I had hosted a watch party for the Royal Rumble at my house with some friends. It was an hour before midnight when we were playing Marvel vs. Capcom in the guest room. That’s when my friend said something I couldn’t believe.
“Luka just got traded.”
Denial is the first stage of grief and that’s exactly what I felt in that moment. I didn’t look at my phone for any reports to confirm what he was saying. It sounded like a joke, there’s no way the Dallas Mavericks would trade away the face and cornerstone of the franchise. It wasn’t until everyone left my house that I opened Instagram and saw it.
A post from Bleacher Report with a giant graphic of Luka Dončić and Anthony Davis with “TRADED” over them. The caption had the specific details of the trade that I couldn’t care less about at that moment.
Luka is gone.
A generational superstar who led the Mavericks to the finals just last year. An unguardable force who carries an offensive workload greater than most players in NBA history.
Gone just like that.
I looked at my dad in awe. We dissected every report coming out about the trade for nearly an hour, trying to find some sort of justification for an unjustifiable action.
Minutes passed. Then hours. Then a day.
As time continued to pass, more details came out that outlined the incompetence from the Mavericks general manager, Nico Harrison. Reports continued to roll out, Harrison had secretly been discussing this trade for nearly a month, seemingly without any second opinions or thoughts from anybody in the organization. Los Angeles Lakers general manager, Rob Pelinka, was able to get the deal done without rookie Dalton Knecht and the multiple first round picks who were originally proposed.
Nobody else in the Mavericks organization knew about the trade till it was too late, including head coach Jason Kidd, all Mavericks players and former majority owner of the team Mark Cuban. Cuban stated years ago as owner of the team “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.”
Harrison closed the most recent press conference concerning the trade by claiming he sees the future as “three to four years from now,” showing he has no care for the future of this organization. As a Dallas sports fan, I had hope for the Mavericks to fill the hole the Cowboys have created. It’s now clear suffering is essential when supporting any team based in Dallas. Good luck to all Maverick fans out there and most importantly, good luck Luka Dončić. Dallas misses you.