The Dallas Mavericks are at the moment gearing up for his or her play-in sport matchup vs the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night. It has been an extended fall from grace for the staff since their stunning early February commerce of Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, who’ve since secured the quantity three seed within the Western Convention.
The principle goal of criticism from followers and pundits alike has been Mavericks common supervisor Nico Harrison, who pulled the strings of the stunning deal, which many take into account to be among the many worst in fashionable sports activities historical past.
Just lately, Harrison held a press convention with some members of the Dallas media, and Tim Cato of All Metropolis reported on X that Harrison “stated ‘protection wins championships’ repeatedly in response to any query about why the Luka commerce occurred.”
Actually, transcripts of the press convention reveal that Harrison uttered the cliche a whopping seven instances, per ClutchPoints’ Brett Siegel.
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Whereas the Mavericks actually received the higher defender within the commerce by swapping out Doncic for Anthony Davis, additionally they misplaced out on a consensus prime three participant within the NBA who led them to an NBA Finals look lower than a yr in the past.
There isn’t any historic precedent for a staff buying and selling a participant the caliber of Doncic with out him explicitly asking for him to take action, particularly not as they’re simply theoretically coming into their prime years.
If the Mavericks are capable of shock some of us and win two straight play-in video games, they’d probably be heading for a fast exit by the hands of the 68-win Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, whereas Doncic and the Lakers will likely be favored to advance of their first spherical collection in opposition to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Nonetheless, it would not seem that Nico Harrison himself has many, if any, regrets concerning the stunning transfer.