Mark Cuban Reportedly Tried Like Hell To Convince Nico Harrison Out Of Trading Luka Doncic

Tom Pennington. Getty Images.

While it may seem like piling on at this point, as more and more details around the Luka Trade start to come out it becomes even more clear what a disaster this whole thing really was. Whether it was the actual return, the process in which the trade went down, AD now being hurt or the Mavs new owner talking about how he wanted to have players on the team that worked hard like Shaq (????????)

as some sort of rationale as to why he approved a trade like this which by itself is insane. Just say Dirk! You think Mavs fans give a shit about Jordan, Bird, Kobe, or Shaq? Dirk is literally right there if you're hellbent on making this terrible analogy. Read the room for me one time! Granted it's an awful spinzone attempt anyways, but that was terrible.

Well to add insult to injury, we now have the Mark Cuban aspect to this whole thing. Apparently, he tried his best to stop this trade from happening but unfortunately, it was too late

“By the time Cuban found out about the Luka-for-AD trade, it was too late. Dumont never approached for advice. Sources say Cuban urged Harrison not to go ahead with the swap… only to find out that the deal had already been sealed with the Lakers by verbal handshake.”

It's pretty clear Cuban hates the trade, and that's not at all surprising given his well known love for Luka

Here's the thing. For starters, Cuban knows all about making a tough franchise altering decision to a fan/city/franchise favorite and how badly that can impact things moving forward. He's openly talked about letting Steve Nash walk in 2004 was one of the biggest mistakes of his entire tenure as an owner. Nash was looking at max money, he had some questions surrounding his game, his defense was poor, he was undersized, and was dealing with health/injury issues. 

The guard left Dallas in 2004 to rejoin the Suns and to this day, it is Cuban’s biggest regret as the owner of the Mavs.

“I still got the pad when Steve called me for that last chance,” Cuban said on The Draymond Green Show. “I wrote down ‘Mike Bibby money,’ which is what he wanted and the max at the time. It was more that Steve only played 28-29 minutes per game that season, and we were worried about the injuries

“It wasn’t any disrespect to his game, and honestly, that propelled Steve. The fact that we let him go, two-time MVP, great guy, we’re friends again. A mistake, the biggest mistake I ever made with the Mavs.”

Sound familiar?

While not exactly the same because Cuban didn't sell off his 25 year old MVP candidate for 60 cents on the dollar immediately after that guy dragged the team to the Finals, in the end things did sort of work out with Dirk taking a leap and the Mavs finally winning their first title a few years later.

There's also the whole aspect of ya know, Mark Cuban selling his shares to this group who eventually shipped Luka out of town. He cashed in and handed the team to an ownership group that wasn't really connected to the city or the franchise and hoped for the best. So while it's a nice story that Cuban tried his best to block Nico Harrison from making this mistake, he's also a part of the reason this all exists in the first place. It's partially why a lot of Celtics fans are nervous with their pending sale. When a new ownership group takes over, everything is on the table. For most of these groups/owners, this is a business and nothing more.

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You think the Mavs new owners had even the slightest bit of understanding of what Luka meant to that franchise and that city? Hell no. If they did, I'm not sure how you make this deal. The basketball side doesn't exactly make sense and the PR side even less. That's honestly why Cuban was such an awesome owner. Not only did he spend what it took to make the Mavs a contender, he truly cared about the team and the city. Compare that to this new group and it's night and day in terms of their approach to running the Mavs.

I do find it interesting that a guy who still owns 27% of the Mavs wasn't even given the heads up about this plan. I mean, this is his investment too no? How do you at least not pick his brain on the subject? Even if he tries to kill it, you can still make the final decision as the majority owner, but why not get an additional perspective? Maybe the guy who has been around for the last 20+ years might be worth bouncing this MASSIVE franchise altering trade off of?

That's why it makes me think there's more going on here. Call it collusion between Nico Harrison and his best friend Rob Pelinka if you want, but things continue to not pass the smell test when it comes to this trade. It's clear that Nico and the Mavs new owners knew Cuban would be against it (and maybe try and kill the deal somehow) so they clearly decided to squeeze him out. 

It sucks, but that's what happens when you give up your majority share, you lose full control.