The retired Finnish point guard never played in the NBA and is now a coach for the Spurs.
DALLAS — During the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft, the Dallas Mavericks moved up seven spots to select French forward Melvin Ajinça.
Draft day trades obviously aren’t uncommon, but what made this one unique was the complete details of the trade, which included someone picked 17 years ago.
Here is the complete breakdown of the trade between the Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks:
Dallas receives:
- Draft rights to 51st overall pick (2024): Melvin Ajinça
New York receives:
- Draft rights to 58th overall pick (2024): Ariel Hukporti
- Draft rights to 30th overall pick (2007): Petteri Koponen
- Cash considerations
That’s right. The Mavs-Knicks trade includes a player who never came over to the NBA from Europe.
Who is Petteri Koponen?
Petteri Koponen is a 36-year-old former Finnish guard and is actually now a coach for the San Antonio Spurs.
The history of Koponen’s draft pick is actually pretty fascinating. The pick actually originally belonged to the Mavericks, but ping-ponged around the league before coming back into Dallas’ trade assets later on.
So, Dallas traded the draft rights in 2004 to the Golden State Warriors in a deal that included former Duke star Christian Laettner. Then, the Warriors traded the pick to the Nuggets, who traded it to the 76ers in the 2006 deal that landed them Allen Iverson.
After that, the 76ers drafted Koponen with the final pick of the first round in 2007 but he was instead re-routed to the Portland Trail Blazers for second-round pick Derrick Byars and cash.
Koponen’s draft rights came back to Dallas in the 2011 as part of a three-team deal that included Raymond Felton. The Mavericks had held Koponen’s draft rights ever since … until Thursday.
All the while, Koponen continued playing in Europe and never played the NBA.
Koponen stayed in Europe and eventually became a key reserve for FC Barcelona and FC Bayern Munich in the Euroleague. He finished his career in 2022 playing for the Helsinki Seagulls and has since transitioned into coaching. He played in in 155 EuroLeague games in his career, shooting shooting 46% from 3-point range.
Why did the New York Knicks trade for Koponen?
Why the Knicks traded for Koponen is unclear, but it’s likely just to balance out trade deals financially. Players who are stashed overseas and will never play in the NBA sometimes are sometimes included in these deals.
But that didn’t stop the 36-year-old Spurs summer league coach from having some fun with it all.
“I’m honored @nyknicks, but I’m still going to honor my commitment with @spurs. Of course, a financially ridiculous offer could change things. + I got the new hip! I’m ready,” he tweeted on Friday.
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