Mark Cuban had a fairly successful stint as the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, but he also made some big mistakes during his time at the helm. While Cuban’s decision to let Steve Nash walk in free agency in 2004 is often talked about as the biggest one, passing on Giannis Antetokounmpo has proven to be even worse.
The Mavericks were in position to select Antetokounmpo with the 13th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, but Cuban decided against following then-GM Donnie Nelson’s advice and traded down instead. You wonder how different NBA history would be today if Nelson had his way, and Cuban spoke about his reason for trading down on the Run Your Race podcast.
“That was the year we tried to get cap room for Dwight Howard,” Cuban said. “And to get cap room for Dwight Howard, we had to trade down a couple of times, and some of our scouts and GM wanted to pick Giannis. And I was like, ‘I can’t do that to Dirk [Nowitzki]. We got a plan.’ Because all we had literally in our war room was two VHS cassettes of Giannis. That was it.
“Because he played in this B-League in Greece, there was no other video,” Cuban continued. “You want me to give up on getting Dwight Howard? And I said ‘No,’ and it turned out, another bad decision. I’m making myself look like a real motherf***ing idiot aren’t I?”
Antetokounmpo has won a title, a Finals MVP, two MVPs, and a DPOY with the Milwaukee Bucks so far in his career. It was a huge blunder.
Now, let’s look at the situation the Mavericks were in at the time, though. They had won the NBA championship in 2011 with Dirk Nowitzki leading the way, but then got swept in the first round by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012.
The Mavericks then missed the playoffs in 2013, and Cuban didn’t want to waste the 35-year-old Nowitzki’s last few good years in the NBA. He saw the opportunity to pair him with a superstar center in Dwight Howard, who became a free agent that summer.
So, when Antetokounmpo was still on the board when it was the Mavericks’ turn in the draft, Cuban had a decision to make. Does he draft this raw forward, who was very highly rated by his staff but was going to take a few years to develop, or does he trade down to open up cap space for Howard? He chose the latter.
The Mavericks drafted Kelly Olynyk with the 13th pick and then traded him to the Boston Celtics for the 16th pick, Lucas Noguiera. They then traded Noguira to the Atlanta Hawks for the rights to the 18th pick, Shane Larkin, who would only end up playing four seasons in the NBA.
While all this was going on, the Bucks selected Antetokounmpo with the 15th pick. You’d imagine Nelson was dismayed by all this, and he’d have felt even worse not too long after.
The Mavericks were reportedly one of five teams that made pitches to Howard that summer. Unfortunately for them, the Houston Rockets ended up securing his services. Ultimately, Cuban had taken a big gamble, and it simply didn’t pay off.
The Mavericks’ big signings that offseason ended up being Monta Ellis, Jose Calderon, and Samuel Dalembert. They were solid players, but not superstars, which ensured Nowitzki played his final years on mediocre teams. The German didn’t win a playoff series for the rest of his career and retired in 2019.
Cuban somewhat made amends for that disastrous decision when the Mavericks traded up in the 2018 NBA Draft and selected Luka Doncic. They got a generational player just four years after passing on Antetokounmpo, but, of course, traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025.
Cuban was just a minority owner by then, having sold his majority stake in 2023, so at least his name isn’t attached to what is arguably the biggest mistake ever made in the NBA.
