Tottenham Hotspur have signed Bayern Munich forward Mathys Tel on loan with an option to make the transfer permanent at the end of the season.

The move was initially expected to be a straight loan, but in the final hours of the window, Spurs successfully negotiated with Bayern to insert a clause to potentially make the deal permanent at the end of the season.

The deal sees Tel complete a dramatic deadline day U-turn by agreeing to join Spurs after sources told ESPN he stalled over a move to the club last week.

Spurs had agreed to a 60 million ($62m) deal for Tel on Friday, but he was unsure about making a permanent move. Talks then switched to a loan so Spurs could get their man and Tel could review his options in the summer.

But sources told ESPN that Tel decided to join Spurs until at least the end of the season after conversations with head coach Ange Postecoglou.

"We are delighted to announce the signing of Mathys Tel on loan from Bayern Munich, subject to international clearance and work permit," Spurs said in a statement.

"The France Under-21 international will join the Club on loan until the end of the 2024-25 season with an option to make the move permanent in the summer. He will wear the No. 11 shirt."

Tel's decision to express a desire to leave Bayern Munich over a lack of game time -- having joined the club for around 28 million ($29m) from Rennes in 2022 -- sparked interest from a number of clubs including Manchester United and Arsenal, but Spurs appear to have won the race to sign the highly rated France under-21 international.

Meanwhile, Spurs had an offer for England defender Marc Guéhi rejected by Crystal Palace last weekend, a source has told ESPN.

Spurs made an offer for the 24-year-old which was dismissed, and the north London club has not returned with an improved bid ahead of tonight's deadline.

Tel is Spurs' third signing of the window following the arrivals of goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky and centre-back Kevin Danso.

Postecoglou has been keen to add players to his squad after a combination of injuries and poor form have left the club languishing in 14th place in the Premier League table. Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Destiny Udogie, James Maddison, Wilson Odobert, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner and Dominic Solanke are all currently sidelined for Tottenham.

However, Spurs have experienced more success in cup competitions and take a 1-0 aggregate lead into their Carabao Cup semifinal second-leg clash against Liverpool at Anfield on Thursday.

Information from ESPN's Julien Laurens contributed to this story

Manchester United fear Lisandro Martínez could be set for months on the sidelines with the knee injury he suffered during the defeat to Crystal Palace, a source has told ESPN.

Martínez was stretched off during the second half of the 2-0 loss at Old Trafford on Sunday. The defender underwent tests on Monday.

He's set to have further scans this week, but there is concern Martínez has suffered a serious knee ligament injury which could rule him out for more than six months.

ESPN have approached United for comment.

Speaking at his post-match news conference on Sunday, United head coach Ruben Amorim said: "Licha is really important for us, not just as a football player, but as a character, especially in this hard moment.

"Now it's time to help Licha [Martinez]. I think it's a bad situation. Let's wait to assess things with the doctor but I think it's a serious situation."

It would represent another significant injury set-back for Martínez since arriving from Ajax in 2022. He suffered a fractured metatarsal in April 2023 which ended his first season at Old Trafford.

After making his comeback at the start of the 2023-24 campaign, a recurrence of the problem kept the 27-year-old sidelined between September 2023 and January 2024.

Following another comeback, knee and calf problems meant he was only able to start the final two games of last season -- the second being the FA Cup victory over Manchester City at Wembley.

Martinez's absence could mean new signing Ayden Heaven is fast-tracked following his January move from Arsenal. The 18-year-old is considered a first-team signing and, like Martinez, is predominantly a left-sided centre-back.

Manchester City have completed a deadline day deal with FC Porto for midfielder Nicolas González, adding the midfielder in the final hour of the midseason window.

ESPN reported earlier on Monday that the two teams were engaged in negotiations over his future, with the Premier League club originally unwilling to meet the release clause in González's contract before eventually paying the fee, believed to be around 60 million ($62m).

He signs on a contract that runs to 2029. Porto had been unwilling to reduce their valuation because part of the payment will be owed to González's former club, Barcelona.

The Spaniard moved to Portugal from LaLiga in 2023 and a source has told ESPN that the payment owed to Barcelona if González moves could be as high as 40% of the total transfer fee.

"This is the perfect opportunity for me at this stage of my career," González said of the move.

"I am 23 and I want to test myself in England. There's no better club than Manchester City for me to do that.

"Look at the squad they have here. It's unbelievable, full of world-class players. There isn't a footballer in the world who would not want to be part of this set-up.

"I know the reputation Pep [Guardiola] has and I cannot wait to work with him. In fact, I am honoured he wants me to play in his team.

"I am truly excited. I just want to meet my teammates, and the staff here and then I want to play in front of the City fans!"

The move takes City's spend in January to around 210m after the acquisitions of Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis as well as González.

Information from ESPN's Rob Dawson and Sam Marsden contributed to this report.

For Europe's biggest clubs and leagues, the time for transfers in the 2024-25 season has come and gone.

The winter window closed at 11 p.m. BST (6 p.m. ET) in England, Italy and Spain on Monday, an hour earlier in France and even earlier in Germany. It remains open in select countries such as Turkey and the Netherlands, but there's little room for more major deals.

All parties -- clubs, players, managers and agents -- will now sit back and assess. Some got their wishes and some didn't. Some excelled in their movements over the summer, while others will be lamenting missed opportunities.

