The recent trade involving superstars Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis proved that nobody is safe from being traded in the National Basketball Association.
Thanks to free agency, skyrocketing salaries and a league salary cap, players are more apt to play for more than one team during their careers these days. It’s not like the old days when players often spent their whole careers with the franchise that drafted them.
Think of Bill Russell, Jerry West, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, John Stockton and Kobe Bryant, who all played their entire careers for the team they started with. That’s a rarity now as players sometimes choose to move to a new team as free agents or get traded when they least expect it, like Doncic and Davis earlier this month.
Current stars such as LeBron James and Kevin Durrant have played for more than one team, as have many other stars of yesteryear, including Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O’Neal, Moses Malone, Karl Malone, Oscar Robertson, Julius Erving, Dwyane Wade and Charles Barkley.
Some players play for numerous teams, including a former local star, who is playing for his 10th team in 10 years.
Former University of Utah standout Delon Wright, who played for the Utes from 2013-15, was recently traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the New York Knicks. New York is the 10th franchise Wright has played for, which is among the most for a single player in NBA history.
Only 11 players have played for more teams than Wright, led by journeyman Ish Smith, who played for 13 teams between 2011 and 2014. Five players have played for 12 teams, including Chucky Brown, Jim Jackson, Tony Massenburg, Joe Smith and Garrett Temple. Former Jazzman Jeff Green (2019-20) is one of five players who have played for 11 teams.
Wright, who was a first-team all-Pac-12 player under Larry Krystkowiak, began his career with the Toronto Raptors after being chosen No. 20 in the 2015 NBA draft. He played most of four seasons there before being traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in 2019. Then it was off to Dallas later that year, followed by stops in Detroit, Sacramento, Atlanta, Washington and Miami before signing with Milwaukee before the 2024-25 season. He played 26 games for the Bucks before being shipped to New York on Feb. 5 in part of a deal that included his former Ute teammate Kyle Kuzma being sent from Washington to Milwaukee.
Wright has played in 535 games in his NBA career and averaged 6.7 points and 3.0 assists per game. Since joining the Knicks, he has played in just one game, going scoreless.
