Favorite Reporting Moments: The Luka Trade and a Knicks Thriller

Welcome back to the countdown of my favorite reporting moments from the Portland Trail Blazers season, a digital scrapbook of my first season on the job as the Blazer’s Edge beat writer.

As a reminder, “favorite” doesn’t necessarily mean “positive” for the Blazers or even for me. Rather, the countdown is a list of the most interesting or memorable moments to be a part of over the 2024-25 campaign, spanning from September’s Media Day to the Blazers’ regular-season finale in April.

Today’s installment will cover Nos. 6-5 on the list. Let’s jump in!

No. 6: The Luka Trade

The Blazers played a strange peripheral role to the most shocking trade in NBA history. Their home matchup with the Phoenix Suns was the only NBA game still going on Feb. 1 when the news blindsided the sports world — the Dallas Mavericks had sent generational star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. It created the strange opportunity to see the real-time reactions from Blazers players and opposing players like Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Judging by their expressions, postgame quotes, and locker room chatter, they were just as shocked as the rest of us.

“Somebody told us on the bench,” Booker said. “They said ‘Luka [got traded].’ I said ‘Luka Garza?’”

The situation also fostered some unique interactions between players and fans. Moda Center fans were the ones who first alerted Durant. The 15-time All-Star later said his initial response was “Get the f— outta here.” I vividly remember seeing court-side fans draw the attention of Suns veteran Damion Lee near mid-court during free throws. They held up their phone with the screen pointed toward Lee. He bent down a little to get a better look, and then he immediately walked around the court telling everybody what he just read, including the referees. As far as I can tell, Lee got the satisfaction of being the first person to tell veteran NBA official Zach Zarba about the Luka trade. A minute or so later, Lee walked over to the Blazers bench during a dead-ball to tell them, too.

“[I heard about it] a little bit everywhere,” Portland forward Toumani Camara said. “Some of my teammates said it, some of the coaches said it. I heard it from the fans.”

The beauty of the situation was the Blazers already had the game in the bag when the news broke. They were up big with less than five minutes remaining and the Suns had just emptied their bench, initiating garbage time. The insignificance of the game’s final minutes allowed the spotlight to fully turn to the significance of the off-court news. Maybe we don’t get the same scenes and fan/player interactions if the Blazers are locked in a crunch-time dogfight with the Suns.

But then again, maybe we do. The trade was that big and that unexpected.

One extra thought: As a Blazer’s Edge writer, it would be a disservice to not mention that, even with the Luka trade, the Lakers promptly got tossed out of the first round of the Playoffs in a gentleman’s sweep to the Timberwolves.

No. 5: The Game of the Year

If you were to ask me what was the best, most entertaining game of the Trail Blazers season, I’d know the answer right away: the overtime thriller against the New York Knicks in Portland on March 12.

So much packed into this one game: It featured 42 lead changes, one shy of the NBA record since the tracking era began; a well-represented, prideful faction of Knicks fans cheered blow for blow with Blazers faithful, lending to the atmosphere; second-year guard Scoot Henderson rescued the Blazers in regulation with eight straight points in the final 1:06, erasing a six-point deficit to force overtime; Blazers forward Deni Avdija scored 27, putting the Blazers ahead with three seconds left on a physical and-1 as John Cena music rang out; and then it all fittingly ended with a buzzer-beater.

Photo by Cameron Browne/NBAE via Getty Images

The only thing the game didn’t include was a Blazers win. Knicks forward Mikal Bridges was the hero, hitting a leaning 3-pointer to deflate the crowd and seal a 114-113 New York win. The shot over Blazers 7-footer Donovan Clingan prompted a rare double-bang from legendary broadcaster Mike Breen.

Despite the loss, this game was too phenomenal to not declare it the best of the Blazers season. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better regular-season game around the Association this year.

The statement performance from Henderson is also hard to overlook when thinking back on this night. Henderson’s game-winner against the Jazz in December was nice, but his heroics against the Knicks here — part of a 30-point performance — made up his most impressive sequence of the season.

Photo by Cameron Browne/NBAE via Getty Images

Competitive games like this against a playoff opponent are what have been missing from the later stages of recent Blazers seasons. It was nice to get a piece of that intensity and emotion once again in March.