Carmelo Anthony and the 25 Biggest Blockbuster Trades in Sports History
So, Carmelo Anthony is going to the New Jersey Nets, right?
In a huge, three-team, 13-player deal (not including draft picks)? A deal that would be among the most complex in NBA history?
Not so fast, my coast-swapping friend.
It seems as though months of jockeying between the Nuggets and the Nets has only led to more awkwardness and drama that won't be resolved until much closer to the league's Feb. 24 deadline.
If the trade were to still happen, it would certainly be among the biggest blockbuster trades in NBA history, but where would it rank among the all-time grandest swaps in sports history?
With that question in mind, let's have a look at the top 25 biggest trades the sports world has ever seen.
25. Cliff Lee Makes Way For Roy Halladay
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The biggest news of the 2010-2011 baseball off-season thus far has been the return of Cliff Lee to Philadelphia by way of a five-year, $120 million deal after spurning bigger offers from the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees.
As much of a win as it was for the Phillies, Lee's signing was also a do-over of sorts for GM Ruben Amaro Jr., who, about a year prior, had dealt away Lee to the Seattle Mariners after trading half the team's farm system to Toronto for Roy Halladay.
All in all, the 2009 trade that brought Halladay to the City of Brotherly Love and landed Lee in the Pacific Northwest was one of the biggest the baseball world has ever seen, with two Cy Young winners at the top of their respective games making their way around the league through a team, the Phillies, coming off two consecutive trips to the World Series.
24. Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu to The Orlando Magic
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In-season trades tend to make bigger headlines than off-season trades, and perhaps no trade of the former type has drawn as much attention, at least in recent years, than the total team re-shuffling endured by the Orlando Magic in December 2010.
For those of you who don't remember, Magic GM Otis Smith nabbed troubled shooting guard Gilbert Arenas from the Washington Wizards in exchange for poor-performing forward Rashard Lewis while simultaneously sending Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus, a 2011 draft pick and cash to Phoenix for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and Earl Clark.
The Magic have played much better of late with its new cast of characters, though it took some time for head coach Stan Van Gundy to get the team's machinery working properly again after such a huge roster re-tooling.
23. Antoine Walker to the Miami Heat
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Should the 'Melo-to-New Jersey trade go through as reportedly constituted, it would tie the mark for biggest trade in NBA history by measure of the sheer number of players involved.
That mantle is currently held by the August 2005 trade which, most notably, saw Antoine Walker move to Miami by way of a five-team, 13-player deal.
The Heat also landed James Posey and Jason Williams in that deal, engineered by none other than Pat Riley, which helped to facilitate the team's run to the NBA title in 2006, with Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal at the forefront..
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22. Eli Manning and Philip Rivers Swap Coasts Before Their First Snaps
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Draft day trades tend to be among the most significant in major professional sports, and few have impacted the franchises involved quite like that which saw the San Diego Chargers and the New York Giants swapping Eli Manning for Philip Rivers during the 2004 NFL Draft.
Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning (and his father Archie) had allegedly publicly expressed displeasure with the possibility of playing for a Chargers franchise that, at the time, was down in the dumps and already had Drew Brees at quarterback, wanting instead to play in a big market for a "big time" team.
Manning's disposition put San Diego in an awkward spot, though GM A.J. Smith eventually found a viable trade partner in Big Blue, which selected NC State's Philip Rivers with the fourth-overall pick and swapped him to southern California for Manning, whom the Bolts took with the top pick.
Since then, Rivers has easily been the better of the two quarterbacks on the field, though Manning's 2008 Super Bowl ring would seemingly pull him much closer to even with Rivers overall.
21. Roberto Alomar and Fred McGriff Swap Jerseys
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Okay, so maybe the names Roberto Alomar and Fred McGriff don't carry quite as much weight in the sporting world as they used to, but their 1990 trade is worthy of this list nonetheless, especially now that Alomar is bound for Cooperstown.
In the deal, Toronto Blue Jays GM Pat Gillick sent the slugging McGriff to San Diego along with Tony Fernandez while getting back Alomar and Joe Carter in return.
Alomar blossomed into a star soon after arriving in Toronto and helped lead the Jays, with the guidance of manager Cito Gaston, to back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
20. Jon Gruden to The Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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It's strange for teams to trade coaches, to say the least, though it certainly makes sense when it works out in the end.
Such was the case for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003, when they won the Super Bowl just a year removed from trading four draft picks to the Oakland Raiders for head coach Jon Gruden.
That's a bounty in NFL terms, to be sure, but a worthwhile one nonetheless, considering the success, however short-lived, it yielded.
