It’s been over seventy days, yet at times, it still seems hard to believe that the Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. For a team to trade away a generational talent, there must have been cracks in the fissure. In retrospect, we did see a few moments that could’ve resulted in a fracture forming.
Advertisement
After the Dallas Mavericks won the Western Conference Finals and advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time since they won their lone championship, Luka was seen drinking a beer, only to have assistant GM Michael Finley rip it out of his hands. Everyone saw it as ridiculous then, but it takes on new meaning now.
Victory should be celebrated, and with the massive usage and contributions Luka provided for that team, denying him a beer seemed not just unusually cruel, but completely unnecessary as well. It seemed like a display of power that the front office had over him, instead of the collaborative teamwork that’s behind any good franchise and its star.
Instead, we got what we got. GM Niko Harrison had to prove that he was smarter than everyone else in the room and make one of the baffling trades the NBA has ever seen. He’s no longer smiling now that the Mavs have missed the playoffs outright.
Stephen Jackson, Vernon Maxwell, and Matt Barnes were all players who had similar fights with the front offices of the teams they joined, although none were ever at Luka’s level. Jackson beefed with the San Antonio Spurs for his whole first tenure there. Maxwell requested to be cut from the Houston Rockets even after winning two rings as a starter. Matt Barnes is Matt Barnes.
As part of an episode of All the Smoke, the three controversial players eventually got to the topic of how ridiculous it was to police Luka drinking one beer.
Maxwell started off, recalling his old adventures of post-match celebrations. He shared how he used to be out till 4:30/5 AM on the usual, and smoke and drink all the time. He would then force himself to get to shootarounds on game-days, and somehow still manage to play 82 games multiple times in his career.
Stak added his stories of how things used to be during his time in the league. Listening to the stories and recalling his own memories, Barnes expressed how surprised he was when the media and the Mavs made a fuss about Luka drinking a beer.
“That’s why I said, when they were tripping about Luka drinking beers, if you really knew what motherf*****s were doing in the league, that’s why I know you don’t know anything about this game.” Barnes started. “You had the whole rotation drinking out the bottle,” added Jackson. Maxwell finally joined in, jokingly saying, “I used to try to drink all the beers in the locker room.”
The NBA was absolutely ridiculous back in the day. The drug culture that defined the 80s and 90s, even on championship-winning teams. Spencer Haywood was a starter on the Showtime Lakers while he was addicted to crack!
In comparison, it seems ridiculous to complain over a singular beer. If the Mavericks had a chance to do it all over again, it’s obvious Luka would still be there, and Niko Harrison would be shot to the moon.
