The history of sports is often shaped by blockbuster trades. Sending a player to another team sometimes changes the whole landscape of the league and even the approach for some of the main betting sites. Some of the greatest athletes in the history of sports have been traded, including Babe Ruth, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Wayne Gretzky, and Aaron Rodgers.
In a perfect world, teams would keep a great player until they retire, but there are many reasons why a blockbuster trade is struck. We look at the anatomy of these mega-deals below.
Team Needs Draft Picks to Get Better
One of the best ways for a struggling team to improve is to move a proven asset for a haul of future draft picks that are filled with potential and cheaper contracts.
The best example of this came in 1989 when the Dallas Cowboys traded star running back Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for several veterans and draft picks. By letting the veteran players go after the season, the Cowboys gained even more conditional draft picks from Minnesota, and they built a dynasty that won 3 Super Bowls in the 1990s by drafting players like Emmitt Smith, Russell Maryland, Darren Woodson, and Kevin Smith.
Jimmy Johnson was a rookie head coach at the time, and people thought he was crazy for getting rid of Dallas’ best player in Walker. But it was not well known at the time how running backs are not that hard to replace, and Emmitt Smith ended up becoming the league’s all-time leading rusher. But after finishing 1-15 in 1989, the Cowboys soon were a contender and won a Super Bowl in the 1992 season thanks to that monumental trade.
NBA teams also love to trade away the future in draft picks to acquire a star player. James Harden was traded from Philadelphia to the Clippers, and while that was a 2023 transaction, it involved draft picks in the 2028 and 2029 drafts. The NBA does not value draft picks quite as much as the NFL to say the least.
Moving a player you don’t see a long-term future with anymore for draft picks is one of the smartest things a rebuilding team can do.
Financial Problems
Whether it is due to salary cap constraints or poor management, sometimes a team simply cannot afford to keep a player on the payroll. When the time comes for a new contract extension that will reset the market, the team may be better off sending the player away in a trade and letting someone else foot the bill.
Financial problems were cited as part of the reason the Edmonton Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988 in a move that was so shocking it simply became known as The Trade.
Gretzky was Canada’s most beloved player and he just won another Stanley Cup with Edmonton, but a deal was made with the Kings to send the Great One to Los Angeles, who had the resources to offer cash, draft picks, and veteran players for Gretzky. It was also a move that figured to expand hockey’s popularity in the United States, which it certainly did.
Alex Rodriguez was another player who was making a lot of money for the Texas Rangers, who were looking to offload his contract to the highest bidder. The New York Yankees stepped up and made the trade, signing one of baseball’s best hitters.
It wasn’t the first time the Yankees flashed some cash to acquire a great player. In 1919, the Boston Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees in exchange for $100,000 in cash, which was a lot of money at the time. It became known as the Curse of the Bambino for Boston, as it would not win another World Series for 86 years while Ruth went on to become the most dominant home run hitter in MLB history.
Sometimes it is best to not be cheap and pay a great player.
The Player Wants to Compete for a Title
An athlete’s legacy is largely defined by winning championships. There have been great players who gave their prime years to a team only to come up empty in the ring department. They may request a trade to go to a team with better title aspirations, and in return, they can give their team draft picks or other good players in return.
We recently saw a trade like this in the NBA involving Damian Lillard in going from Portland, his only team for over a decade, to Milwaukee to play with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Lillard always expressed he wouldn’t go to a super team, but after giving his best years to Portland without a deep playoff run, he gave in this year.
Randy Moss was one of the best wide receivers of all time, but you could see his interest and motivation were lacking while playing through a losing season with the Raiders in 2006. The Patriots needed wide receiver help and offered a mid-round pick to acquire him in 2007, and his impact was huge and immediate. He helped the Patriots set the scoring record and broke an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches. Moss helped the Patriots start 18-0 before they lost in the Super Bowl, so he never quite got the ring he always wanted.
More recently, a big inspiration for Matthew Stafford getting traded from Detroit to the Rams in 2021 was so he could compete with a good team. Stafford immediately delivered in leading the Rams to a Super Bowl win.
The Rams got what they wanted out of that trade, but Detroit is not doing so bad either in return. They got Jared Goff, who has outplayed Stafford since the 2022 season, and they also used the draft picks from the trade to add Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jameson Williams, and a few other contributors.
The Stafford-Goff trade could go down as a rare win-win trade where both teams are satisfied with the outcome. One of the few examples of a great player getting traded for a great player in a win-win situation was in 2004 when the Denver Broncos received corner Champ Bailey and the Washington Redskins received running back Clinton Portis. Both players performed well and helped their new teams.
The Relationship Sours
Finally, one of the most common reasons to trade a star player is because the relationship has soured between the player and the franchise. Maybe the player wants too much money and is no longer as good as they once were. Maybe the player needs a new change of scenery or doesn’t like the head coach or owner. Maybe the team found a new star that is cheaper or just wants to move in a different direction after years of trying to make things work.
Maybe the player is named James Harden too, as we saw this situation play out a few weeks ago in Philadelphia. But some of the more interesting trades in sports history have come after a relationship soured:
- Someone had to go in Los Angeles between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal as that beef intensified, and it ended up being Shaq traded to the Miami Heat where he won another championship.
- The Steelers had enough of Antonio Brown’s antics in 2019 and traded him to the Raiders for 3rd and 5th-round draft picks, a clear sign they were willing to take anything they could get for the troubled wideout.
- After 18 years with the Packers, Aaron Rodgers clearly wanted out and a new challenge, so he was traded to the Jets where he lasted 4 snaps in the 2023 opener before he tore his Achilles.
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was great for the Bucks, but he wanted a new challenge and a bigger market that only the Lakers could provide him with in the 1970s.
- Allen Iverson rose to great heights with the Philadelphia 76ers, but after a decade, things were stagnant, and he wanted out. The team traded him to the Denver Nuggets in 2006.
- Deshaun Watson was reportedly upset with the Houston Texans even before the team found out about his allegations of sexual misconduct by more than 24 women, so the sides could not wait to make a trade happen to move on from each other in 2022.
- Between his vaccine status and suspension for personal conduct, Kyrie Irving had a troublesome relationship with the Nets before they finally traded him to Dallas in February 2023.
While 2023 should go down as a historic year for sports trades (Rodgers, Irving, Durant, Lillard, Harden, etc.), it may be the one that wasn’t made that gets the most attention. The Los Angeles Angels declined to trade superstar Shohei Ohtani, who will hit free agency and go to the highest bidder. Perhaps the Angels should have taken the chance to get better by moving Ohtani while they still had control of the most valuable asset in the league.