19. Zlatan Ibrahimovich and Samuel Eto'o Transfer Teams
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In the world of international soccer, players aren't traded; they're transferred.
Regardless of what it's called, the deal that sent Samuel Eto'o to Inter Milan of Italy's Serie A in exchange for Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimovich in July of 2009 was monumental.
The swap was not only massive in economic terms, but also deeply intriguing, with the big-headed Eto'o apparently forcing Barca's hand in taking back a player who many would argue was markedly inferior.
It's also tough to deny that Inter came out on top in this one, winning the Treble (domestic league, European and Champions League titles) in 2010 under the guidance of Jose Mourinho, known modestly as "The Special One."
18. Clinton Portis and Champ Bailey Change Helmets
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From international football to American football, NFL Pro Bowlers don't just swap jerseys every day, which is partly what made the 2004 transaction between the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins so noteworthy.
In it, Mike Shanahan and the Broncos sent running back Clinton Portis to the Redskins for shutdown corner Champ Bailey. Once in Washington, Portis received a shiny new eight-year, $50.5 million deal with the 'Skins.
All of this, despite Portis having only been in the league for two years and Bailey at the time being recognized as the best cover corner in the game.
Then again, the fact that both of the principle players involved were just entering their respective football primes is what made this trade so unique.
17. Joe Thornton To The San Jose Sharks
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Few players in the NHL strike more fear in the hearts of defensemen than Joe Thornton.
The All-Star center, often referred to as "Jumbo Joe," was all over the hockey headlines in December 2005, when the Boston Bruins shipped him off to San Jose for Marco Sturm, Brad Stewart and Wayne Primeau.
Thornton's departure was a huge blow to the Bruins and a welcome addition to the Sharks, as he instantly gelled with team captain Jonathan Cheechoo and went on to win both the Art Ross Trophy, for leading the league in total points, and the Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded each year to the NHL's MVP.
Though Thornton has yet to guide San Jose to the Stanley Cup, he has managed to almost single-handedly keep the Sharks in playoff contention each year since he arrived.
16. Kaka to Real Madrid
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Though Kaka's move to Real Madrid wasn't technically a "trade" in the traditional sense, his transfer from Italy to Spain still deserves a spot on this list.
Madrid paid the equivalent of $94 million to financially distressed AC Milan in June of 2009 for the Brazilian midfielder, who was 27 years of age at the time.
That transfer free broke the previous record of $75.3 million paid by Real to Italy's Juventus for Zinedine Zidane in 2001, though it didn't stand for very long, thanks to one of his current teammates in a deal that appears later on in this list.
15. Wilt Chamberlain to The Los Angeles Lakers
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League MVPs don't tend to move from team to team, especially via trade.
And especially after winning the award during the season prior.
But that's exactly what happened when the Philadelphia 76ers sent Wilt Chamberlain to the Los Angeles Lakers in July 1968.
That trade saw the Lakers, then owned by Canadian sports entrepreneur Jack Kent Cooke, send Jerry Chambers, Archie Clark and Darrall Imhoff, against whom Wilt had his 100-point game, to Philadelphia to form one of the league's greatest "Big Threes" with Elgin Baylor and Jerry West.
Though "Wilt the Stilt" was never quite as dominant in LA as he had been in Philadelphia and San Francisco, he did help to bring the Purple and Gold a title in 1972, their first since moving from Minneapolis.
14. Dr. J to The Philadelphia 76ers
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Wilt is far from the only big-name player to be involved in an exchange with the Sixers.
Look no further than Julius Erving, better known to most casual basketball fans as "Dr. J."
Erving came to Philadelphia in 1976, when New York Nets owner Ray Boe sold his contract to the 76ers for $3 million, amid mounting pressure from the Knicks to pay $4.8 million for "invading" the New York market and from Erving himself, who was displeased with Boe's decision to not give him a raise in light of the aforementioned developments.
Dr. J went on to become an all-time great in the NBA for the Sixers, leading the team to the league championship in 1983 while ushering the modern era of basketball as a game for high-fliers.
13. Eric Lindros and Peter Forsberg Skate to New Teams
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The biggest trades in sports history tend to have significant ramifications for years after their completion, which necessarily brings Eric Lindros and Peter Forsberg into the discussion.
The hockey world was witness to arguably the most complicated trade in NHL history when the then-Quebec Nordiques traded disgruntled star Eric Lindros to the Philadelphia Flyers for a bounty of assets, including Peter Forsberg, Mike Ricci, Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, two first-round draft picks and $15 million.
