Anthony Davis' Agent Rich Paul Talks 'Shock' Luka, Lakers Trade: 'Glad I Didn't Know'

Anthony Davis' agent Rich Paul says he is "glad" he wasn't informed ahead of time about the blockbuster trade that sent his client to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Luka Dončić.

Paul said on a recent episode of Gil's Arena that he learned about the Los Angeles Lakers' trade "a little bit before" ESPN's Shams Charania broke the news late at night on Feb. 1.

"99.9 percent of the time, I'm going to know what's going on," Paul told Gilbert Arenas in a live version of the podcast filmed at NBA All-Star Weekend (29:00 mark.) "The one time I didn't was the one time we all didn't, per se, know what was going on. It was a shock to everybody. Who was in it was a shock. I always knew the affinity that was had for AD from Nico's perspective, so the destination wasn't really a shock. The timing of it was a shock, and obviously who was involved was a shock.

"But you don't move mountains with everybody knowing. You can't. And so, I'm glad I didn't know, and I'm glad that whoever else didn't know, because it probably wouldn't have happened if you did know. Because now you start to open up the opinions and conversations and different cans of worms. So you can't get those things done with people know."

Paul was the one who told LeBron James that Davis had been traded from the Lakers, according to a Feb. 3 report by The Athletic's Fred Katz, Joe Vardon and Sam Amick.

According to Katz, Vardon and Amick, the Lakers did not speak to Dončić’s agent Bill Duffy about whether or not his client would consider re-signing in Los Angeles prior to the trade because the teams "wanted to keep negotiations a secret."

With both Duffy and Dončić as well as Paul and Davis kept in the dark, reports indicate there were few people outside of Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka who knew about the trade during the three weeks it was reportedly being negotiated.

Davis made his Mavericks debut on Feb. 8, when he put up 26 points and 16 rebounds in 31 minutes before suffering an adductor strain expected to sideline him for multiple weeks.