It’s easy to remember the mega deals that happen during the NBA trade deadline. Ray Allen to the Sonics, Chris Paul to the Clippers, Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks — but players like this tend to get traded once, then stay for a while. There’s one man who deserves to be appreciated: Drew Gooden, the King of February.
Appreciating Drew Gooden being traded 3 times in a row at the NBA trade deadline
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Becoming the King of February is no easy feat. You have to be traded during, or just before the NBA trade deadline in multiple years. This means that some team needs to routinely think you’re expendable, and another really wants you — or your contract happens to work as filler. Gooden set a bar that might never be reached again.
Gooden holds the impressive honor of spending 15 years in the NBA and playing for 10 different teams. Perhaps even more bizarre is seeing Gooden get traded three times in three subsequent trade deadlines.
- Feb. 21, 2008: Traded by Cavaliers to Bulls as part of an 11-player deal.
- Feb. 18, 2009: Traded by Bulls to Kings as part of a six-player deal.
- Feb. 13, 2010: Traded by Bucks to Wizards, then traded again to Clippers.
Gooden played 15 seasons, and was traded during the deadline on three of them. In any given year he had a 20 percent chance of knowing he would move in February. On the plus side, it means he could have just signed a one-year lease during the same time each year and just accept he was probably going to move.
The man became so accustomed to travel that he attempted to get Finnish citizenship in 2014 to play for them in the FIBA World Cup. OK, so his mother was Finnish — but I like to believe it’s because he just really liked the travel.
We salute you, Drew Gooden. Truly the king of the NBA trade deadline.