With that, let's look back at what happened during the window and neatly sort the results into winners and losers (with a few who sit in between). Here's who nailed it -- and who didn't.

WINNERS

PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN

There is no doubting who won this window, as PSG landed one of the world's best wingers -- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia -- for a fee of just 60 million. The Georgia international's transfer was being valued at double that just a few months ago, so they really pulled off a coup and "Kvaradona" should have a major impact.

If that wasn't enough, the French champions also made a cool 46m profit on midfielder Xavi Simons' permanent switch to RB Leipzig for 50m, moved on defender Cher Ndour to Fiorentina, and also found a home for misfiring forward Randal Kolo Muani, who was sent on loan to Juventus for the rest of the season.

ASTON VILLA

Aston Villa were among the busiest clubs in Europe during this window and in one fell swoop, they were able to solve all of their profit and sustainability rules (PSR) issues.

A 77m move to Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr for 21-year-old striker Jhon Durán will aid the club's finances for years, and they did well to find permanent homes for Jaden Philogene (Ipswich Town) and Diego Carlos (Fenerbahçe), as well as loans for Emiliano Buendía (Bayer Leverkusen), Kosta Nedeljkovic (RB Leipzig) and Samuel Iling-Junior (Middlesbrough).

Marcus Rashford (on loan from Man United) will replace Durán with the hope of reigniting his career, and Donyell Malen (25m, Borussia Dortmund) should provide another option up front. The late loan move for PSG's Marco Asensio is another low-risk, high-reward arrival to help Villa push forward on multiple fronts between now and the end of the season.

A more experienced right-back than Andrés García (8m, Levante) might have been on the cards, but it was the loan signing of Chelsea centre-back Axel Disasi that tipped Villa over into winners. If they hadn't signed someone to plug the gaps in their defence, it would have been bad.

MARCUS RASHFORD

Rashford had not featured for Man United since their Europa League win over Viktoria Plzen on Dec. 12 amid new head coach Ruben Amorim's concerns about the forward's application in training. And it will be a relief for him to have found a new club.

AC Milan, Dortmund and Barcelona were all in the running at various points, but Villa managed to persuade Rashford to join and also agreed to cover a substantial part of his wages (which is why United allowed him to go).

Rashford will have a lot to prove for the rest of the season, and what he does could very well define the rest of his career. For now, he'll just be delighted to be out of Old Trafford.

DANI OLMO

The fact that he can even play for Barcelona makes Dani Olmo a winner. At the start of January, it looked very much as if Barca's 60m summer signing would be kicking his heels on the sidelines for the second half of the season, as the club's financial issues prevented him from being registered with LaLiga.

But one court battle after another followed, and as it stands, the Spain forward can play for now -- though LaLiga chief Javier Tebas is trying to change that.

Otherwise, it's a bit of a sorry tale for Barcelona, who missed signing Rashford on loan and didn't move out Pau Víctor, Eric García, Pablo Torre or Ansu Fati on loan.

NEUTRAL

MAN CITY

On the face of it, spending over 200m to sign four players should qualify Man City as winners, right? Well, the problem is that while struggling City definitely needed an injection of new blood this window, the players they signed aren't a great solution to their immediate issues.

Young defenders Abdukodir Khusanov (48m, Lens) and Vitor Reis (35m, Palmeiras) aren't really yet ready for the pace of the Premier League, though they can fill some of the gaps left by City's injuries. Up front, the club spent 60m (plus another 10m in add-ons) to sign in-form striker Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt, but they are playing him out of position as a withdrawn striker (basically a No. 10) rather than as a No. 9 or out wide on the left where he would be more comfortable.

The only obvious fit was the signing of former Barcelona defensive midfielder Nico Gonzalez from FC Porto and even then, City were forced to fork over an extra 20m than what they wanted to, paying his 60m release clause.

It could be that it takes another year or so before these signings can be properly judged, but right now it doesn't feel as if they are the answer.

TOTTENHAM

Tottenham are in the middle of an injury crisis, especially in defence, and manager Ange Postecoglou was pretty vocal about needing some reinforcements if they are to move up from 14th place in the table in the second part of the season.

The loan signing of centre-back Kevin Danso (with an obligatory 25m deal set for the summer) will bolster them slightly, but an offer of 75m to land Crystal Palace's Marc Guéhi, which was rejected, showed how much the club wanted to do. And they failed to add more cover.

They needed a backup goalkeeper and 21-year-old Antonin Kinsky hit the ground running as he was thrown into action from the off, but 18-year-old South Korea prodigy Yang Min-Hyeok, who was then sent on loan to QPR, wasn't going to be enough in attacking areas.

So, tipping them from losers to neutral was the deadline-day signing of Bayern forward Mathys Tel on loan, with an option to sign permanently in the summer. The club did well to persuade him to join, given he rejected a 60m permanent move last week, and he could make an immediate difference in attack.

BOURNEMOUTH

This one is more about who the club were able to keep hold of rather than who they signed. Teenage arrivals Matai Akinmboni, Julio Soler, Kai Crampton and Zain Silcott-Duberry might not immediately make an impact as they are ones for the future, but Bournemouth will be delighted to have kept hold of their main stars as they push for a spot in Europe this season.

While loan exits for Philip Billing (Napoli) and Max Aarons (Valencia) were sanctioned, Bournemouth kept hold of Milos Kerkez, Illia Zabarnyi and Dean Huijsen -- all of whom were attracting interest from some of the biggest clubs in Europe. That is no mean feat.

