Jason Kidd Says Luka Doncic-Lakers Trade Has Been Compared to Babe Ruth, 'Kinda Cool'

The Dallas Mavericks' still-puzzling decision to trade Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers this season has been arguably the biggest storyline of the NBA season, drawing comparisons to other iconic trades in sports history.

Dallas head coach Jason Kidd told reporters that "some are comparing [the Dončić trade] to Babe Ruth, which is kinda cool," referring to the Boston Red Sox's infamous decision to sell Ruth's contract to the New York Yankees in 1920 for $100,000 in cash.

"When you look at the business of sports, change happens," Kidd added. "When change happens, it's the ones who carry on and keep moving forward. Those are the special people."

But let's return for a moment to the Ruth trade, both the most important and worst decision in MLB history.

The Yankees received a player who hit 659 of his 714 career home runs in New York, had an astonishing 1.195 OPS in his 15 seasons with the team and is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, hitters in MLB history. His power, at that time, was completely unmatched, and the Yankees won four World Series titles during his tenure in the Bronx.

The legend of Ruth, alone, would have made it an astonishingly bad trade for the Red Sox. But the team also went without a title from 1919 to 2004, an 86-year drought that was eventually dubbed the Curse of the Bambino.

You do not, in other words, want the trade in which you got rid of the 26-year-old superstar, in his prime years, to be compared to that Ruth trade. You do not want to end up on the Red Sox side of history.

Dončić may never have the impact on the NBA that Ruth had on baseball, of course, but he's already a five-time All-Star and five-time first-team All-NBA selection who led the Mavs to the NBA Finals a year ago. Those types of players are basically never traded in their prime years, barring a falling out with the team and a trade request, which didn't happen in this case.

Time will tell if it's eventually regarded as basketball's version of the Ruth trade. Kidd and the Mavericks better hope it isn't.