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Mike Chamernik’s Question of the Week (February 3-7)

Last week, we had a fun “Question of the Week” from Mike Chamernik, and he’s back today with his latest QOTW.

Enjoy!

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Question of the Week
by Mike Chamernik

Late Saturday night, I got the notification from Shams Charania: The Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis. It was such a shocker that many hoops fans thought that Shams was hacked. Nope. Two first team All-NBA caliber players were swapped for each other mid-season. That never happens.

What was the most surprising blockbuster trade or free agent signing that you can remember? Can you recall where you were when you got the news?

What has been the most unexpected player transaction for your favorite team? How did you feel when you learned, and how did it work out?

As a Bucks fan, I remember watching ESPN on trade deadline day back in 2003. I saw a glimpse of the Ticker scroll: “… Milwaukee acquires PG Gary Payton from Seattle.” I was stoked! My guys were going on a playoff run. However, I waited for the Ticker to roll around again to get the full trade. The Bucks landed Payton… in exchange for Ray Allen, their best player. Hopes dashed.

Also, The Decision was a remember-where-you-were moment (I was watching with my grandpa at his house). The Alex Rodriguez trade to the Yankees came suddenly, after several months of heavy rumors that he was going to Boston. And even though it was clear he was gone, seeing Tom Brady leave the Patriots to join the Buccaneers still felt surreal.

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Thanks, Mike — great question again.

For me, the “Midnight Massacre,” in which the Mets (eff-you M. Donald Grant!) traded The Franchise for Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson, Dan Norman, and Pat Zachry. Still the worst trade in Mets history (though arguable). I honestly don’t remember where I was when the news broke, but I remember hearing about the trade from my pop, who I think heard it on the radio. Pre-Interwebs the morning paper and once or twice hourly sports on newsradio were where we got our “breaking” news. Up until that point, I was just a wide-eyed kid who loved the home team. Having the team’s greatest player ripped away over money wasn’t every something I ever thought about to that point. It would mark just the first of many times the Mets would break my heart — something they continue doing to this day.

Can’t wait to hear the readers’ responses! OK guys…fire away!

 
  
 
Comments (0)

    I don’t know how unexpected it actually was, but the Packers trading away Davante Adams (somewhat in his prime) for scraps was definitely unexpected for me.

    Biggest moves in my lifetime:
    Mesut Özil to Arsenal
    Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors

    Özil worked out about as well as expected. He was an amazing player who made great players even better, but he was never going to carry a team.
    I was just preparing to leave for my first year of university in Scotland, and after I arrived my first major purchase was an Arsenal home kit with Özil 11 on the back. It’s still one of my favourite jerseys to this day.

    I think we all know what happened with Kawhi. What a magical time to be a Raptors fan. I had just gotten back into basketball about a year prior, so I wasn’t as devastated as many other Torontonians about losing DeRozan. I knew right away that it was going to be big, but I couldn’t have dreamed that he would take us all the way.

    Sadly, as an Arsenal fan, the departures have been more significant: Ashley Cole to Chelsea, Patrick Vieira to Juventus, Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona, Samir Nasri, Bacary Sagna, and Gael Clichy to Manchester City. Clichy won’t go down as a major loss for most other fans, but I had just bought his jersey the year before!

    The one that hurts the most was Robin van Persie going to Manchester United. I have always been fond of Dutch players, and RvP had been carrying us through the darkest time since Wenger had arrived. He was one of the best players in the EPL, if not the world, when Arsenal sold him for a measly £20 million. I would have much preferred we keep him and go for one last push for the title and then lose him for free, instead of sending him to an arch-rival where he of course won the league.

    Kawhi to the raptors for DeRozan. Was sad because I was a fan of DeRozan, but also knew that it was a HUGE upgrade. Ended up working out

    I happened to be visiting Seattle when the Payton/Allen trade happened in 2003. I believe it was big enough to be the lead story on the local news. If I remember correctly, he played 999 games for the Sonics- his next game would have been the milestone.

    Wilt Chamberlain to the Lakers, and then about 6 or 7 years later Kareem Abdul Jabbar traded from the Bucks to the Lakers. I was only 11 when Wilt came to the Lakers, and it actually led to one of my most disappointing losses when the Lakers lost again to the Celtics in game 7 of the 1969 finals. It took a few more seasons before the Lakers finally won a championship.
    I also expected better results right away when in 1975 the Lakers acquired Kareem. It took 5 more seasons when Magic is drafted before the Lakers win another championship.

