These are the trades that shook the sports landscape.
We went all the way back to the “Great Bambino” in our research to find the 10 most shocking trades ever made. Some of the best athletes ever made the list, including “The Great One,” five former MVPs and even a Super Bowl-winning head coach.
Let’s start with the honorable mentions before getting the list going with “The Kid.”
Honorable mentions
10. Ken Griffey Jr. to the Reds
Rowan Kavner: In 1999, Griffey was coming off his 11th season in Seattle, his 10th straight All-Star season and his third straight season leading the American League in home runs. He was a baseball icon about to embark on his age-30 season, just two homers shy of 400 for his career, when he asked to be traded from the only team he had known.
Specifically, he wanted to go to the Reds. Griffey grew up in Cincinnati, where his father played the first nine years of his career and served as bench coach, and he wanted to be closer to his home in Orlando. The Reds made it happen on Feb. 10, 2000, in exchange for Jake Meyer, Mike Cameron, Antonio Pérez and Brett Tomko.
Griffey quickly signed a long-term extension with his new franchise, though it was not a decade of prosperity. Injuries limited his production, and the Reds never made the playoffs during his tenure.
The Mariners, meanwhile, went to the American League Championship Series in each of their first two seasons following the trade before suffering a 20-year playoff drought. After nine years away, Griffey eventually returned to Seattle to finish his career.
9. Jon Gruden to the Buccaneers
Greg Auman: Tampa Bay had been to the playoffs in four of its last five seasons under Tony Dungy but couldn’t get over the hump, so they made a significant move. Dungy was fired, and with hopes of sparking the offense to match an elite defense, Tampa Bay sent a king’s ransom to the Raiders – two first-round picks, two second-round picks and $8 million – for Gruden.
As high as the cost was, it paid off immediately, as Gruden led the Bucs to their first-ever Super Bowl championship, beating those same Raiders in San Diego, in part because he still knew Oakland’s offense well enough to see plays coming. That defense – with Hall of Famers Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, Ronde Barber and John Lynch – was motivated by Gruden’s intensity, though they never found the same playoff success after that 2002 team, in part because of the draft haul they gave up to get him.
As for Oakland, they haven’t won a playoff game since that season, making the postseason only twice in 23 years since losing to Gruden in the Super Bowl.
8. Randy Moss to the Patriots
Auman: Unhappy after two underwhelming years with the Raiders, Moss wanted out, and in April 2007, the team relented, sending him to the Patriots for a fourth-round pick.
What followed was arguably the best receiving season in NFL history – Tom Brady hooked up with Moss for 98 catches and 1,493 yards, with a league-record 23 touchdown receptions as New England was a perfect 16-0 in the regular season. Jerry Rice’s 22 touchdowns in 1987 are the only other season ever with more than 18 touchdown catches. They ended up losing in the Super Bowl to the Giants, and Moss had a quiet playoffs, totaling seven catches for 94 yards and one touchdown in three games. Moss only got one more playoff game with the Patriots.
As for the Raiders, they used that fourth-round pick on corner John Bowie, who totaled two career tackles in five games for Oakland.
7. Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees
Kavner: Just three years into a record 10-year, $252 million deal with Texas, A-Rod was sent to the Bronx. But it’s not just the trade to New York, where he had to move off shortstop, that was a stunner – it was also where he didn’t go.
The Red Sox were coming off a devastating Game 7 defeat to the Yankees in the American League Championship Series when they had a deal in place with Texas to acquire Rodriguez, who was the reigning AL MVP. But that deal included a revised contract for Rodriguez and needed approval from the players’ union. It was rejected.
The Yankees, who had Derek Jeter at shortstop and Game 7 hero Aaron Boone at third, did not seem like an obvious pivot. But after Boone suffered a knee injury, a door opened. The Yankees traded Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias to the Rangers, who agreed to pay $67 million of the $179 million left on Rodriguez’s contract.
The Red Sox quickly got their revenge, winning the 2004 World Series. Rodriguez, meanwhile, won two more MVP awards in 2005 and 2007 and a World Series championship with the Yankees in 2009.
6. Shaquille O’Neal to the Heat
Kavner: In June 2004, O’Neal was in the NBA Finals seeking his fourth championship in eight seasons with the Lakers. But they lost to the Pistons, and a month later, the dynamic but tumultuous pairing of O’Neal and Kobe Bryant was dismantled.
O’Neal was a three-time Finals MVP in L.A., but after years of feuding with Bryant and being unhappy with the direction of the franchise and the front office, he demanded a trade shortly after the 2004 Finals defeat. He went to a Heat team that had never even made an NBA Finals appearance before, in exchange for Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, Brian Grant and a first-round pick.
