Mark Cuban deflects all blame from Mavericks' Luka Doncic trade decision
Today at 02:50 PM
The Dallas Mavericks took one of the more surprising detours in NBA history on Saturday night, trading superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. Shortly after the deal was made, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison highlighted how the Mavericks wanted to become more defense-oriented, making the deal make sense for them.
One of the first thoughts that many fans had was what Mark Cuban thought of the deal. Cuban used to be the majority owner of the team and was involved in basketball operations, but he sold most of his shares in the team and removed himself from basketball operations during the 2023-24 season.
Everyone was curious what Cuban thought of the trade after an old quote of his resurfaced after the trade was made.
“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,” Cuban said in 2020.
As a result, it isn’t surprising that Cuban had no say in this trade. He was just as stunned by the move as everyone else, according to Austin Veazey of Sports Illustrated.
“In fact, Cuban confirmed to WFAA, Dallas’ local ABC station, that he was not involved in the call that sent Doncic to the Lakers and Davis to the Mavericks,” Veazey wrote.
While Davis is a decent return for Doncic, many Mavericks fans are understandably very upset with the team for trading away Doncic. Players of Doncic’s caliber don’t come around very often, much less ones that are only 25 years old and have repeatedly raised their game in the playoffs.
One of the Mavericks’ reservations with Doncic was related to his conditioning and the fact that he is due for a contract extension this summer. A supermax deal for someone like Doncic is a lot of money to commit to one player, but if you’re not paying him then who would you give the deal to?
Based on his past comments, it’s safe to assume that Cuban would not have made this move if he was still the man in charge, but Harrison had enough support from the new majority owners to pull the trigger. Now, the pressure is fully on the Mavericks to win and win now.
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