    Man the Lakers have a whole string of blockbuster trades and acquisitions through the years. Wilt, Kareem, Kobe, Shaq, and now Luca. Did I leave any out?

    For me it was the Herschel Walker trade that set up the Cowboys dynasty. And it was early in 1983 when Herschel became the first college player to go pro early.

    It was a shocker when the Braves traded Brett Butler and Brook Jacoby to the Indians for Len Barker – a trade that didn’t exactly work out for Atlanta. Some were shocked when the Braves traded all star closer Craig Kimbrel to the Padres to rid the team of high priced light hitting BJ Upton.

    Pau Gasol is another.
    I consider Kobe slightly different. Yes, technically he was traded. However, he wasn’t an established star when traded like these others. These others were stars coming to the Lakers.
    Another should have been Chris Paul. However, Commissioner David Stern blocked that.

    For me, the Penguins trading Jagr to the Capitals was shocking because I wasn’t aware how cash strapped the franchise was, I just knew they were trading the best player in the league for jabronies. I was equally as shocked when they landed Iginla and that they completely failed to use him appropriately.

    The Spirit’s offseason last year is a microcosm of this question because signing the coach, Jonatan Giráldez, was a gigantic coup that came out of nowhere (Barcelona’s women’s team is basically invincible), and then trading away two national team-level starters (Ashley Sanchez and Sam Staab) was just as perplexing and sudden in the opposite direction. It seemed like they’d be relying on draft picks or what free agent signings they did make all the way down the spine of the team (center-back, holding midfield, No. 10), but it turned out that all of those players absolutely balled out. My brother spent the two months before the season started telling anyone who would listen how bad he thought the 2024 Spirit would be and, well, the opposite happened.

    One of the most surprising free agent acquisitions I can remember was when Washington picked up Deion Sanders after he’d been let go by Dallas. I don’t remember where I was, but I remember it being an early sign that Dan Snyder was out of his depth. First off, Deion’s days as “Prime Time” were well behind him at that point, so it was a bad move from a financial standpoint. More importantly, how could a guy who prided himself on being a lifelong Skins fan bring in a player who was utterly despised, from our arch-rivals, no less?

    No surprise, Sanders contributed nothing while he was in Washington and left after a year, but it was an early indication that Snyder thought ownership was like playing fantasy football, only with the actual players.

    This one may be more obscure to those south of the border. Long-time CFL fans might remember the massive 16-player trade (and draft picks) between Edmonton and the Toronto Argonauts prior to 1993 season. Featured starting QBs and all-stars.

    link

    Max Scherzer to DC was pretty shocking and worked out really well.

    Steve Spurrier seemed like a big deal at the time here, but Joe Gibbs return was HUGE. Probably the best move of the Snyder era, followed by gold pants. It was that bad an era.

    Keith Hernandez to the Mets for Neil Allen. Mex was on an HOF trajectory when he was swapped for a very average pitcher.

    Gretzky & McSorley to the Kings was monumental not just Oilers fans but to everyone who watched the NHL in the 1980s. It was known as The Trade.

    The Gretzky trade was so shocking and big that it went against what we always thought would never happen in sports. The greatest person in his sport traded at the peak of his and teams greatness. It led headlines on US national news, and this was hockey at the time. Even people that didn’t follow hockey were talking about it. That was the beginning of no one is untouchable era.

    It wasn’t a blockbuster, but my first MLB rooting interest was the Phillies; my family moved from Iowa to Philly in 1980. My Phillies heroes were Schmidt, McGraw, and Carlton. A few years later, we moved to Minnesota and I became a diehard Twins fan; I basically stopped following NL ball entirely. Then Carlton showed up in the American League, and then in midseason of ’87 suddenly there was Steve Carlton, age like 58, taking the mound for my Twins. Seeing one of my old Phillies heroes wearing a Twins uniform was emotionally and mentally a bit discombobulating.

    Jeff Perry, the player-to-be-named-later the Twins sent Cleveland to complete the Carlton trade, never pitched in the bigs. So very, very far from a bluckbuster trade by any objective standard; it was just a Very Big Deal to me as a fan.

    Ugh.

