Rob Pelinka is probably at Disneyland as we speak, shocked by his own ability to convince general manager Nico Harrison to trade Luka Doncic to the Lakers for just one first-round pick.

The Lakers pulled off a shocking blockbuster move by trading for Luka Doncic. Yes, it cost them Anthony Davis, but the fact that they only used one first-round draft pick is a surprise, to say the least.

With no one leaking or even speculating on this move before it happened, details are coming out in the days after the deal.

Not only did the Lakers get a tremendous deal in their favor, but vice president of basketball operation Rob Pelinka got Mavs general manager Nico Harrison to take less than they were asking for.

On Monday, The Athletic released an article by Fred Katz, Joe Vardon and Sam Amick that delves into the details of Pelinka’s heist.

Late Saturday, the Dallas Mavericks agreed to send Dončić to the Lakers for 10-time All-Star and defensive anchor Anthony Davis, Max Christie and the Lakers’ first-round pick in 2029. In the process, the Lakers held onto their 2031 first-rounder.

The Mavs, desperate to find Dončić a new home as soon as possible, did not press for it.

The Lakers’ logic, according to league sources, was that parting with both of their first-rounders would be too perilous. Dončić’s contract can expire in 2026 when they couldn’t know his interest in re-signing. And they had no chance to find out before pulling off an exchange that shook the NBA.

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So without the ability to gauge Dončić’s appetite to remain in L.A. long term, the Lakers expressed they couldn’t go all the way in for him, league sources said.

How did the Mavs not take every asset the Lakers have in this trade?

None of this makes sense from the Mavs’ perspective. How did you negotiate with just one team, never talk to your star player’s agent and get talked down from your original ask?

According to Kirk Goldsberry of The Ringer, Harrison wanted both picks and Dalton Knecht and after some elite gaslighting by Pelinka, he convinced them the move was a risky one for the Lakers and the price for Luka went down.

Just to be clear, Pelinka was presented with a laughably low offer for Luka and talked Harrison down to an even worse offer.

Is Pelinka a Jedi? Did he pull out the ultimate biblical reference to convince Dallas he was doing them a favor by taking the second-best player in franchise history?

There hasn’t been a trade this one-sided since the Louisiana Purchase. You are about to start hearing Pelinka compared to Jordan Belfort. He’s going to have a New York Times best-seller titled “How to Execute Trades and Win at Life” after this.

The Lakers fanbase gets mocked for unrealistic trade ideas, so much so that the term “Lakers exceptionalism” was coined. The phrase describes the idea that this franchise can acquire whatever it wants and logic, caution and reality can be thrown to the wind.

And yet, Pelinka basically pulled off this trade with Lakers exceptionalism basically as his only backing.

By executing this deal the way he has, Pelinka has broken the hearts of another generation of NBA fans who thought, “Not this time, Lakers. Your run is over once Lebron James retires.” It is, in fact, not over. Pelinka got it done and opened up a new window before closing the one they were in.

Kudos to Pelinka and the Lakers. They didn’t budge last year when fans were upset and no trades happened.

This summer, during Lakers head coach JJ Redick’s introductory press conference, Pelinka said he would trade the first-round picks for a player that would give them “sustainable Lakers excellence.”

Luka certainly qualifies and while Pelinka stated he’d trade both picks to get that level of player, he got it done by convincing the Mavs to take just one.

Now, Los Angeles still has a few assets, key rotation players and their rookie prospect Knecht.

If Pelinka keeps this up, they might build him a statue, hang his suit in the rafters, or, at the very least, name an Erewhon drink after him.