LOSERS

MANCHESTER UNITED

Will a 20-year-old full-back solve all of Man United's issues? The club did well to land highly rated Patrick Dorgu for 30m from Lecce and he is a good fit for Amorim's 3-4-2-1 formation, but they really needed more.

Loan exits for Antony (Real Betis), Rashford (Aston Villa) and Tyrell Malacia (PSV) opened up room on the wage bill, but the signing of 18-year-old defender Ayden Heaven from Arsenal was not going to set pulses racing at Old Trafford. A goal-scoring forward was needed, while a serious injury to Lisandro Martinez could see them regret not adding more to their defensive ranks.

ARSENAL

Arsenal are the second-highest scorers in the Premier League, but they still needed to sign another forward player if they want to challenge Liverpool for the title. Kai Havertz has done OK, with 15 goals in all competitions to date, but injuries to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus have left the squad short of options up front and that's not going to change now.

A 40m bid to sign Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins was rejected, while links to Bayern's Tel, Juventus' Dusan Vlahovic and Athletic Club's Nico Williams came to nothing.

The club also lost young defender Heaven to Man United for minimal compensation, which they would not have liked.

CHELSEA

An odd window for the usually free-spending Blues, as 19-year-old midfielder Mathis Amougou (15m from Saint-Etienne) and Trevoh Chalobah were the only incomings and the latter was a loan recall from Crystal Palace. Links with Man United's Alejandro Garnacho came to nothing and Chelsea were rumored to be interested in almost every central striker around but didn't sign one.

Out went young midfielder Cesare Casadei to Torino, where they got back the 15m they paid to sign him from Internazionale in 2022, and there were a number of loan deals for the likes of Renato Veiga (Juventus), Ben Chilwell (Crystal Palace) and João Félix (AC Milan). Do they feel any better off? Not really.

CHRISTOPHER NKUNKU

Sources told ESPN ahead of deadline day that Chelsea forward Christopher Nkunku was desperate to leave after playing just 419 minutes in the Premier League so far this season. But when the deadline passed, the France international was still there.

Interest from Bayern Munich and Manchester United came to nothing, as the Blues reportedly wanted at least 60m for a permanent transfer and it's surprising that he didn't move out on loan in the end. Though it seems neither the player nor club were interested in a short-term deal.

It remains to be seen what part he will play in the rest of the season, but a summer move is almost certainly on the cards.

NEW ORLEANS -- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did his best to shut down the popular notion that NFL officials are partial toward the Kansas City Chiefs, calling it a "ridiculous theory."

"This sort of reminds me a little bit of the script," he said during his state of the league address Monday. "That I write a script, and I have the script for the entire season ... I think it reflects a lot of the fans' passion, and I think it also is a reminder for us how important officiating is. And I think the men and women that officiate the NFL are outstanding. They have the highest possible standards."

He added, "Our officials are evaluated in several ways. It's not just the performance on the field, but it's things that go on in their own lives, and we have a very tight control over that. We monitor that very closely in a number of ways."

Goodell pointed to the Chiefs' performance in one score games this season: Eleven of their 17 games were within one score.

"I think that talks about the competitiveness of our game and the importance of how we officiate it, but also the competitiveness of how we play it," he said.

Goodell said the league is always trying to improve on officiating, and he credited replay assist with being beneficial this season and said the competition committee will meet this offseason to discuss expanding replay assist to include more plays, such as face mask penalties.

"We want to use technology to supplement and to assist and support the officials in getting it right," he said.

Other topics discussed by Goodell on Monday:

On the sexual misconduct allegations against Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker published by the Baltimore Banner: "I was surprised, but also, you know, there's a process for that, as you say, both civil and potentially criminal. We obviously have NFL investigations for that too. We don't want to impede on the criminal side of that, but so we will look into those issues. They're obviously serious issues."

On the potential of an 18-game season: "We haven't had any formal negotiating sessions about an extension. I'm certain it'll come up in the context of that in some fashion. It is something that [NFLPA director] Lloyd [Howell] and I have had informal conversations about. But there's a lot of work to be done."

Goodell said "18 and 2," or 18 regular-season games and two preseason games, might be a possibility depending on how discussions with the players go.

"We know that fans love football, they want more football, but we have to be incredibly sensitive and smart about the balance and how we deal with that," he said.

On international expansion and the possibility of playing a Super Bowl outside the United States: "I do think there's potential that someday we will have an international franchise. If we do, it would not surprise me at all if a Super Bowl follows and is played there."

He added, "This is a great example being here in New Orleans ... It's a great thing for the New Orleans Saints to be the host of the Super Bowl and have the world's attention. And I think the same thing will be true if we had an international franchise to be able to play a Super Bowl there to support that franchise."

On whether rules surrounding Tom Brady's role as an analyst for Fox and a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders need to be altered in any way: "I think he's serious that he separates these two and he doesn't put the league or anyone in a position of conflict."

ESPN's Katherine Terrell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES -- Wide receiver Cooper Kupp has been informed by the Los Angeles Rams that "the team will be seeking a trade immediately," he announced on Monday.

"I don't agree with the decision and always believed it was going to begin and end in LA," Kupp said in a statement posted to social media.

The receiver said the team will be working with him and his family to "find the right place to continue competing for championships" and that he is "highly motivated" and healthy as ever as he prepares to head into next season.