    Bob McKenzie
    @TSNBobMcKenzie
    Trade is one for one: Adam Larsson for Taylor Hall.
    1:34 PM · Jun 29, 2016

    Odell Beckham Jr. to the Browns really sent me spinning.
    In hindsight, this trade worked out pretty good for the Giants: Jabrill Peppers had a few solid years, and the 1st round draft pick turned into Dexter Lawrence. But boy was I shaken. I grew up idolizing New York legends like Eli Manning and Derek Jeter, but they had ALWAYS been legends, OBJ was the first star who I could remember their entire rise. I remember him getting drafted, missing time in his rookie year, and then having a rookie year for the ages anyway.

    The first big trade that shook me was the Hornets sending Alonzo Mourning to Miami for Glen Rice just before the 1995-96 NBA season. In those pre-internet days the only real way to get current NBA news was the UK’s basketball newspaper “Slam Dunk”, which came out every Friday. I was on my way to school and stopped at the newsagents to pick up my copy when I saw the huge headline “Zo Traded!”. I was totally shocked, it was the first time a player I loved had been traded.

    I miss trades that were pure star-for-star. The Luka-AD trade was kinda a throwback to that

    Cleveland trading Rocky Colavito to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn. I wasn’t alive then, but it’s 60+ years later and my dad still talks about it. The Rock was my dad’s (and a lot of other Clevelanders) favorite player.

    When the Maple Leafs traded for Doug Gilmour from the Calgary Flames, then went on a run but lost to his idol Gretzky of the LA Kings in overtime at Stanley Cup semi finals.
    1993.

    That was my first thought.

    On top of everything, it was a 10 player trade, all established players. Doug Gilmour, Ric Nattress, Kent Manderville, Jamie Macoun and Rick Wamsley, for Gary Leeman, Craig Berube, Alexander Godynyuk, Michel Petit and Jeff Reese.

    The rumour was that the Leafs had to get rid of Leeman because he’d slept with Al Iafrate’s wife, and the rest of the deal was Cliff Fletcher ripping off his old team.

    As a Colorado fan, Peyton Manning to the Broncos, remember tracking is aircraft. Was really worried about the Titans when they offered him a contract for life.

    As for devasting it was Nolan Arenado getting traded to the Cardinals, a lot of Rockies fans stopped cheering on the team after that.

    I’m not a Knicks fan, but I remember being a bit surprised and awestruck as a kid when they traded Patrick Ewing to Seattle, just because of how many players changed teams in that one deal. (I think four teams were involved.)

    In recent years, the seemingly constant trades between the Red Sox and the Dodgers have always kind of annoyed me (as a Sox fan), because it seems to be the end result of the Red Sox getting something really wrong: dumping the Carl Crawford contract, lowballing Mookie Betts, etc…

    This probably isn’t a world-shattering trade outside of Colorado, but because it happened the same day my Grandma died, I would have to say the Rockies trading Nolan Arenado and a bunch of cash to the Cardinals for…….players I can’t recall and probably a bag of peanuts just to overpay a slightly worse and oft-injured player at the same position. Which ignited yet another internal debate over why I even bother caring about baseball at all (particularly when 2/3s of the owners and the league itself don’t seem to more often than not!)

    Two shockers involving the Reds: trading the very popular power hitter Lee May, along with 2B Tommy Helms, to Houston for a little .250-hitting second baseman and some other guys. Reds fans HATED that deal at the time, but of course the little second baseman was HOF-er Joe Morgan, arguably the best at his position who ever lived, and he led the Reds to 3 pennants and 2 WS while winning 2 MVPs, so that worked out all right.

    A few years later they traded some nobodys to the Mets for Tom Seaver, who was past his prime but still gave the Reds several good years.

    It really wasn’t a trade but the who “Decision” from Lebron kind of stung living in the Cleveland Area. A more recent one was the whole Deshawn Watson trade that is still rippling through the team and players. Ahh to be a Cleveland Fan.

    My answer to both is the same: Reggie White signing with the Packers in 1993.

    A little back story: About a week before the signing, there was a rumor that Reggie had signed with the Dolphins. I can remember listening to local radio in Appleton, Wisconsin, and the hosts lamenting that the Packers wouldn’t get him…but he could never have realistically been expected to go to Green Bay, right?

