The news of his trade to the Lakers left Luka Doncic heartbroken, and Mavericks fans weren’t taking it any better. But not everyone felt the sting. In fact, Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade had a completely different reaction. “I haven’t been this excited about NBA basketball in a very long time, bro,” he said. Why? Wade sees this Lakers’ trade could finally solve a major concern for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

So how is that possible? Wade broke it down on his podcast. “We all, we all going to, first of all, we all going to go to the game. Everybody I talked to was like, when am I, what Laker game am I going to?” he said.

According to him, the league has struggled to capture attention, with declining viewership and a lack of excitement. But with Doncic now in a Lakers jersey, Wade believes that’s about to change. “The conversation is up, the viewership is going up.”

Not stopping there, Wade pointed out the league’s stagnation. “And it’s like the NBA… yeah, we got great players in our league, but we’re going through a low, right?” He emphasized that for years, the NBA has relied on LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry to carry the league. While they remain great, he stressed, “the new generation need somebody else.” That’s when one of his co-hosts chimed in, “Well, well, they got it.”

The season opener on ESPN saw a staggering 42% decline in viewership compared to last year. And the following day wasn’t much better, with a 30% drop. Despite this, Silver had remained optimistic. “I think we’re just looking at a couple weeks of ratings,” he said. Still, the consistent decline has been a growing headache for the league.

However, Wade is convinced that Doncic’s move to $7.1 billion franchise will flip the script. He also believes this trade was a strategic play by the owners.

Wade sees Doncic trade as a calculated move

When the trade news broke, Dwyane Wade shared his first thoughts on his podcast. And after calculation, he understands there was no player involve in this trade, it was the owner’s call.

“And so first of all I said to myself before all the reports come out I said, ‘Oh this wasn’t no players was involved in this decision. This was billionaire business,” Wade said. “This was at the top.’ The last 12 to 15 years, the players have decided right what we want to do. This was the owners, the governors, the billionaires deciding what they want to do.”

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Why they wanted it? With Doncic now in LA, the league’s biggest international star just landed in its biggest market. 25 years old, face of his former city, 6th in jersey sales to no.1 with the Lakers, the franchise hit a jackpot. It doesn’t stop there though. The move also has global implications.

“You got the top International player in LA, so the viewership, the ticket sales, everybody Europe, Spain, they all coming in to LA… So I’m looking at the business and I’m like ‘Yo hold up, this was an amazing business decision by billionaires.’”

So for Dwyane Wade, the trade is more than just a blockbuster move—it’s a calculated business masterstroke.