During the Rams' final open locker room session after the team lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round of the playoffs, Kupp said there was "no doubt" in his mind he wanted to play in 2025. He said while he "would love to be in L.A.," he has no control over what will happen this offseason.

I was informed that the team will be seeking a trade immediately and will be working with me and my family to find the right place to continue competing for championships. I don't agree with the decision and always believed it was going to begin and end in LA.

Still, if there's... pic.twitter.com/XWmbGVscGy

Cooper Kupp (@CooperKupp) February 4, 2025

After a record-breaking 2021 season that saw him lead the NFL in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, Kupp signed a three-year contract extension worth $80.1 million. He just completed the first season of that contract and is scheduled to have a cap hit of $29.8 million next season and $27.3 million in 2026.

Kupp's guaranteed salary next season is only $5 million, and he has no guaranteed money on the final year of the contract in 2026. If the Rams trade Kupp in a deal designated post-June 1, they will save $20 million toward their 2025 salary cap.

If the Rams cut Kupp this offseason, they will save $15 million in cash and $7.52 million against the salary cap. If the Rams release him without a post-June 1 designation, they will absorb $22.2 million in dead money due to the remaining prorated portions of his signing bonus and $5 million of his roster bonus.

Kupp has spent his entire eight-season career with the Rams, starting in 2017 as a 24-year-old rookie. He was a third-round pick out of Eastern Washington who had 62 receptions in his debut season.

After the team acquired quarterback Matthew Stafford from the Lions in exchange for Jared Goff ahead of the 2021 regular season, Kupp had one of the best receiving seasons in NFL history. He capped the season with eight catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns in the Rams' Super Bowl win over the Bengals, which earned him the game's MVP award.

The 2021 regular season was one of two seasons in which he played every game. Since then, he has played 33 games in three seasons with a season high of 812 receiving yards.

Over the past two seasons, the Rams have increasingly relied on wide receiver Puka Nacua in the passing game, which made it unlikely Kupp was going to return to the team on his current contract. Nacua missed six games this season but is averaging 88.4 receiving yards per game over the first two years of his career.

NEW ORLEANS -- In light of President Donald Trump's executive order to roll back DEI policies, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell faced multiple questions Monday about the league's intentions for equitable hiring.

During his state of the league address, Goodell doubled down on the NFL's commitment to inclusive hiring practices, such as the Rooney Rule, which the league created in 2003 and requires clubs to interview minority or female candidates for open head coach, general manager, coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and senior level positions.

"We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League, and we're going to continue those efforts because we've not only convinced ourselves, I think we've proven to ourselves that it does make the NFL better," Goodell told reporters. "We're not in this because it's a trend to get into it or a trend to get out of it. Our efforts are fundamental in trying to attract the best possible talent into the National Football League both on and off the field."

The league has made multiple updates to the rule since 2003 based on feedback from clubs and candidates. "There's no requirement to hire a particular individual on the basis of race or gender," Goodell said. "It's simply on the basis of looking at a canvas of candidates that reflect our communities and to look at the kind of talent that exists there, and then you make the best decision on who is hired.

"There are no quotas in our system. This is about opening that funnel and bringing the best talent into the NFL."

In 2021, the rule was updated to require clubs to interview two external minority candidates in person, for head coach and general manager jobs. This hiring cycle, the rule came under scrutiny because several clubs -- the Chicago Bears, New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars -- had head coaching jobs open that were publicly linked to a white candidate before completing their two external minority in-person interviews. As a result, the in-person external minority interview requirement turned into a way for fans to track whether their team was compliant with the Rooney Rule and therefore determine when they were able to hire the leading candidate.

When asked if he was concerned about the validity of the interviews extended to minority candidates, Goodell said no.

"We follow up with the candidates," he said. "We speak about the sincerity and the thoroughness of an interview to make sure that we're doing that in a proper fashion."

Goodell said there have been minority candidates he has spoken to who thought otherwise.

"There have been candidates going back a ways where they didn't feel what was authentic or what they thought was thorough enough," Goodell said. "And so we go back to the clubs and we talk about that, and I think we've made changes to our policy to make sure we deal with that."

When asked about what the league will do about corporate sponsors that are participating in DEI rollbacks, Goodell said the league doesn't make policies for sponsors or corporations or networks of partners.

"We have a lot of conversations about the importance of it to us," he said. "There's a lot of conversations that go on about that."

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Officials delayed the start of Monday's game between the San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies after a medical emergency occurred courtside just as the teams were set for tipoff.

With both teams on the floor set to start the game, emergency medical personnel quickly rushed to the aid of a man who had fallen ill in a courtside seat opposite of the San Antonio Spurs bench. EMTs administered CPR, including chest compressions as a group of medics wheeled a gurney across the court.

After several minutes, medical personnel carted the man off on the gurney as fans inside the FedEx Forum cheered for a healthy recovery.

Game officials immediately approached the scorer's table and announced they would start a 20-minute re warm-up period as both teams had returned to their respective locker rooms to await a restart.

Officials began the game after a 20-minute delay.

MEMPHIS -- The buzz surrounding San Antonio's trade for point guard De'Aaron Fox cut through the grogginess and morning chill Monday at the team's shootaround.

As Spurs star center Victor Wembanyama heaved one-legged 3-pointers from the wing, general manager Brian Wright found a seat courtside. Under the basket, acting Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson sat with Harrison Barnes to pick his brain about Fox, who was his teammate for six seasons in Sacramento.