O’Neal finished second in MVP voting in his first year in Miami while the Lakers went 34-48, missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 years. One year later, the Heat were NBA champions. The Lakers, meanwhile, struggled to find their footing until a fortuitous trade for Pau Gasol, who helped them win back-to-back titles in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
5. Herschel Walker to the Vikings
Auman: The Cowboys went from 1-15 in 1989 to winning three Super Bowls between 1992 and 1995, and a central part of that turnaround under Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones was the Herschel Walker trade.
Walker, a Heisman Trophy winner at Georgia and a star in the USFL, was still only 27 and had established himself as a top NFL back with Pro Bowl nods in 1987 and 1988. After drafting Troy Aikman in 1989, the Cowboys traded Walker to the Vikings in October for the mother of all hauls in return – three first-round picks, three second-round picks and an assortment of other picks and players.
The 1990 first-rounder was running back Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, and they added defensive tackle Russell Maryland and safety Darren Woodson – all three were key parts of three Super Bowl teams. Walker never made another Pro Bowl. The Vikings lost in the first round of the playoffs in 1989 and missed the playoffs entirely the next two years, with their next playoff win coming in 1997.
Auman: Elite pass rushers like Parsons never become available via trade, we’re always told, but Green Bay managed to convince the Cowboys to trade him just before the 2025 season.
Parsons, 25, had made the Pro Bowl in each of his four seasons in Dallas, but the Cowboys were unable to lock him up with a long-term extension, so Green Bay swooped in, sending Dallas their first-round draft pick in 2026 and 2027, as well as defensive lineman Kenny Clark. Parsons signed a four-year, $188 million deal with the Packers and had 12.5 sacks, earning another Pro Bowl and All-Pro nod, but he sustained a season-ending knee injury, tearing his ACL in December.
Green Bay finished 9-7-1 and, without him, lost in the wild-card round of the playoffs, while Dallas went 7-9-1 and their defense gave up the most points in the NFL. Dallas now has not only the No. 12 pick in April, their own, but the No. 20 pick from Green Bay, with a chance to rebuild their defense, sorely missing an elite pass rusher.
3. Wayne Gretzky to the Kings
Kavner: On Aug. 9, 1988, the “Great One” donned a crown. Gretzky, the greatest hockey player ever, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings from the Edmonton Oilers, who were coming off back-to-back Stanley Cup championships (and four in five seasons).
It was mind-blowing. It was flabbergasting. The astonishing move was approved by Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, much to the chagrin and disbelief of the entire country. The Canadian government nearly stepped in to try to veto the deal, but it went through. Gretzky went with Marty McSorely and Mike Krushelnyski to the Kings in exchange for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, three first-round picks and $15 million in cash.
The Oilers still won another Stanley Cup Final two years later. The Kings wouldn’t win their first until decades later, but Gretzky helped get them to their first finals appearance in 1992-93 and popularized the sport in the United States.
2. Babe Ruth to the Yankees
Kavner: When your decision sparks an 86-year curse, it probably wasn’t great.
Primarily a standout pitcher early in his career, Ruth’s two-way talents reached new levels in 1918 when the Red Sox decided to capitalize more on his hitting prowess by also playing him in the outfield en route to winning the World Series for the fourth time in seven seasons. They did not win another for 86 years.
In December 1919, Boston owner Harry Frazee, under financial pressure, made the catastrophic decision to sell Ruth — The Great Bambino, Sultan of Swat and one of the greatest players of all time — for $100,000 to a New York Yankees franchise that had never made the postseason. During Ruth’s extraordinary tenure in New York from 1920-34, the Yankees won four World Series titles as the Hall of Famer took off offensively, setting a home run record that would last until Hank Aaron’s 715th career blast in 1974.
From the moment Ruth left Boston until 2003, the Yankees won 26 championships while the Red Sox won none. The “Curse of the Bambino” finally ended in 2004.
1. Luka Dončić to the Lakers
Kavner: Look away, Mavs fans.
One year later, it’s still too fresh. In the late hours of Feb. 1, 2025, Doncic, a 25-year-old superstar who had just led the Mavericks to the Finals, was inexplicably traded to the Lakers. It was such a perplexing, franchise-altering move that many at the time did not believe it was real.
The package centered around Doncic for Anthony Davis, a 10-time All-Star who was about to turn 32. Doncic was coming off a third-place finish in MVP voting, but Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison had concerns about his conditioning, defense and the impending super-max contract he soon became eligible to receive. Just like that, the Lakers were gifted a new star to build around as the Mavs willingly shortened their competitive window.
“Defense wins championships,” Harrison repeated, attempting to justify the unjustifiable. His plan backfired. Injuries limited Davis to just nine games after the trade, Kyrie Irving tore his ACL, and the Mavs missed the playoffs entirely. Nightly demands from a betrayed and irate fanbase to “fire Nico” were finally granted in November, nine months after the damage had been done, as more losses compiled.
The Mavericks struck gold in landing first overall pick and rising star Cooper Flagg, who provides promise, but the effects of the unbelievable Doncic deal will be felt in Dallas for the foreseeable future.
