On June 14, 2024, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont was seen walking onto the court before Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.
Since Luka Doncic’s trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, Mavericks fans have struggled to find joy in watching their team. General manager Nico Harrison justified the move, insisting it was part of a ‘win-now’ strategy.
However, since then, the Mavericks have seemingly done everything possible to diminish Doncic’s legacy with the franchise.
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Harrison’s claims haven’t held up, as the experiment has been a complete failure due to multiple injuries to key Mavericks players. Instead of competing for a title, the team is now at risk of missing the playoffs entirely—just a year after reaching the NBA Finals.
Adding to the chaos, there appears to be a disconnect within the Mavericks’ leadership. While Harrison framed the trade as a way to capitalize on the team’s short championship window, comments from owner Patrick Dumont on February 13, 2025, suggest it was actually a long-term move. His statements have since gone viral.
“Tough decisions are never easy. Part of leadership is looking at risk, all the factors in a decision, being willing to act at that time, and look to the long term, not only thinking about the short term and how it may be received immediately,” Dumont explained. “Think about the long-term benefits and what it may allow you to achieve if given all the right considerations… We had to decide how to get better. What can we do to improve our team?”
He continued: “We looked at our trajectory during the season and realized that we did not get better… This was a decision about the future. If you look at our roster today and who we have, we feel like we positioned ourselves to be incredibly competitive against the best teams in the NBA.”
Yet, how does trading a 25-year-old superstar—who hadn’t even reached his prime—for an older, more injury-prone player align with a long-term vision?
With each new detail that emerges about the trade, fans only grow more bewildered. At this point, the most reasonable course of action would be to acknowledge the mistake and focus on rebuilding the fanbase that former majority owner Mark Cuban spent years cultivating.
