DALLAS \u2014 Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said Friday he was \u201cnot part of the process\u201d in the infamous Feb. 1, 2025, trade that sent Luka Don\u010di\u0107 to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick.<\/p>\n
Kidd\u2019s comments came in response to an accusation from Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban earlier this week that Kidd and former general manager Nico Harrison played roles in the trade that has caused Dallas to slip from contender status to one of the worst teams in the NBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t justify it for our coach and general manager to stand up and trade our best player,\u201d Cuban said on the \u201cIntersections\u201d podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n In response, Kidd denied his involvement and said the Mavericks must look forward as they build around rookie forward Cooper Flagg.<\/p>\n \u201cCuban has mentioned that I knew about the trade,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cUnfortunately, as I have said, I was not part of the process. I was informed at the 11th hour. And that\u2019s the truth.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to move forward. We have planted our flag. That\u2019s Cooper Flagg. We have an opportunity to build around him. It\u2019s an exciting time. Our record is not what it should be. We have been in 43 \u2018clutch\u2019 games (games that were within 5 points in the final five minutes). We are playing hard. This group is playing hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Kidd said he called Cuban immediately after hearing what was said on the podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cI called Mark right away,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cWe had that conversation. That\u2019s not a public conversation. But understanding that Mark, again, has done a lot for the Dallas Mavericks. And for the city. And for myself. This is not about \u2018He said, she said.\u2019 It\u2019s about (him having) his opinion. And I\u2019m here to tell you the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n The morning after the trade, The Athletic asked Kidd when he knew the Mavericks were going to deal Don\u010di\u0107. Kidd said then that he was only made aware of the deal \u201cat the 11th hour.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked Friday to clarify what that meant, Kidd said, \u201cI was called (by) Nico (into) the room, and he told me that there was a trade that was going to go public at 11 o\u2019clock. That\u2019s what happened. That\u2019s the details of the conversation. I waited until 11 o\u2019clock, and that trade, the world changed.\u201d<\/p>\n News about the trade first broke<\/a> at 11:12 p.m. CT on Feb. 1, 2025. Davis made his Mavericks debut a week later and suffered a left adductor strain in his first game in a Dallas uniform and wound up playing 29 games with the Mavericks before being traded to the Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107, who\u2019s averaging 33.5 points per game, has led the NBA in scoring this season for the Lakers, who are in third place in the West. Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s status for Sunday\u2019s game in Dallas is unclear after he exited Thursday\u2019s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder with a left hamstring injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Mavericks fired Harrison in November amid their 3-8 start to this season. The team\u2019s search for a new head of basketball is underway, and Dallas officials have said they want someone in place ahead of this year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n Kidd, who is about to wrap up his fifth season as Mavericks coach, received a contract extension in October after the Mavericks blocked him from interviewing with the New York Knicks for their head coaching job. All indications are that Kidd will be back for a sixth season on the sidelines in Dallas. Kidd on Friday called Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont \u201cthe best owner in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe all understand what\u2019s in front of us, and that\u2019s to build a championship organization,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cI really, truly believe that when you look at Patrick, he will give us the resources to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Cuban sold his majority stake in the Mavericks to Miriam Adelson and Dumont, her son-in-law and the CEO of Las Vegas Sands, in December 2024 for $3.5 billion. On the same Intersections podcast episode, Cuban said he doesn\u2019t regret selling the franchise, but regrets who he sold it to<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cuban was the Mavericks\u2019 majority owner in 2011, when the franchise won its only championship. Kidd played on that team.<\/p>\n \u201cI played for Mark,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cWon a championship. He\u2019s one of the greatest owners I\u2019ve played for. Understanding roles have changed. I\u2019m not a player. I\u2019m a coach. And for him, his role has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said Friday he was \u201cnot part of the process\u201d in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,7235,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-583380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}