"Even when there's so much talk about Victor, the timeline, winning and development and this evolution that we've all gone through, sometimes this league dictates the capacity or opportunity at which you can do that in the big picture," Johnson said. "When you add a player like De'Aaron Fox and you already have a strong foundation, there will be opinions and expectations that come with that, what that means, what the timeline is. We'll get into that, but we will not shy away from the reality of adding good players and things that come with that."

San Antonio officially acquired Fox on Monday as part of a three-team trade involving multiple players and draft picks, giving the Spurs an All-Star guard and clutch performer in Fox to pair next to a generational talent in Wembanyama, the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year who is set to make his All-Star debut later this month. Wright and San Antonio's brass pulled off the deal without surrendering veteran Chris Paul, Barnes or any prized young prospects such as rookie guard Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan or Keldon Johnson.

In Fox, the Spurs add a speedy downhill scorer who ranks fourth in total points when shooting off drives this season. San Antonio also now features a potentially unstoppable pick-and-roll combination with Fox and Wembanyama. According to Second Spectrum data, Fox has averaged 1.13 points per direct pick as the ball handler on pick-and-rolls, sixth best in the NBA. Wembanyama, meanwhile, has averaged 1.16 points per direct pick as the screener on pick-and-rolls, second in the league.

Fox, 27, is averaging 25.0 points, 6.1 assists and 5.0 rebounds and has ranked in the top three each of the past three seasons in clutch time field goals. The Spurs are 9-11 in clutch time games.

"Who do you stop between those two?" Vassell asked just as shootaround wrapped up. "I think we're going to play a lot faster and we're going to be out in transition a lot. I think it's just going to open up a lot with Fox being our point guard. Him and Wemby on the screen and roll? Then you have me and [Julian] Champagnie and certain shooters around. It's going to be an exciting offense, and I think defensively we're going to be able to get after people, too. I know Fox likes to pick up full court and kind of change the pace of the game. He's going to help us on both ends."

That's precisely what Barnes was explaining to Mitch Johnson as shootaround commenced.

After their conversation, Barnes laughed when asked whether he and Johnson were already devising schemes to feature the club's new acquisition.

"It's always good to just share knowledge," Barnes said. "Obviously, [Johnson] has a perspective as a competitor playing against him. I have the experience of being a teammate with him. So [it's all about] blending that in. ... It's going to all come together. That's the thing with the NBA: Things change quickly, and you have to be able to adjust and adapt. I think we're ready for that."

The Spurs have lost six of their past nine games entering Monday's outing at Memphis and are 12th in the Western Conference. The addition of Fox means one of San Antonio's regular starters will likely be relegated to a bench role.

Johnson said Paul and Fox can co-exist in the starting lineup. If the Spurs go that direction, Castle will become a reserve after starting in 29 games as a rookie.

"The basketball speaks for itself. He's an elite point guard, elite player in this league, dynamic scorer. He's a great person, a family man, a Texas kid. More importantly, I think he's a high-character individual. One of the things I was most impressed with when I first came [to San Antonio] was everybody being high character in this organization from the top down. I think he fits that mold. I think the best is yet to come for him."

Spurs' Harrison Barnes on De'Aaron Fox, his former teammate in Sacramento

Fox is expected join the team in Atlanta ahead of Wednesday's game against the Hawks, according to sources, who added it's still to be determined whether the point guard will make his Spurs debut then.

"I know the trade's been announced by all teams, but you still just need to get all those i's dotted and t's crossed," Johnson said. "If there is an opportunity for De'Aaron and Jordan [McLaughlin] to meet us in Atlanta and be ready to go, then they'll be ready to go. They're in the season. There's no concern of ramping up, conditioning or whatnot.

"We know there will be a runway of learning our program and terminology. There will be some patience and some excitement on both sides from the group here waiting on them and then joining the group. It'll just be something we work through and trying to expedite as much as possible without having a ton of practice time."

That's not a concern for Barnes, who said the "basketball part will be easy" in Fox's transition to San Antonio, after spending the entirety of his eight-year career leading the Kings.

"The basketball speaks for itself," Barnes said. "He's an elite point guard, elite player in this league, dynamic scorer. He's a great person, a family man, a Texas kid. More importantly, I think he's a high-character individual. One of the things I was most impressed with when I first came [to San Antonio] was everybody being high character in this organization from the top down. I think he fits that mold. I think the best is yet to come for him."

Meanwhile, in Sacramento, Kings interim coach Doug Christie understood all too well what Fox experienced Monday, having also been traded midseason by Sacramento, where he spent the majority of his playing career.

"Ever since the first time I saw him play, (I) was a big time fan, and this doesn't change anything as far as always rooting for him," Christie said before Monday's game against Minnesota. "I told him as much."

The trade was yet another shakeup after coach Mike Brown's firing for a team battling to make the Western Conference playoffs. Christie said he had conversations with a few of the team's younger players about navigating the business side of trades.

"I wanted to let them know that I'm here for you, your teammates are here for you," Christie said. "That's part of what this is. You're not out there all alone."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WALK INTO ONE of the seven Ascension Coffee shops in Dallas, and there are tall glass towers that baristas use to make the upscale cafe's signature Japanese iced drip coffee. It takes 12 hours for the water to filter through before a barista hits the coffee with a dose of nitrogen and pours it in a cup. On the morning of Jan. 7, Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison invited Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka to the Ascension Coffee in the lobby of the Hotel Crescent Court, just a half-mile from American Airlines Center, to begin a similarly arduous, delicate trade conversation that would jolt the rest of the NBA.