Phew! Not bad, especially when considering that the team, which later moved to Colorado to become the Avalanche, used many of those pieces to morph into a perennial power that, behind the efforts in goal of Hall-of-Famer Patrick Roy, won two Stanley Cup championships in the decade that followed.
The Flyers, on the other hand, saw only one unsuccessful trip to the Cup finals, in 1997, with Lindros on board before trading him to the New York Rangers, the team that Quebec also tried to trade him to originally.
12. Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid
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Like Lindros, star footballer Zinedine Zidane is known for both his hard head and for being part of a big deal.
Well before his infamous head butt as a member of the French national team in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Zidane was part of a record-setting transfer in which his Italian club, Juventus, transferred his contract to Real Madrid for a staggering fee of 150 billion Italian lire (approximately 75 million euro), which became the first of many mind-bending transfers in which Real has taken part in the past decade.
Zidane went on to lead Real to win the UEFA Champions League in 2002, La Liga in 2003 and his third FIFA World Player of the Year trophy that same year, before being named the best European footballer of the last half century in 2004.
11. Eric Dickerson to The Indianapolis Colts
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American football and world football may be different games entirely, but both are privy to seeing players moved at the top of their game.
Just three years removed from his all-time best 2,105-yard rushing season, Hall-of-Fame running back Eric Dickerson had his bags packed and was on his way from the Los Angeles Rams to the Indianapolis Colts during the 1987 season in a three-team deal that also included the Buffalo Bills, making it one of the biggest deal in NBA history.
Dickerson went on to put up three 1,000-yard seasons in Indy while crossing the 10,000-yard mark for his career while with the Colts, becoming the seventh player and fastest ever to cross that threshold.
10. Marshall Faulk to The St. Louis Rams
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The Eric Dickerson trade was neither the first mammoth deal between the Colts and Rams nor the last.
Twelve years after Dickerson came to Indianapolis, Marshall Faulk was on his way out, as Colts president Bill Polian sent him to St. Louis for two draft picks after Faulk allegedly became something of a club house cancer amid testy contractual negotiations.
The Rams awarded Faulk a seven-year, $45.2-million deal upon arrival, which quickly paid off as Faulk became the focal point of St. Louis' historic "Greatest Show on Turf."
And while the Colts didn't miss Faulk too much after drafting Edgerrin James, the Rams clearly won out, with a win in Super Bowl XXXIV and a trip to Super Bowl XXXVI to show for their acquisition of arguably the greatest receiving back of all time.
9. Shaquille O'Neal To The Miami Heat
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Faulk's feud with Colts management was a mere blip compared to the long-time tiff between Los Angeles Lakers teammates Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, which eventually led to Shaq being shipped to South Beach.
In that deal in July 2004, the Miami Heat sent Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant and a first-round draft pick to LA for the three-time NBA champion, who promptly teamed with Dwyane Wade to earn his fourth ring, and coach Pat Riley's fifth, in 2006.
And while it's incredibly difficult for a team to recover from such a devastating departure, the Lakers have since gone on to win two more titles without Shaq, thanks in large part to Odom's presence off the bench.
8. Kevin Garnett to The Boston Celtics
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Just a year after Shaq brought the Larry O'Brien trophy to South Florida, Kevin Garnett found his way to the Eastern Conference when Celtics GM Danny Ainge brought the Big Ticket from Minneapolis to Boston in a trade that instantly changed the NBA landscape.
The C's sent seven players–Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Gerald Green, Theo Ratliff and two draft picks–to the T'Wolves for KG, making it the most disparate deal in NBA history in terms of the number of players exchanged for one.
As the anchor of Boston's defense alongside franchise stalwart Paul Pierce and fellow new arrival Ray Allen, Garnett transformed the Celtics into instant title contenders, bringing the franchise its 17th championship, the most of any NBA club.
7. Cristiano Ronaldo To Real Madrid
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Given a few years, the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid may work its way into the top five biggest "trades" in sports history.
Aside from being the most expensive transfer in the history of international football, costing Real 80 million pounds sterling in fees, the deal involved two of Europe's richest, most respected and most storied clubs exchanging a player who practically swept the biggest individual awards in 2008 and who is a member of one of Portugal's royal orders.
Oh, and his arrival at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid was attended by 80,000 rabid fans.
The one knock against the trade thus far is that Cristiano has yet to lead Real to a major title, though, with Jose Mourinho at the helm, Kaka and Xabi Alonso in the midfield, Karim Benzema up front and Iker Casillas in goal, that issue should be corrected sooner rather than later.
6. John Elway to The Denver Broncos
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Cristiano Ronaldo would be lucky if his legacy in Madrid were to ever come close to that of John Elway in Denver.
