Mark Cuban’s reply to Nico Harrison after the Luka Doncic
The Luka Doncic trade looks pretty one sided in the months after the ground breaking deal. People in Dallas aren’t over it, and neither is Mark Cuban.
The Dallas Mavericks were in the NBA Finals last year. This year they have been decimated by injuries and are fighting to make the Play In. Everything seems to have fallen to pieces in Dallas after the Luka Doncic trade.
Cuban: I was dumbfounded
It was Nico Harrison who put his neck on the line and made the clandestine deal basically overnight. Luka Doncic was stunned. Dallas was stunned. The entire NBA was stunned by the deal, and so was former majority owner of the Mavs, Mark Cuban.
Cuban appeared on the Your Mom’s House podcast on Friday afternoon, and inevitably the Luka trade was a hot topic of discussion. Cuban assured hosts Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky that he had no hand in dealing Doncic away from Dallas.
“If I had any influence, the trade wouldn’t happen. I was just as dumbfounded as everybody else. After I sold the Mavericks, the new owner Patrick Dumont decided that ‘OK, in Nico we trust.’ So here, we are,” said Cuban.
No say as minority owner
Cuban bought the Mavericks in 2000 and was the majority owner until 2023. In that time he and the Mavs won an NBA Title, and get to another NBA Finals. He was the one who drafted Luka Doncic and welcomed him as the savior of the team and the city.
Last year, he sold his majority shares in 2023 to Miriam Adelson and Sivan and Patrick Dumont for $3.5 billion. He still has a 27% share in the team, but evidently that’s not enough to have a say in the wheeling and dealings of the front offices. Harrison made the move, and in the days after texted Cuban. “I told him I didn’t agree with it… But it wasn’t my decision to make.”
“Fire Nico” chants have made it all the way down to San Antonio pic.twitter.com/N3Lk8UK8gD
— Dallas Texas TV (@DallasTexasTV) March 11, 2025
Since the trade the Lakers have rocketed up the standings and are in the running for a two seed in the playoffs. The Mavs have gone the opposite way. Anthony Davis, who came over in the deal, injured his groin in his debut and since then Kyrie Irving tore his ACL and will miss the rest of this season and into next season. Fans are still livid with the decision, and it doesn’t seem as though Marc Cuban is too pleased either.
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