Nearly a month later, the Lakers and Mavericks pulled off perhaps the most shocking trade in NBA history, trading 25-year-old perennial MVP contender, Luka Doncic, for All-NBA big man, Anthony Davis, without so much as a peep leaking out ahead of time.

Fans in Dallas took to the streets to protest the move, creating a makeshift memorial outside the team's arena, at the foot of the statue for Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, who had posted a sad-faced emoji in response to the trade of a player many expected to be immortalized next to him with a statue one day.

Stars across the NBA were stunned -- including the players involved in the trade who'd been given no heads-up that discussions at this level were even taking place.

Doncic sent a quick group text to his teammates but did not answer or return Harrison's call informing him of the trade. Davis was home in Los Angeles, texting congratulations to his teammates after they'd beaten the New York Knicks on Saturday night. LeBron James was out to dinner in New York when he got a call from Pelinka minutes before ESPN's Shams Charania broke news of the trade. Kyrie Irving learned of the trade on social media while he was undergoing treatment at the Mavericks hotel in Cleveland, where the team was set to play against the Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon.

Executives from around the league were both furious and jealous that the glitzy, star-driven Lakers had been the only team given an opportunity to bid for Doncic's services.

"Unfathomable," one Western Conference executive told ESPN.

"I'm stunned," an Eastern Conference executive texted.

But while this trade seemingly came out of nowhere, sources on both sides said it was a rather direct process between two men with a long history of trust, formed over two decades with the late Lakers icon, Kobe Bryant.

Harrison decided early on, team sources said, that the best way to trade a player of Doncic's caliber was to pick the trade that he wanted, rather than open up the process, to avoid Doncic and his agent exerting their own leverage. It would also avoid the crippling fan backlash that might influence the deal.

Pelinka and the Lakers understood. Nothing could leak. Not a breath of it. They'd learned the same lesson many times throughout their recent history with blockbuster trades: the infamous failed trade for Chris Paul in 2011, which was scuttled by then-NBA commissioner David Stern after heavy pressure from rival owners; the prolonged, circus-like trade for Davis in 2019 that ruined in the second half of the 2018-19 season and contributed to Magic Johnson's ignominious ending as Lakers president; and last year's mind-boggling owner-to-owner discussions about trading James to the Golden State Warriors, which were ultimately shut down by James' agent, Rich Paul.

In all of those trades, outside forces undermined the trade process. For a trade of this magnitude to come to fruition, the circle had to be small. And the only person Harrison felt he could trust to execute this highly charged, intensely secretive process was Pelinka.

Even the Utah Jazz, the third team that facilitated the transaction by collecting two second-round picks for absorbing Jalen Hood-Schifino, didn't know Doncic and Davis were a part of the deal until about an hour before it was completed, league sources said. Even Jazz president Danny Ainge, who hails from the Lakers' hated rival, the Boston Celtics, had about only 30 minutes notice, sources said, that Los Angeles was about to acquire Doncic to be the new face of its franchise.

But by then it was too late to do much about it. NBA history was about to be altered.

PELINKA AND HARRISON'S relationship dates to the summer of 2003, when both were ambitious young executives who had earned the trust of a then-25-year-old Kobe Bryant. Bryant had left his longtime agent Arn Tellem in March 2002 and convinced Pelinka, then a junior executive at Tellem's company SFX, to leave with him.

He was also a sneaker free agent after his contract with Adidas had lapsed. Rather than re-sign with the company immediately, Bryant chose to open up the process. He'd wear Nikes one night, Reeboks another, all trying to froth the market after he'd helped the Lakers win their third championship in a row.

Nike was focused on a high schooler named LeBron James at the time and put its A-team on the case.

Harrison, then a junior executive in his mid-20s, was tasked with recruiting Bryant. He attended every home game that year, but Bryant mostly ignored him. Eventually his persistence paid off, and in the summer of 2003, Harrison and Pelinka closed a five-year, $40 million deal for Bryant to join Nike.

Their relationship was soon put to the test when Bryant was accused of rape by a woman in Colorado that September. Prosecutors eventually dropped their case against Bryant, who settled a civil suit with a financial payment and an apology, without admitting fault.

Over the next decade Pelinka and Harrison traveled the world together with Bryant on official Nike business and joint family vacations. They were members of Bryant's inner circle, and they leaned on each other when Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash in 2020.

All of which is prologue to why Harrison only felt comfortable discussing the biggest gamble of his professional career with Pelinka.

"I understand the magnitude of it," Harrison said Sunday. "The easiest thing for me to do is nothing, and everyone would praise me for doing nothing. But we really believe in it. Time will tell if I'm right."

IN THE NEARLY four years since former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban lured him away from Nike to come run the team, Harrison has studied Doncic closely.

While he admired Doncic's talent, spirit and competitiveness, team sources said, Harrison had more doubts about Doncic than others in the organization -- such as Cuban or Nowitzki -- did.

Doncic had everything one could want in a generational superstar. He'd been a first-team All-NBA selection in each of the past five seasons. His career 28.7 points average is third in NBA history, behind only Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. Last season he led the NBA in scoring with 33.9 points and nearly averaged a triple-double. But he wasn't a relentless worker like Bryant. He didn't treat his body like a temple like James.

