Jerry Jones is no longer the worst sports executive in the 214 area code.
Late Saturday night, despite popular belief, ESPN’s Shams Charania was not hacked on X. The senior insider reported that the Dallas Mavericks had traded the face of their franchise, five-time NBA All-Star Luka Dončić, to the Los Angeles Lakers. Less than a year after Dallas represented the Western Conference in the 2024 NBA Finals, Dončić, last season’s scoring champion and Western Conference Finals MVP, now wears the purple and gold alongside LeBron James in Laker land.
It’s plausible to disregard the fact that Dallas returned a first-round pick and Max Christie as well as a nine-time all-star, five-time all-defensive team member, and NBA champion Anthony Davis in the deal. Trading Luka Dončić, unanimously regarded as the heir to hall of famer Dirk Nowitzki in black and blue at 25 years old, is abominable.
I’m talking Babe Ruth for $125,000 and decades of despair under “The Curse of the Cool Hand” level calamity.
Dallas General Manager Nico Harrison decided to value the moniker of “defense wins championships” over a generational superstar who carried this team to the NBA Finals eight months ago. Teetering on play-in territory at the time of the trade, Dončić seemed prime for a return from injury in the coming weeks to help right the ship. Despite a winning record with their franchise face on the floor this year, with one fell swoop, the same man who told media two weeks ago what Dončić brings to the Mavericks is immeasurable likely just plunged this franchise into a future of uncertainty that was brighter than the Dallas sun on Saturday morning.
As the NBA world entered the weekend preceding its annual semi-dormant trade deadline, the buzz surrounding any potential league paradigm-shifting moves was far away from the Big D. Jimmy Butler’s ongoing saga with the Miami Heat had to start coming to a head, and all-star guard De’Aaron Fox was being shopped by the Sacramento Kings among other available pieces. If the Dallas Mavericks were to be active in the frenzy, most believed them to be fishing for a perimeter ball-stopper off the bench at most. Instead, they hit the red button that sent their fanbase into an all-time fiasco.
Since the shocking news came in the wee hours of Sunday morning on the East Coast, word has spread from the Dallas front office their attempts to justify doing away with Dončić. Rather than trusting in Dončić to return healthy from a calf strain that’s sidelined him since Christmas in time for a postseason push, the Mavericks cited the 6-foot-6 guard’s “inability” to properly condition himself or put forth effort on the defensive end as a headache that wouldn’t subside.
Despite his supposed health issues, Dončić, the reigning scoring champion in the league, is one of three players in NBA history (post-merger), alongside champions and hall of farmers Tim Duncan and Larry Bird, to be named to an All-NBA team in five of his first six seasons in the league. Last year, he led Dallas to his second second-round upset of a top-seeded team in the playoffs before thoroughly outclassing his supposed competition in Anthony Edwards en route to a Western Conference crown. Only four players who have reached the NBA Finals have averaged 28 points and eight assists on their way there in a single playoff run. Those names include Nikola Jokic, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and Luka Dončić. Dončić was the youngest of that fraternity, joining three years before any others at age 25.
While the unflappable Boston Celtics dismantled Dallas in the 2024 NBA Finals, Dončić averaged 29 points across five games, seven more than the next-highest scorer, Jayson Tatum. Finals MVP Jaylen Brown averaged 20/5/5 for Boston, while Dončić trumped him with splits of 29/9/6 when rounded up. Dončić was the best player on the floor against the best team in the NBA in 2024.
Could Dončić be more conscious of his lackluster drive on defense? Absolutely. Is Dončić the chiseled and menacing figure of LeBron James? Obviously not.
But is he capable of winning multiple league MVPs, being the alpha male on championship teams and cementing himself as an all-time great? No doubt about it, and you don’t give that up to a conference rival to relish in for the next 10-plus years.
If Dallas was so deadset on moving on from Dončić, why take on a soon-to-be 32-year-old with a lengthy injury history, far more concerning than that of Dončić in Anthony Davis? Harrison insists he approached only the Lakers, who even managed to bring Dončić’s price down by turning the conditioning issue back onto Dallas in shopping him. Why not put him on the open market, start the most frantic bidding war since “The Decision,” and return a treasure chest of draft picks and proven and/or young talent? Better yet, find a buyer in the Eastern Conference, to ensure the heights Dallas reached under Dončić were still within reach.
If Harrison was so infatuated with a prioritiztion on defense, he just as easily could’ve combed the market on Kyrie Irving. While still an elite offensive player, Irving is going on 32 years old, and has a well-documented history of alienating his teammates after periods of honeymoon. The 14-year veteran has received precisely one vote for an all-defensive team in his career, and replacing him with another scoring machine with real defensive pedigree to go alongside Dončić would make far more sense than trading Luka himself. Adding insult to injury, in-state rival San Antonio pulled that trigger by acquiring all-star De’Aaron Fox, 27, hours after Dončić boarded a jet to LA.
Since acquiring Luka Dončić on draft night in 2018, the Dallas Mavericks, through multiple front-office regimes, have had a revolving door of sidekicks alongside the Slovenian superman in their quest to add to their lone NBA championship from 2011. The European Union of Doncic and the oft-injured 7-foot unicorn Kristaps Porzingis opened to the lobby of consecutive first-round exits in 2020 and 2021. Midway through the 2022 season, the oft-injured Porzingis was traded to Washington, opening the door for the emergence of fellow guard Jalen Brunson. The dynamic backcourt duo would lead the Mavs on a Western Conference Finals run, which included an emasculation of the top-seeded Phoenix Suns in game seven on their own floor to reach the final four for the first time in a decade. While the resurgent Golden State Warriors put an end to the magical campaign, the Mavericks appeared to have arrived on the championship stage, with Dončić their leading act.
Brunson would sign a max contract from the New York Knicks in the offseason, leaving Dončić without a co-star. Still, Dončić captained Dallas to fifth place in the conference by February of 2023, and looked primed to continue his and the team’s ascension with the addition of Irving from the fledgling Brooklyn Nets. Shockingly, the two ball-dominant guards who both had little pension for defense didn’t gel down the stretch, and Dallas collapsed all the way out of the playoffs.
Dallas trucked through the initial growing pains, and ran it back the next season all the way to 50 wins and the NBA Finals, with their best player just beginning to scratch the surface of his full capabilities. Despite a sky-high ceiling and Mavericks fans adornment for Dončić, Harrison and the front office now place their trust in two stars over 30, both with long history of missing games in their own way, locked into big contracts that take them well past their prime years. Call it a “win-now” move, but it’s a first round failure as the precursor to years of mediocrity to many.
Two weeks ago, Harrison told European media what Dončić brings to the Mavericks is immeasurable. Tonight, so is the vitriol from Dončić, Dallas, and Mavericks fans everywhere. And as if Dončić wasn’t upset enough about being uprooted from his adopted American home, the trade now makes him inelligbible for a supermax extension this offseason, taking more than $100 million out of his potential payday.
For the next decade at least, Harrison will have to watch as Dončić evokes the dark arts of Luka Magic on his team and the rest of the league en route to awards, accolades and potentially championships that should have flagshipped a defining, triumphant era of Dallas Mavericks basketball.
