In an NBA world where we acknowledge the existence of the Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers, we must also recognize one obvious truth: Nobody has it worse than Dallas Mavericks fans right now. Mavs fans are rightly still hurting from seeing their beloved Luka Doncic get traded away in the middle of the night, a move that can only be compared to Art Modell’s packing up the Cleveland Browns and leaving town for Baltimore under the cover of darkness decades ago.
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Luka was universally beloved by Mavericks fans, and he was the primary reason the Mavs reached the NBA Finals last year. Twenty-five-year-old superstars just aren’t traded. It simply doesn’t happen, which is why Mavericks fans have continued to mourn and question whether they should even continue to root for the team.
Last night was a moment of catharsis for those fans, as, for the first time since that early February trade, Luka came back to town, this time wearing Lakers purple and gold. Their response was predictable—they showered Luka with love and increased the intensity of the “Fire Nico” chants they’ve directed at general manager Nico Harrison since the trade was finalized and the news was announced.
Luka soaked it all in, then proceeded to demolish his old team with a 45-point barrage that matched his season-high. The Lakers won, solidifying their hold on the 3-seed in the West, while the Mavs clinched a sub-.500 season.
Mark Cuban was on hand, and he was obviously going through it. Fans saw him throughout the night looking distressed with his head in his hands as the “Fire Nico” chants rained down. Many tried to decipher his every action, with some theorizing that he said something to the effect of, “I should’ve never sold the team.”
Cuban sold his majority stake to the Adelson and Dumont families in 2023. He still owns a minority stake and can frequently be seen at games, but he no longer runs the show like he once did, a fact that directly led to Luka being traded.
Doncic wouldn’t have been traded if Mark Cuban hadn’t sold the team
Cuban has been on a kind of public relations tour since the deal went down to make it clear that he didn’t support trading Luka and never would have done it himself. Still, he has to shoulder some of the blame as the person who sold to the Adelsons and Dumonts, who are clearly in over their heads, as many comments on the below post reflect.
Mark Cuban not feeling the “Fire Nico” chants pic.twitter.com/0In9Qh7IhQ
— Lakers Empire (@LakersEmpire) April 10, 2025
One fan voiced what many were thinking, “He should be chanting that too.”
Another felt Cuban’s grief was obvious: “He knows he should have never sold the team to this group of fukn morons.”
A third has it all figured out: “He knows it’s not Nico’s fault! It’s on the owners he sold the team too! Nico can’t just wake-up and trade Luka. He was ordered to do it because they didn’t wanna pay Luka max deal! That’s it!”
Just look at Patrick Dumont’s comments that Luka should have had a strong work ethic like Shaq for proof of his incompetence, or the fact that he and Harrison have given radically different and often contradictory answers as to why the trade was made.
Cuban had his issues as an owner, and we’re never going to just sweep under the rug the allegations of a corrosive culture while he was in charge. From a basketball standpoint, though, he understood the assignment. He treated Dirk Nowitzki like royalty (rightfully so), and made the Mavericks competitive after a lifetime of franchise incompetence before he arrived.
Cuban understands what Luka means to the fanbase, and he would have built around that. New ownership made a cold, calculated, and hilariously incorrect decision that the team would be better off with Anthony Davis, but what’s worse is that they didn’t factor in how much their fans loved Luka.
The seller’s remorse appears to be strong in Cuban, but what’s done is done. He and the rest of the franchise have no choice but to soldier on and make the best of a bad situation. They just better hope their fans stick with them through it.
