My vote would go to Sam Presti for somehow turning a 29-year-old Paul George into Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks and two first-round swaps. Right now, no one in their right mind would trade SGA for that same 29-year-old PG straight up, much less throw in a rebuild's worth of assets.
Toronto getting a top 3 player in kawhi for what at the time was less then nothing is up there, Presti getting picks for trading a worse player on a worse contract for a better player on a better contract is up there, Dallas getting Luca for 2 draft picks is up there
In terms of lopsided: Receiving Harden (plus filler) for Kevin Martin, Lamb, Adams and McGary. While Presti is possibly the biggest winner in the category (the SGA trade), he has also been a big loser. Ditto Morey with the Russ/ CP3 trade But in terms of best - surely anything leading to a championship? KG to Boston Shaq to Miami Kawhi to Tor (Etc)
Drexler trade has to be considered then! The Lakers (actually, Anthony Davis) also wrecked the Pelicans with that infamous trade.
Kind of early to label the trade of this century isn't it Our great-grandkids can make a poll in 2100
You forgot the Lakers trading Don Ford to Cleveland for the Cavs 1st rd pick, which turned out to become Magic Johnson.
I think you should consider the SGA trade more for PG AND kawhi. Kawhi said he wouldn't come to the clippers if they didnt go out and land PG. It's not a bad trade at all from that perspective. The clippers have been right there just have had injuries. They might still get it done.
Then traded Sengun for 2 future firsts that'll possibly turn into 2nd round picks if the Pistons and Wizards don't get their **** together. People talk about Sengun being the franchise player and All-Star, but he's a future Hall of Famer. I'm willing to bet the Rockets win a championship before OKC, or at the least, make it to the finals before them. I like SGA but he won't impact the game the way Sengun will (plus Alpi is 4 years younger). If you're trading Paul George then I'm expecting a good player in return plus picks. He's a superstar. The Rockets didn't have to give up anything for Sengun, and he's only going to get better. They get my vote for trade of the century.
I think there are 4 contenders, the Harden trade, the Celtics Big 3 trade to the Nets, the Gobert trade and the SGA trade by Presti. Maybe this is a hot take but just cuz the trade results in a ring doesn't mean it's an amazing trade. I think there were a lot of factors that lead to the ring that is outside the scope of the trade already. For example with the Kawhi trade they won because half the GSW team were injured or playing thru injury. There's also the upgrade from Casey to Nick Nurse. And then the aftermath is it was just a rental and Toronto never recovered from losing an all star in Derozan and a solid center in Jakob Poetl for nothing. So personally I think the trade itself wasn't that amazing looking at it in a vacuum.