    Several days later, I was with my high school band, returning from a trip to Disney World. As we boarded a flight from O’Hare to Milwaukee, a businessman had a folded-up newspaper in his coat pocket – and it looked like the headline said the Packers signed Reggie White. But I could only get a good look at half of the headline, so I wasn’t sure. Later that day, of course, I found out for sure.

    It’s an understatement to say that transaction completely changed the perception of the Packers organization. No longer was Green Bay a losing, small, outdated backwater relic. The Packers have consistently been contenders since then and the organization has been a model for all of sports.

    For me, as a Stars fan, when we got Brett Hull will always be memorable. Before the Stars came, I followed the Blues and Hull was my favorite player.

    For me probably underrated and definitely biased was Stefon Diggs to Bills in 2020. Even tho Vikings ended up getting Justin Jefferson I think it was a turning point. It kind of signaled to Mafia nation that the front office was going all in to bring a chip to One Bills Drive.

    Detroit stanley cup win against pittsburgh and Marian Hossa, next year pittsburgh stanley cup win against detroit and Marian Hossa.

    I was an 11 year old big-time Cardinals fan in the Fall of 1969 when they traded Tim McCarver and Curt Flood to the Phillies for Dick Allen and Cookie Rojas. As big a Cardinal fan as I was, I was an even bigger fan of my favorite player, McCarver. I immediately switched my allegiance to the Phils (and moved my rooting interest to wherever McCarver was playing for the rest of his career.)

    Herschel Walker to the Vikings. Watched how Jimmy and Jerry explained it on NFL Today that morning. A co-worker, who was a Vikings fan commented with one word “Super Bowl”…he was right, but simply got the team wrong…

    Gary Carter to the Mets. Heard the news getting ready for school that ‘the kid’ was gone…devastated

    PK Subban to Nashville for Shea Weber. As a huge PK fan, I was on the golf range and left almost a full bucket of balls as I left in a rage … devastated again

    I expect the Bears to get defensive players so Peppers and Mack were not nearly as shocking as the day the Bears got Cutler. I was on my computer in my back room when I saw the alert and amazed the Bears got a young talented QB who could throw for 4000 yards in a season. He never did but he did become arguably the greatest Bears QB in their history. And yes I realize what a sad statement that is.

    Doyle Alexander for Jon Smoltz. Wasn’t a real blockbuster at the time…but…

    Ha! Came here to say the exact same thing. Alexander was lights-out down the stretch if I recall. But who knew we’d be giving up a future HOFer? Great season anyway.

    Not a blockbuster but for me it’s when my Giants traded Bobby Bonds to the Yankees for Bobby Murcer. My friends who were Yankees fans were equally upset.

    I will second this. As a 8 year old, the Yankees fan, this broke my heart. Bobby (and Thurman Munson were the heart and soul of the Yankees during the lean years. It worked out for the Yankees as they traded Bonds a year later for Mickey Rivers & Ed Figueroa who helped the Yankees win it all in ’77 & ’78. Thankfully, Murcer returned in ’79 and was able to finish his career as a Yankee.

    2016, PK Subban and Shea Weber got swapped. I was at work in a previous law firm. So shocked and surprised, I was thinking about it all day.
    At that time, I was upset because Subban was a Norris winner, a dynamic player, younger than Weber, and cheaper. I couldn’t understand the trade. I especially couldn’t understand when Subban and the Predators went to the Cup Final in 2017. Frankly I’m still not sure I understand the trade, but it evened out in the end. Subban didn’t even finish with the Predators, he got traded again to New Jersey. Meanwhile, Shea Weber became the Habs’ captain and helped lead us to our own Cup Final in 2021…and he’s a Hall of Famer.

    Two trades stand far above any others in my life as a fan. They are my Orioles getting Frank Robinson from the Reds in early December of 1965. I remember reading about that at the kitchen table eating breakfast and reading the Newark Star Ledger as I did every morning before heading to the bus stop.

    The next one devastated me… the Rangers trading Brad Park AND Jean Ratelle, my two favorite players, to the f’ing Bruins for my least favorite player, Phil Esposito. That one scarred me for life!

    You too, eh? The difference is that I looked at it from the side of a Bruins fan. I didn’t dislike the Rangers at all but I couldn’t believe that those two rivals could get together on a trade of that magnitude.

    I know I’m a day late and no one will probably see this but for me it’s Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais for Jean Ratelle, Brad Park and Joe Zanussi on November 7, 1975.

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