The numbers show that NBA fans rallied around Luka Dončić following one of the most shocking trades in league history.

Dončić finished the season with the NBA’s most popular jersey, the league and the National Basketball Players Association announced Monday. Dončić was eighth on the jersey sales list when the NBA released the numbers for the first half of the 2024–2025 season on Jan. 24. A week later, he was traded from the Mavericks to the Lakers.

Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Jayson Tatum were the next three players on the list, respectively. The trio held the top spots for the first half of this year and all of last season, when Dončić finished sixth. The Slovenian star jumped all of them following the trade. 

The blockbuster deal catapulted Dončić into the spotlight, especially after he missed 22 games between Christmas Day and his Lakers debut on Feb. 10. The 26-year-old also became a sympathetic figure for fans, especially after it became more apparent that he was blindsided by the Mavericks. 

“He was never gonna leave,” Hawks star Trae Young tweeted, in response to a video of Dončić crying as he watched a tribute video played during his return to Dallas on Wednesday.

Dončić’s jersey sales also benefited from joining the Lakers, one of the most famous franchises in professional sports. The Lakers finished this season No. 1 among all teams in merchandise sales, the NBA and NBPA also announced Monday. The Lakers were second in the first half of the season behind the defending-champion Celtics.

The Lakers were also involved in some of the most-watched games of the year, including the top-rated Christmas Day game against the Warriors (7.6 million viewers). Dončić’s first game against Dallas on Feb. 25 drew 2.5 million viewers on TNT, the most-watched game on cable outside of opening day and Christmas.

The Mavericks jumped up from seventh in the first half of the season to sixth in merchandise sales following the trade. However, none of their players cracked the individual list, including Anthony Davis, the key piece the team received in return for Dončić. 

While Davis did not make last year’s top-10 list even while on the Lakers, it didn’t help that he injured his calf during his first game in Dallas and has played just nine games for the Mavericks this season.

The recent YES Network–Comcast carriage dispute has provided a new and potentially powerful wrinkle to the sports media landscape: the influence of the Trump White House.

As the Yankees-led regional sports network and the No. 2 U.S. cable carrier recently reached a distribution deal, it was hardly coincidental that a subsequent statement from team president Randy Levine and longtime Trump ally led an extensive list of thanks with ones to U.S. President Donald Trump and “especially” FCC chairman Brendan Carr. It was Trump who appointed Carr to that role, and the FCC played a sizable role in the YES Network–Comcast battle, with the commission publicly urging the sides to reach an agreement—which they then did. 

Other RSNs appear to have quickly taken note of that dynamic. Just days after that pact, White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf met with Carr. Reinsdorf also leads the new Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) that has been at odds with Comcast since its debut last fall, particularly over the company’s attempt to place the network on a higher and more expensive cable tier—just as it has with nearly two dozen other RSNs. The YES Network was able to resist that tiering effort, at least for now, a fate that CHSN would certainly like to emulate.

Carr publicly posted a picture of his meeting with Reinsdorf and said he “enjoyed the discussion!” The commission has not since made any public comment on CHSN’s negotiation with Comcast, but it will bear close watching whether Carr weighs in to help promote an agreement. The meeting, however, arrived just days after Reinsdorf’s son, Michael, also the Bulls’ president, appeared at a Crain’s forum and accused Comcast of “bad faith” and “discriminatory” negotiation.

More Media Scrutiny

The FCC is also directly involved in another matter with large implications in sports media. Skydance’s attempted $8 billion merger of CBS Sports parent company Paramount, in the works since last summer, remains in limbo awaiting regulatory approval, though Paramount recently expressed confidence in closing the deal by late June.

Trump, however, is still in litigation with CBS News regarding an interview with 2024 Democratic presidential challenger Kamala Harris, a situation likely factoring into that Skydance regulatory process. He took a new and extended broadside at the network late Sunday after the most recent episode of 60 Minutes, calling on Carr to punish the network.

“They should lose their [broadcast] license!,” Trump posted. “Hopefully, the Federal Communications Commission, as headed by its highly respected chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior. CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this.”

The NBA season wrapped up Sunday and the playoffs are right around the corner. However, there will be attention paid to the teams missing the postseason that are vying for the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft—and the right to select Cooper Flagg.

While the Duke freshman isn’t held in the same regard as 2023 No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama, he is still considered a franchise-altering star. As the most-hyped American prospect since 2019 No. 1 pick Zion Williamson (and possibly since Anthony Davis in 2012), Flagg would provide a boost in brand and sponsorship appeal.

Feeling Lucky?

Here are the odds of the bottom 10 teams for the No. 1 pick now that the 2024–2025 regular season has ended:

• Jazz, Wizards, Hornets: 14%
• Pelicans: 12.5%
• Sixers: 10.5%
• Nets: 9%
• Raptors: 7.5% 
• Spurs: 6%
• Rockets (via Suns): 3.8%
• Blazers: 3.7%

There are still four spots in the lottery up for grabs due to the Play-In Tournament that starts Tuesday. The four teams that miss the playoffs following the tournament will get the last four spots in the lottery, which comes with No. 1 pick odds that range from 0.5% to 2%.

Intriguing Landing Spots

Three of the four franchises with the best lottery odds aren’t considered big markets, but they each have a recent All-Star on their roster to pair with Flagg that would bring attention to their cities next season (Utah: Lauri Markkanen; Charlotte: LaMelo Ball; New Orleans: Zion Williamson).

As for Washington, acquiring the 18-year-old could supercharge owner Ted Leonsis’s plan of turning the DMV into a “supercity,” especially considering the Commanders, their NFL counterparts, were rejuvenated after they drafted quarterback Jayden Daniels last year.

There are several teams that could, assuming health, allow Flagg to compete in the playoffs immediately—and that would likely help NBA ratings, given the high-profile pairings. That includes Philadelphia with 2023 MVP Joel Embiid and San Antonio with Wembanyama. 

Toronto is also a noteworthy possibility, particularly the irony of one of the best U.S. prospects in a decade playing for a team based in Canada. Flagg, however, would be close to his home state of Maine.

The No. 2-seeded Rockets and post-Luka Dončić Mavericks could also land Flagg, though their odds of winning the lottery are less than 5%. (Dallas could also advance through the Play-In Tournament and miss the lottery.) However, there have been recent examples of long-shots winning the No. 1 pick, including last year with the Hawks, who made the 2024 Play-In Tournament and had a 3% chance of winning the lottery.