In a battle between two Western Conference rivals jockeying for playoff position, the Dallas Mavericks — missing several key players because of injury — pulled out a big win Wednesday night, defeating the Golden State Warriors 111-107.
For most teams, Wednesday’s win would be something to celebrate.
For the Mavericks, however, every game for the rest of their season is clouded by the fact that the team traded away generational superstar Luka Dončić this month, a decision that has both upset fans and lacked a convincing explanation.
“The vibes are not good,” said Josh Bowe, a podcaster and writer who grew up in the Dallas area and has been covering the team since 2009. “And I think what’s happening is there’s a potential for a generational loss of fans. I’ve seen plenty of fans say that they don’t really want to watch the team anymore. I feel like we’ll be studying the effects or the impact of this for years.”
“This” in this context is Dallas’ trade of Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for forward Anthony Davis and a first-round draft pick. The trade shocked the NBA world, so much so that the reporter who broke it, ESPN's Shams Charania, had to confirm he hadn’t been hacked when he posted the news to social media.
Dončić, only 25, is the kind of player who is almost never traded, and certainly not without asking to leave the team first. He has already made five All-NBA first teams, and just last season he led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals. In his first news conference as a Laker, he said “absolutely not” when he was asked whether his intention was not to sign a long-term contract with Dallas.
The explanations for the trade have left people wanting more.
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“I believe that defense wins championships,” Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison told ESPN soon after the trade news broke on Feb. 2. “I believe that getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We’re built to win now and in the future.”
Except Dallas had a better defensive rating with Dončić than the Lakers had with Davis this season. And last year, when the Mavericks made the championship round, they had the league’s 13th-best defense after the All-Star break. (Los Angeles, with Davis, was 23rd in the same time frame.)
Further confusing and angering fans has been the way the team has seemingly taken shots at Dončić's work ethic and conditioning.
“If you look at the greats in the league, the people you and I grew up with — [Michael] Jordan, [Larry] Bird, Kobe [Bryant], Shaq [O’Neal] — they worked really hard, every day, with a singular focus to win,” Dallas team governor Patrick Dumont told The Dallas Morning News in his first public comments after the trade. “And if you don’t have that, it doesn’t work. And if you don’t have that, you shouldn’t be part of the Dallas Mavericks.”
While Dončić may not have the number of championships as the players mentioned, he does have the second-highest playoff scoring average in NBA history. He once even matched the scoring total of a 64-win team in the first half of a Game 7 by himself. And nearly all of the players Dumont mentioned had their own off-court vices, from gambling to conditioning issues.
The fan reaction to the trade and its attempted justifications has been both swift and severe.
The area outside the Mavericks’ home arena was quickly turned into something of a memorial to Dončić, and that soon became a protest against Harrison. Thousands of fans reportedly canceled their subscriptions to the team’s streaming service, and the anger has reportedly even spilled into the team’s business office.
Dallas has played three home games since the trade, and it has largely avoided showing fans on the jumbotron. A fan who was finally shown on the big screen Monday appeared to mouth the words “Fire Nico,” and he was kicked out. Another fan was ejected for having a “Fire Nico” sign, while two more were sent home after they argued with former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
“It’s pretty embarrassing for an organization that has the people that have the business experience that they claim they have, that this is the way they’ve decided to handle it,” Bowe said. “There was no way they were going to get out of this without a hurtful, toxic fan reaction because of how unprecedented the trade is.
“But it was never going to die down until they just let fans have their say and move on. How can you ask fans to move on when you’re just continually making them angry at every moment?”
The irony is that even as the fans have grown more discontent, the team hasn’t.
After two losses immediately following the trade, Dallas is 3-1 in its last four games, scoring upset wins over the Boston Celtics, the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors. The only loss came by one point in overtime to the Sacramento Kings.
Davis, meanwhile, has appeared in only one of those games. He had a great first half against the Rockets but left with an adductor strain that’s expected to keep him out weeks. (Another reason the trade was so shocking in NBA circles is Davis’ injury history.)
Wins seemingly mean so little to Dallas fans at the moment. It’s possible the team can win over the people upset over Dončić’s departure, but the trade continues to loom over the season.
“You just got to give everybody grace,” Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving said Monday. “To see the emotions come out like that over basketball, that just shows you that basketball is not just a game to certain people. It’s a spiritual experience. It’s a connector piece, and they watch their favorite players, and they want to see them forever.”
