DALLAS — During the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft, theDraft day trades obviously aren't uncommon, but what made this one unique was the complete details of the trade, which included someone picked 17 years ago. Dallas receivesDraft rights to 58th overall pick : Ariel HukportiThat's right. The Mavs-Knicks trade includes a player who never came over to the NBA from Europe. Petteri Koponen is a 36-year-old former Finnish guard and is actually now a coach for the San Antonio Spurs.
The history of Koponen's draft pick is actually pretty fascinating. The pick actually originally belonged to the Mavericks, but ping-ponged around the league before coming back into Dallas' trade assets later on. So, Dallas traded the draft rights in 2004 to the Golden State Warriors in a deal that included former Duke star Christian Laettner. Then, the Warriors traded the pick to the Nuggets, who traded it to the 76ers in the 2006 deal that landed them Allen Iverson.
After that, the 76ers drafted Koponen with the final pick of the first round in 2007 but he was instead re-routed to the Portland Trail Blazers for second-round pick Derrick Byars and cash. Koponen's draft rights came back to Dallas in the 2011 as part of a three-team deal that included Raymond Felton. The Mavericks had held Koponen's draft rights ever since ... until Thursday.Koponen stayed in Europe and eventually became a key reserve for FC Barcelona and FC Bayern Munich in the Euroleague. He finished his career in 2022 playing for the Helsinki Seagulls and has since transitioned into coaching.
Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: FOX4 - 🏆 289. / 63 Read more »