The Mavericks' frustrations with Doncic's habits on and off the court were well known in league circles. Head coach Jason Kidd frequently expressed concerns publicly and directly with Doncic about his conditioning, weight fluctuations and constant arguing with officials.

Doncic had mostly taken the criticism without complaint, but it never resulted in a significant change in his habits.

"I mean, who gains weight during the season when you're playing 40 minutes a game?" a team source vented to ESPN last year.

Still, last season, he averaged a league-leading 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists and came in third in MVP voting.

If Doncic wasn't going to change his ways, the Mavericks figured they would prod him by making changes around him. In August 2023, the team fired former director of player health and performance Casey Smith, who has since been hired by Jalen Brunson's New York Knicks. After last season, the Mavs fired strength coach Jeremy Holsopple and manual therapist Casey Spangler. All three had been with the team since before Doncic was drafted and had strong relationships with him.

"They get rid of everybody I like," Doncic griped in recent months, one source said.

The plan backfired.

Before last season, Doncic hired a full-time "body team" -- Slovenian national team strength coach Anže Maček, as well as physiotherapist Javier Barrio Calvo and nutritionist Lucia Almendros from Real Madrid -- that he paid for out of his own pocket.

The changes didn't result in a healthier or more available Doncic, and the internal frustration only increased as team sources complained about poor communication between Doncic's team and the Mavs' staff this season.

Over the previous six seasons, Doncic had played an average of 67 games. This season, he has sat out 27 games, including the past six weeks since straining his left calf for the fourth time in three years. He gained weight while he was out, which frustrated team officials, sources said. The primary reasoning for an 11-day absence in late November, officially attributed to a right wrist sprain, was to provide Doncic time to shed weight after he had ballooned into the high 260s, sources said. He had a similar shutdown in December 2021, early in the first season of the Harrison-Kidd regime.

Still, his production on the court was unmatched, and he turned in a series of sublime performances in the playoffs, when it mattered, to lead Dallas to the Finals.

"I don't care what he does," one All-Star told ESPN. "He still goes out and gives you 33-9-9 every night."

A rival NBA coach said: "How do you say this now when you said every year how great he looked coming into camp?"

Doncic weighed 255 pounds when he underwent an MRI on his calf in late January, sources said, and he typically played in the 250-255 range. The Mavs considered his ideal weight to be 245, which would allow Doncic to maintain his advantage of being able to bully defenders with power while maximizing his quickness and minimizing injury risk.

By far the biggest change in Dallas, though, was Cuban's December 2023 decision to sell his majority stake in the team to the Adelson family, who are casino magnates, and turn leadership of the franchise over to team governor Patrick Dumont.

Cuban had developed a strong bond with Doncic since acquiring him in a draft-day trade with the Atlanta Hawks in 2018. He'd famously joked that if he had to "choose between my wife and keeping Luka on the Mavs, catch me at my lawyer's office prepping for a divorce."

But Cuban, though still a near-nightly presence at Mavericks games, is out of the franchise's decision-making tree now, and Dumont does not have the same relationship with Doncic or the inclination to assert himself in basketball decisions as Cuban.

Dumont saw it as a business decision that would preserve the Mavericks' financial flexibility for the long term, team sources said, and he trusted Harrison's vision of how Davis would be a culture-setter and give the team a new defense-minded identity.

Doncic was eligible to sign a five-year, $345 million extension -- the highest in league history -- this summer. He anticipated signing the deal, sources said, and never gave any indication that he intended to explore the possibility of leaving Dallas. He'd even begun searching for a new home in the city. Team sources say they were as afraid of Doncic signing the deal as they were of him not.

"I feel like we got out in front of what could have been a tumultuous summer," Harrison said Sunday. "Other teams that were loading up that he was going to be able to decide, make his own decision at some point of whether he wants to be here or not. Whether we want to supermax him or not, or whether he wants to opt out. So, I think we had to take all that into consideration."

Cuban declined to comment when reached by ESPN, saying it wasn't his team anymore.

Others within the organization and those close to it, including Haralabos Voulgaris, the Mavs' director of quantitative research and development from 2018-2021, weren't so reticent to give an opinion.

This will go down as one of (Probably THE) worst trades in the history of Sports. You just traded away a top 3 player in the prime of his career and your return was a single first and a soon to be 32 year old Anthony Davis. The fact that you threw in a 2nd for good measure is...

Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) February 2, 2025

"No way Mark would ever trade Luka," a team source said. "It wouldn't even be a conversation."

CUBAN WAS IN the room the last time the Lakers pulled off a trade of this magnitude. He was one of the owners who in late 2011 objected to the three-way trade that would've sent Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets to the Lakers for a package headlined by Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

It was a contentious five-hour meeting, with owners arguing over the fairness toward small-market teams and the consequences of star players being able to affect a franchise's value so dramatically with free agent decisions.

Then-commissioner David Stern ran these meetings with an iron fist, insisting that each person in the room turn their phone off until the CBA, which was being negotiated, was ratified. Anyone who violated Stern's edict heard about it in the strongest possible way. That's one reason why Jeanie Buss -- filling in at the NBA board of governors meeting for her father, Dr. Jerry Buss, who was undergoing surgery for cancer -- had no idea that her brother Jim Buss and then-general manager Mitch Kupchak were negotiating the trade for Paul at the exact same time.

