Everyone — and we mean everyone — thought Shams Charania was being hacked in the early hours of Sunday morning. ESPN’s foremost NBA insider broke the internet with his report that the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks had agreed to swap Luka Dončić and Anthony Davis in a blockbuster trade. As a result, everyone assumed his social media account had been compromised.
No, the deal was very real, despite concerns that Charania had lost control of his own social media. He later posted, “Yes, this is real,” but that was only after believing his phone itself had been hacked, not his X account. Charania shared, “I thought my phone was hacked when I got the text messages with the details of the trade and when I got wind of the deal,” during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up on Monday morning.
“I thought my phone was hacked.” 😅
—@ShamsCharania after receiving text messages about the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade pic.twitter.com/uhAbDZBQAn
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) February 3, 2025
The sheer shock of the trade was enough to make even the most plugged-in NBA fans question reality, and for a moment, it seemed Charania himself wasn’t entirely certain he wasn’t caught in an elaborate prank. However, it soon became evident that this wasn’t a prank, hoax, or fever dream; it was a league-shifting move that instantly changed the NBA landscape.
“But, you peel back the curtain, and for the Mavericks, they honestly, internally, believe that this move puts them in a better position to win a championship,” Charania continued. “Of course, there are issues they had, particularly with Luka Dončić — his conditioning levels to some extent. They have faith in this decision, and over the next several months to years, we’ll see if they were right or wrong. They want to pair Anthony Davis as a center defensively with Kyrie Irving and likely need another addition in the backcourt. With three first-round picks available for use now, it’s noteworthy that the Lakers never anticipated moving Anthony Davis at any point this season. They didn’t seek out the trade; however, when Nico Harrison, the Mavericks’ general manager, made the offer of Luka Dončić, that shifted everything.”
What also changed the game was Charania’s effort to convince himself and everyone else that he hadn’t been hacked. This situation felt too surreal to be true in an era marked by viral misinformation and widespread hacks. Had Charania indeed been hacked, he likely would have been tweeting about meme coins instead of the biggest trade in recent NBA history.