Like Eli Manning 21 years later, Elway was taken first overall in the 1983 NFL Draft, but threatened to play professional baseball if the Baltimore Colts, who owned the pick, didn't trade him elsewhere.
As such, the Colts traded Elway to the Broncos, with whom he had a legendary career, with highlights like "The Drive" and a showdown with Joe Montana in Super Bowl XXIV, capped by back-to-back Super Bowl wins in 1998 and 1999.
For those accomplishments, Elway will forever be a football god in Denver and the face of the Broncos franchise.
5. Gail Goodrich to The New Orleans Jazz
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As significant as the draft-day trade of John Elway was in the history of sports, perhaps no draft-related deal will ever top that of Gail Goodrich to the New Orleans Jazz.
A native of the Greater Los Angeles area who starred at UCLA, Goodrich had a tremendous career with the Lakers, though many forget that he was a key component in the team's NBA-record 33-game winning streak in during the 1971-1972 season.
However, Goodrich's relationship with his hometown team grew acrimonious in 1976, when he forced his way into free agency, at which point he moved to New Orleans by way of a three-year, $1.4-million contract to play alongside "Pistol" Pete Maravich with the Jazz.
As terrific as the prospect of such a tandem was, the biggest part of the deal was the aftermath, which had the Jazz sending four draft picks the Lakers' way, per league rules.
And, after New Orleans posted the league's worst record during the 1978-1979 season, the Lakers ended up with the first overall pick in the draft, which they used to select some young forward out of Michigan State named Earvin Johnson.
The man known as "Magic" went on to win five titles with the Lakers while establishing himself as the best basketball player of all time this side of Michael Jordan.
4. HWT
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You know a trade is huge when it has its own abbreviation.
HWT, otherwise known as the Herschel Walker Trade, was arguably the most consequential deal in NFL history, at least among those involving players and draft picks.
And, boy, were there plenty of those involved. To get the two-time All-Pro and former USFL star, the Minnesota Vikings sent five players and six draft picks to the Dallas Cowboys in a trade that is as much praised in Texas as the reason for the rise of the Cowboys as it is reviled in Minnesota for the demise of the Vikings.
Most notably, the Cowboys turned one of those picks into Emmitt Smith, who, along with Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, helped build Dallas into a dynasty in the 1990s on the way to becoming the NFL's all-time leading rusher.
3. The Trade
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While the HWT forever changed the future of two teams, "The Trade", as it's known, changed the tenor of an entire league.
In the offseason after leading the Edmonton Oilers to the Stanley Cup championship for the fourth time in his ten years with the team, Wayne Gretzky was traded, with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski, to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Martin Gelinas, Jimmy Carson, three draft picks and $15 million.
North of the border, the move resulted in a national uproar, with some in the national government calling for it to be blocked by law and people all over Canada calling Gretzky a traitor for allegedly forcing a trade to benefit his wife's acting career.
Back in the US, the arrival of "The Great One" in LA signaled a shift change in the NHL, with the league awarding teams to two more cities in California–Anaheim and San Jose–while seeing several other franchises in Canada and the Northeast move their operations to the Sun Belt.
Thus, even though Gretzky never brought a title to LA, despite coming close in 1990, his move literally expanded hockey from a regional pastime to a sport with national appeal in the US.
2. Robert Irsay and Carroll Rosenbloom Swap Franchises
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When it comes to blockbuster trades, anything and everything is fair game, including the franchises themselves.
And while owners swapping teams is rare and likely won't be seen again anytime soon, the exchange between Robert Irsay and Carroll Rosenbloom in 1972 deserves plenty of recognition.
That year, Irsay, a native of Chicago, bought the Los Angeles Rams for $19 million and promptly traded the rights to the team to Carroll Rosenbloom for his franchise, the Baltimore Colts.
Irsay went on to move the Colts to Indianapolis in March 1984 in a wildly unpopular move, with ownership of the franchise switching to son Jim in 1997 after Robert's death.
1. Babe Ruth to The New York Yankees
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Is there any move more infamous in American sports than the one that brought "The Babe" to New York?
On Dec. 26, 1919, a day that will forever live in infamy in Boston, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold George Herman Ruth Jr. to the then-abysmal New York Yankees for cash.
Some say Frazee made the deal to fund his other business ventures, namely the staging of No, No, Nanette on Broadway. Others contend that Frazee sold the "Sultan of Swat" after Ruth demanded that Frazee double his salary.
Either way, Ruth went on to win four World Series titles in New York after earning three with the Red Sox. He became the most iconic athlete in the history of American sports, casting a curse on Boston that lasted until 2004.
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