If she had known, Buss would've insisted that the trade remain secret until the CBA was ratified and all the owners were out of earshot of Stern, who was acting as the de facto owner of the Hornets, giving him the ability to approve or deny the trade.

Paul was 25 at the time, the same age as Doncic now. The Lakers believed he'd be the successor to Bryant as the face of their franchise, much like they believe Doncic will succeed James one day soon.

Instead, Stern vetoed the deal, Paul went to the rival Clippers and the Lakers spent the final three years of Bryant's career and the first three years after it in the lottery trying to find the successor to Bryant, until James came to them as a free agent in 2018.

That experience taught the Lakers the value -- and consequences -- of keeping trades quiet until they were all the way done.

In 2019, they learned the hard way again, when negotiations with New Orleans for Davis turned into a drawn-out spectacle that torpedoed their relationships with many of the young players they'd drafted and developed, and hurt their leverage in negotiations for Davis.

Then last season, another monster trade was scuttled when the Lakers asked James' agent Rich Paul whether James would welcome a trade to the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors had initiated the talks after receiving information that James might be open to such a deal. But Paul said no, and the talks died out.

This time no one but Harrison, Dumont, Pelinka and Buss would have a say. Not Paul, who represents both Davis and James. Not Doncic or his agent. Not Kyrie Irving or his agent. Not even Kidd or Lakers coach JJ Redick, who formed a friendship with Doncic during their brief time as teammates at the end of the 2021 season.

"I thought I'd spend my career here and I wanted so badly to bring you a championship," Doncic wrote in a social media post directed to Mavericks fans Sunday. "... In good times and bad, from injuries to the NBA Finals, your support never changed. Thank you not only for sharing my joy in our best moments, but also for lifting me up when I needed it most."

His father, Sasa, wasn't as diplomatic.

"I think that exactly this secrecy, or should I say from some individuals, maybe even hypocrisy, this hurts me personally," Sasa Doncic said on the Slovenian broadcast of Sunday's Mavericks-Cavaliers game, translated by Arena Sport. "I think that Luka absolutely doesn't deserve this. ... I feel like this is very unfair from some individuals because I know that Luka respected Dallas a lot. He respected the whole city, helped children. It was never a problem for him to go to hospitals and to orphanages and to all of these charity events. It wasn't even a problem last year since, I am saying again, one individual said he's not fit enough. That he played, I don't know, 100 games, practically 40 minutes with two or three players constantly on him. That he was beaten and you say such things about him. I feel that this is very unfair from certain individuals. You traded him, stand by your actions but don't look for excuses or alibis, that's it."

Ultimately though, Doncic and his camp took solace in the fact Dallas traded him to a destination and franchise like the Lakers.

"Nobody likes being traded," a source close to Doncic said. "But they sent him to the Lakers when they could've sent him anywhere."

HARRISON WAS AWARE of the risks and ramifications of a trade like this from the first coffee he shared with Pelinka. Trades of this magnitude rarely happen in professional sports. They're too complicated. Too political. Too risky for all involved.

But for the past month, as the trade got more and more realistic, the size of the circle of those wrestling with the implications remained.

Then late last week, the deal picked up steam as the Lakers recruited Utah as a facilitator. The Jazz only knew they'd be receiving Hood-Schifino in exchange for two second-round picks, sources said. The Lakers had several backup plans if the Jazz option fell through.

Utah just had to complete a trade with the Clippers earlier Saturday morning to free up roster spots to take in another player. The last part of that deal was completed Saturday around the same time the Lakers and Knicks were tipping off in New York.

The Lakers had asked the Jazz to complete the trade involving Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills by the time they were finished against the Knicks because they didn't want Max Christie to have to fly back with the team on their Sunday morning flight back to Los Angeles and then learn he'd been traded.

Shortly after the Jazz completed their business with Mills, they learned of the magnitude of the trade in which they were about to be involved. All that did was buy them an extra hour to digest the ramifications.

Once the trade broke, at 12:15 a.m. ET Sunday -- sending Davis, Christie and a 2029 first-round pick to Dallas in exchange for Doncic and forwards Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris -- questions immediately arose surrounding what it might mean for James, his no-trade clause and his stated preference to finish his career in Los Angeles.

Initially, sources said that desire remains the same -- at least this season. But the Warriors could make another run at him, league sources with knowledge of the Warriors' thinking said. A reunion with Kevin Durant is also a possibility, if the Suns would ever consider it.

James can also become a free agent again this summer by declining his $52.6 million player option. He was close to Davis, whom he worked to bring to Los Angeles, but he has also spoken openly for years about his love of Doncic's game.

The trade also raised questions about the Lakers' place in the West for the remainder of the season. While James and the injured Doncic, who is expected to return this month, are both superstars, the Lakers now have a massive hole in the middle with just days left before the trade deadline to address it.

But the biggest question of all will take years to answer.

Will Doncic prove the Mavs wrong?

"I'm sorry [fans] are frustrated, but it's something that we believe in as an organization," Harrison said. "It's going to make us better. We believe that it sets us up to win, not only now, but also in the future. And when we win, I believe the frustration will go away.

"The future to me is three, four years from now. The future 10 years from now, I don't know. They'll probably bury me and [Kidd] by then. Or we'll bury ourselves."