Mark Cuban, outspoken former Dallas Mavericks majority owner, made his feelings known by joking about the shocking Luka Doncic trade in his first public appearance since the controversial deal went down.
“I gotta tell you, I’ve had a rough week,” Cuban told Bill Gates in a sit-down discussion about the Microsoft co-founder’s latest memoir, “Source Code: My Beginnings” in Richardson, Texas on Friday, Feb. 7.
“And so I wanted to start off with a question, because you’ve been in unique situations, and maybe you can help,” Cuban continued. “If after you left Microsoft, you found out that Steve Ballmer traded Windows 11, like the new hot operating system, for Windows 10, the Hall-of-Fame but older operating system, what would you do?”
Cuban’s question elicited laughter from the audience, who quickly recognized he was alluding to the Doncic-Anthony Davis trade.
“I might have to hide from the press,” Gates replied.
“I know a couple of other people that are in that situation,” Cuban said, eliciting another round of applause and laughter from the audience.
Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison and team governor Patrick Dumont are under fire for trading away Doncic, a 25-year-old generational player who has yet to hit his prime, for the 32-year-old Davis, a 10-time All-Star and a perennial All-Defensive center.
Doncic would have been still a Maverick if Cuban had not sold his majority stake to the Adelson family in 2023. As a minority owner, Cuban is no longer involved in the Mavericks’ day-to-day basketball operations.
In 2020, Cuban famously said he’d choose Doncic over his wife.
“If I had to choose between my wife & keeping Luka on the Mavs, catch me at my lawyer’s office prepping for a divorce,” Cuban said at the time.
Mavericks Beef up Security For First Home Game Post-Trade
Harrison has received death threats for trading Doncic, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported, which forced the Mavericks to beef up security in their first home game since the trade.
“This is a heartbroken fanbase, and there have been some very unfortunate developments regarding that anger,” MacMahon said on “NBA Today” on Friday, Feb. 7, as the Mavericks play their first home game — against their intra-state rival Houston Rockets on Saturday, Feb. 8 — since Doncic was traded. “Nico Harrison has been subjected to death threats. There have been racial epithets included in some of those.
Certainly, security’s going to be beefed up. There will be protests outside the arena early. Those are planned. Security will absolutely be beefed up. Nico Harrison is not going to be in his normal seat in the stands. There’s no reason to subject him to that kind of a security risk.
“So that has been definitely an unfortunate part of this whole storyline. Obviously, the fans’ anger—hey, they have every right to feel like they got a generational superstar ripped away from them—but clearly, lines have been crossed.”
True enough, a chaotic scene outside the American Airlines Arena greeted the Mavericks in their first home game since the trade.
Nico Harrison on Trading Luka Doncic
Harrison vaguely explained the rationale behind his stunning decision to trade the five-time All-Star and All-NBA player who just led them to the NBA Finals last season.
“One thing about me, I’m not going to talk bad about any players, like that’s not going to do us or me any good,” Harrison told reporters during his Sunday press conference. “I’ll just say there’s levels to it. There are people that fit the culture and there are people that come in and add to the culture. And those are two distinct things. And I believe the people that are coming in are adding to the culture.”
Reading between the lines, it was apparent Harrison no longer saw Dončić as a culture fit, much more the face of it.
The heartbroken Mavericks fans, however, vehemently disagrees with Harrison.
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