history.

Many consider the Lakers the major benefactor of the trade.[6][7] As a result, some criticized the trade as being unbalanced in excessively benefiting the Lakers. Gregg Popovich called Memphis' agreement to the terms of the trade "beyond comprehension" and suggested that the league should form a committee to "scratch all trades that make no sense".[8] The trade became an immediate success for the Lakers, who went 22–5 with Gasol in the lineup and went on to reach the NBA Finals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%9308_Los_Angeles_Lakers_season