BREAKING NEWS: Former Lakers Player Opens Up About Unexpected Trade to Clippers

Being traded from one LA team to another is perhaps one of the simplest trades imaginable. In the NBA, the process of being traded is typically arduous, involving uprooting one’s family, relocating homes, and enduring temporary living arrangements while settling in. However, for players like Ivica Zubac, being traded from the Lakers to the Clippers presents a notably smoother transition.

In 2019, Zubac became well-known for his move from the Lakers to the Clippers, a trade that left many Lakers fans regretful. Conversely, Zubac himself welcomed the change with enthusiasm, as he detailed on an episode of Podcast P. “I was completely fine with it, I was pleased,” Zubac shared. “I found myself in a situation where I knew I’d be starting every game, getting significant playing time, on a young team—I was genuinely happy.”

For Zubac, the most convenient aspect of the trade wasn’t just avoiding a physical move, but also the fortuitous timing of the Clippers playing the Celtics immediately after the Lakers. This meant Zubac didn’t even have to change hotels—an aspect he described as making it the smoothest trade experience ever. “I didn’t even have to pack up.

Interestingly, we were scheduled to play Boston while I was still with the Lakers; we had a shootaround,” Zubac recalled. “Right after the shootaround, I received the news of the trade. I checked the Clippers’ schedule, and they were playing Indiana that very night, with plans to fly to Boston the next day. I didn’t even switch hotels. I stayed put, played the game in Boston, returned to LA, same house, same everything. It couldn’t have been easier.”

The simplicity of being traded between two teams sharing the same venue is an exceptional occurrence, one that offers Ivica Zubac a rare perspective few athletes ever encounter.