The Dallas Mavericks have made a move that most of their fans cannot forgive as they traded 25-year-old franchise cornerstone Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers last night for Anthony Davis and Max Christie. Doncic didn’t request a trade, with this being a decision taken by Mavericks GM Nico Harrison without consulting the players or even his own head coach Jason Kidd.
It’s safe to say that former Mavericks Governor and current minority owner Mark Cuban wasn’t consulted in the process either. Cuban and Doncic shared a very strong relationship, but the former Mavs majority owner sent a four-letter message as his reaction to this trade which Mavs fans will enjoy.
“I asked Mark Cuban for his reaction to the trade of Doncic, whom the Mavericks acquired on draft night seven years ago under Cuban’s watch as majority owner. Cuban responded with four letters: ‘MFFL.'”
MFFL stands for ‘Mavericks Fan For Life,’ and is often considered a motto within the fanbase. This motto has been tested to the greatest degree now that they’ve traded away a franchise hero in his prime for a package almost no fan thinks is acceptable. He is still part of the ownership group and clearly didn’t want to say anything to attack the team publicly.
Mark Cuban once said that he would divorce his wife before he ever considered trading Doncic, so it’s safe to assume that this would never have happened if he still controlled the franchise.
“If I had to choose between my wife and keeping Luka on the Mavs, catch me at my lawyer’s office prepping for a divorce,”
The Mavericks have made a bold bet that Doncic has already peaked and that his injury and conditioning issues will hurt him from being a supermax caliber player. In addition, they moved on from his style of play by citing how defense wins championships. The front office thinks they’ve made a win-now move by trading one of the three best players in the NBA and a game-changing offensive force.
Cuban can’t be pleased about this, but he probably realizes he needs to move on. Creating issues within the ownership wouldn’t be prudent for his continued investment into the team, especially when he sold the team for less than its market value to retain this stake in the squad.
He has no functional power anymore, so he couldn’t intervene in this trade. They even took his permanent courtside seats for home games away because he’s no longer the team’s Governor, so it’s clear this is far removed from the organization that stuck by Dirk Nowitzki for 21 seasons. The new ownership is cutthroat and now building their own identity over the team.
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