Although older basketball fans like to pretend that only the current iteration of NBA stars request trades and believe in player empowerment, the Association actually has a long history of hugely important players demanding moves dating back decades.
Following the most recent trade requests put in by future Hall-of-Famers Damian Lillard and James Harden, we decided to take a look back historically at the most important ones in NBA history, not just based on the level of the player who asked for the move but also on the after-effects of the request.
Mind you, some of these trade requests – including a few near the top of the ranking – were not granted and yet still changed the course of NBA history. Sometimes, the best moves are the ones you don’t make.
Anyway, we narrowed it down to the Top 26, which you can see in full below.