{"id":417906,"date":"2026-01-18T19:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T19:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/417906\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T19:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T19:28:10","slug":"nba-rumors-on-mavs-attempt-to-repair-dirk-nowitzki-relationship-after-luka-doncic-trade-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/417906\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Rumors on Mavs&#8217; Attempt to &#8216;Repair&#8217; Dirk Nowitzki Relationship After Luka Doncic Trade, Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Dallas Mavericks are reportedly making a concerted effort to bring their biggest franchise legend back into the fold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">During an episode of Howdy Partners, ESPN&#8217;s Tim MacMahon revealed that Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki&#8217;s recent appearance at the Mavs&#8217; win over the Houston Rockets earlier this month was the first step toward repairing the relationship that became strained after last year&#8217;s shocking Luka Doncic trade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;His presence and his willingness to be shown on the jumbotron, his son Max wearing a Cooper Flagg jersey, that was an indication of Dirk kind of starting to accept an olive branch from Patrick Dumont, because the relationship between Dirk and the franchise had completely frayed,&#8221; MacMahon said around the 7:05 mark. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;The Luka trade was the absolute last straw, but it had frayed before then, going back to when Nico Harrison fired Casey Smith, and Dirk was not gonna be any part of this franchise as long as Nico Harrison was running basketball operations. Obviously, he&#8217;s not anymore. Patrick Dumont has reached out in an effort to begin repairing that relationship, and I think that Dirk is open-minded in terms of being a part of the franchise moving forward, potentially,&#8221; MacMahon added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Nowitzki is undoubtedly the greatest player in Mavs franchise history, but he wasn&#8217;t shy about <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/43967320\/dirk-nowitzki-disappointed-sad-traded-luka-doncic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">voicing his displeasure<\/a> over Harrison&#8217;s decision to trade Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers last season. Harrison was fired less than a year later after Dallas struggled at the start of the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">There&#8217;s a statue of Nowitzki outside the Mavs&#8217; home of the American Airlines Center, so it&#8217;s only right that his role within the franchise is restored. MacMahon went on to add that while the 47-year-old likely won&#8217;t be in the running for a front-office position, he would prefer a relationship where he&#8217;s able to have some input in the team&#8217;s decision-making.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Mavs are transitioning to a new era centered around Flagg, as the 2025 No. 1 pick is next in line to assume the mantle that once belonged to Nowitzki and was taken away from Doncic. Getting Nowitzki back in the franchise&#8217;s good graces could work wonders for Flagg&#8217;s development going forward and fuel optimism for the future in Dallas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks are reportedly making a concerted effort to bring their biggest franchise legend back into the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-417906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}