But on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, it will be all too real when the Mavericks take on Doncic, LeBron James and the rest of the Lakers in LA. There’s nothing like the first post-trade showdown to make the trade that shook the entire sports world something that turns a bad nightmare into a cold, stark reality.
North Texas sports fans never had to suffer through seeing a good many beloved stars ever don another team’s uniform. Roger Staubach, Dirk Nowitzki, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Larry Allen played only for the hometown club. Baseball Hall of Famers Adrian Beltre and Nolan Ryan had of course played for other teams, but that was before each cemented their legacies and won our love in Arlington before going directly into retirement from here.
There’s little doubt the Doncic trade is the most shocking trade of all time for Dallas pro sports, but this will be far from the first time a local legend has left his team and had to face his former neighbors in a game. That oddity isn’t quite as rare, although in some cases, it didn't seem real either.
Some might forget, whether purposely or not, that Dallas Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, actually wore the red and white of the Arizona Cardinals for two seasons after the Cowboys were through with him. His time out west was forgettable indeed, piling up over two seasons the amount of yards Cowboys fans had grown accustomed to Smith gaining in less than a single season.
Ivan “Pudge” Rodriquez, the iconic Gold Glove catcher for the Texas Rangers went on to play nearly 10 more years in the major leagues after the Rangers declined to offer him a large enough contract following the 2002 season.
The man with one of the two statues in front of the American Airlines Center, former Dallas Stars great Mike Modano, even skated for the hated Detroit Red Wings for a season after Dallas management opted to not offer arguably the greatest American-born hockey player of all-time a contract.
To prepare ourselves for seeing Doncic take on his former team, why don’t we take a look at some of the previous times local legends have first faced off against their former team, shall we?
Emmitt Smith, 2003
We’re pretty sure Smith would like to forget this game as much as many fans have tried to scrub the sight of him in a Cardinals helmet from their memories. Smith suffered a broken left shoulder blade early in the second quarter of the game his team would lose to Dallas by a score of 24-7. “On his final play, Smith went between the guard and tackle on the left side. Safety Roy Williams arrived in the hole when Smith did and tackled the former Cowboy, causing the injury. The injury is sure to sideline Smith longer than anything in his experience,” ESPN reported at the time.
Although plenty of Dallas fans made the trip to Arizona to cheer Smith on and wave signs of support before the game, ESPN reported that the former Cowboys cried in the locker room during postgame interviews.
Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, 2003
Unlike how Smith was in his twilight years when the Cowboys let him go, the catcher affectionately called “Pudge” by millions of fans still had many quality years left when the Rangers decided not to offer him the big bucks to stay in Texas. Also unlike Smith, Rodriguez did pretty well when he returned to oppose his old friends. As a member of the upstart Florida Marlins, Rodriguez got a hit and scored twice during an 8-0 victory against the home team. Perhaps to make matters worse, Rodriguez was the face of the Marlins as it barreled its way to an unlikely World Series title later that year. According to the AP’s recap of the game, it didn't seem like Pudge was all that emotional about playing in front of the fans who still very much missed him.
"We won, that's the bottom line," Rodriguez said. "It's always nice to finish good with a hit. I had a great time, I'm looking forward to the next two games."
The catcher known as Pudge was just 19 years old when he became the Texas starter in 1991. He stayed through last season before the Rangers refused a new contract or salary arbitration, and let one of the franchise's most popular players become a free agent.
Mike Modano, 2010
Talk about a major event. The Dallas Stars hosted former franchise hero Mike Modano and his new team, the rival Detroit Red Wings, for its season home opener on Oct. 14, 2010. It’s impossible to overstate what Modano meant to not only the Dallas Stars franchise that had relocated from hockey mad Minnesota in 1994, but to the growth of youth hockey throughout the South. By the time he joined the Red Wings, Modano held basically every team offensive record and had gained iconic status for being the face of the 1999 squad that brought the Stanley Cup all the way down to Dallas. Perhaps more than the others on this list, seeing Modano in a different team’s colors was mind boggling. He had worn the green of the North Stars and Stars for his entire 20-year career up until that point.
He was given a standing ovation when he hopped on the ice about five minutes into the game, and he would log a respectable amount of ice time for the game, although he failed to be much of a statistical factor in the game as Dallas clobbered Detroit 4-1.
