Dennis Schroder Compares NBA Trade Deadline To "Modern Slavery" & Promptly Gets Reality Check

Source: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty

We’re nearing the NBA trade deadline, so many of your favorites are being traded to squads trying to win now or others banking on stellar picks in the upcoming drafts.

Moving cities, uprooting their families, and leaving their teammates is probably pretty stressful for players, and Dennis Schröder knows a thing or two about that.

A bit of a journeyman in the league, he was most recently dealt to the Golden State Warriors from the Brooklyn Nets in December 2024, and he’s still salty about it, even comparing the random time of upheaval to slavery.

“It’s like modern slavery,” Schröder said. “It’s modern slavery at the end of the day. Everybody can decide where you’re going, even if you have a contract. Yeah, of course, we make a lot of money, and we can feed our families, but at the end of the day, if they say, ‘You’re not coming to work tomorrow, you’re going over there,’ they can decide that. They got to change that a little bit.”

Schröder spoke to NBC Sports Bay Area about the NBA’s trading behavior when it became clear that anyone could be dealt after the Los Angeles Lakers got former superstar Dallas Maverick Luka Doncic fresh off an NBA Finals appearance.

“Luka Dončić just got traded and got five f-cking NBA First Teams,” Schröder said. “All-Stars, he brought money to them, NBA Finals last year, and $117 million he can’t sign now because he got traded, and that’s no state income tax. From now on, I see it even more crazier than it was because to trade somebody like that, nobody’s safe.”

Details of the trade leaking made it even worse, including that Doncic bought a $15 million Dallas-area home days before the news dropped, and that’s not the only way it’s affecting him financially. If he stayed with the team that drafted him, the Mavericks, he would have been eligible for a $345 million super-max contract, but since he’s moved on to the Lakers, the most they can offer him is a five-year $229 deal.

Schröder even listed off some of his teammates who could be on the trading block despite success with Golden State, like Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney. He’s not even counting out Steph Curry.

While being traded to a new city may be a tough adjustment, comparing it to slavery is overboard, especially considering Schröder is making $13 million this season.

And just like that, he’s back on the trading block, according to ESPN.

See how social media is reacting to Schröder’s comments below.

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