Professional athletes know that at the end of the day it’s just a business, but sometimes they can be reminded about that in some pretty harsh ways.
On Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks made a deal with the Sacramento Kings that sent Harrison Barnes, their second leading scorer, to the Kings in exchange for Justin Jackson and Zach Randolph.
The move came as a surprise to a lot of basketball fans considering Barnes was in the third year of his four-year, $94.4 million deal, however, it was the way that Barnes found out about the news that was more surprising than the actual trade itself. After logging nearly 26 minutes of action for the Mavs on Wednesday night, the 26-year-old was pulled from the game and found out he had just been traded while sitting on the bench.
Barnes isn’t the first professional athlete to get dealt in the middle of the game, but that doesn’t make it right. The unexpected trade actually got a lot of fans riled up, including LeBron James, who posted the video on his own Instagram account with the following caption.
“So let me guess this is cool cause they had to do what was best for the franchise right??? Traded this man while he was literally playing in the game and had ZERO idea. I’m not knocking who traded him because it’s a business and you have to do what you feel what’s best but I just want this narrative to start to get REAL/CHANGE and not when a player wants to be traded or leaves a Franchise that he’s a selfish/ungrateful player but when they trade you, release, waive, cut etc etc it’s best for them! I’m ok with both honestly, truly am. Just call a ♠️ a ♠️!!”
It’s tough to deal with trade news, it’s even tougher to deal with the news in front of a packed house of multiple cameras. As expected, Barnes couldn’t wait to get out of his Mavs gear once that final buzzer went off.
Barnes averaged 17.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game in 48 contests with the Mavericks this season and will now join a Kings team fighting for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
