Every NBA fan was stunned when Luka Doncic was traded this past season. There was so much shock that people didn’t even believe it was real for a decent amount of time. One of those people was the Dallas Mavericks’ former owner, Mark Cuban, who was super upset upon learning about the details.
Advertisement
Cuban was out doing a speaking event in Florida when the Doncic deal went down. In case you don’t remember, the trade was announced around midnight Eastern time. But before it all went down, Nico Harrison and the Mavs decided to contact the former owner and let him know. After all, Cuban is still such a big fan of the team, and he deserved to know.
At first, Cuban thought that Harrison was asking him for advice about the trade. However, he soon learned it was already too late for advice.
“I get a text from Nico, or maybe he called me, and I called him back. And I thought he was asking me, you know, ‘What do you think about this?’ Then I realized, he was telling me, that this was done,” Cuban shared on Road Trippin’. “Obviously, I was not happy.”
He was so unhappy that the former owner originally expressed that he regretted giving up control of the team. That’s why it was no surprise to hear Cuban say that he immediately called the team’s new owner, Patrick Dumont. And on the call, he roasted the decision.
“Then I called the owner, Patrick [Dumont], and I’m like, ‘What?’ And he gave me basically what Nico told him, and I was like, ‘This is going to be a mistake. Huge mistake,’” Cuban recalled.
It’s safe to say he was pretty fiery after the trade went down. But so were so many other Mavs fans who were trying to understand why they would trade their franchise cornerstone. How could they not be? The deal came seemingly out of nowhere.
Although Cuban eventually realized that he needed to get on board with the trade, despite being upset. But he evidently did it out of pity.
“Then I was like, okay, I gotta get on board. Because if I don’t at least stand up a little bit for it, who knows?” Cuban expressed.
When the trade was announced, many Mavs fans reacted with the same anger that Cuban had. It got so bad that Harrison and his family received death threats. That’s probably why the former owner felt the need to stand up for the GM.
Now, Cuban likes to look at the good side of the trade. But he doesn’t want to be associated with it whatsoever.
“You look at the good side, AD, who’s AD. If we stay healthy, we’re going to have a great defense, et cetera… I was pissed, was upset, but as much as I could, I just tried to get my mindset right going forward. You know, if someone asked me, I’ll explain it wasn’t my idea and I had nothing to do with it.”
It seems as though Cuban has somewhat gotten over the pain of trading Doncic. Yet, his stance on the decision remains the same as before. At the end of the day, he wouldn’t have signed off on the deal. Which is something a lot of Mavs fans would agree with.
However, miraculously, Dallas managed to land the #1 pick in the draft despite their low odds. With it, they took Cooper Flagg. Now, the potential of the team is looking much better than it was after the Doncic trade. Making it hard for Cuban and fans of the team to remain upset for the time being. But who knows? That type of vitriol could rise again if the team struggles to compete. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
