{"id":147132,"date":"2026-02-02T03:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T03:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/147132\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T03:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T03:53:08","slug":"one-year-later-mark-cuban-sounds-off-on-mavericks-luka-doncic-trade-it-was-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/147132\/","title":{"rendered":"One year later, Mark Cuban sounds off on Mavericks\u2019 Luka Doncic trade: \u2018It was a mistake\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has officially been one year since the infamous, stunning trade that sent Luka Doncic from the Mavericks<\/a> to the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

As basketball fans take a look back at the deal a year later and look at where it left the Mavericks<\/a>, longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein published a lengthy story on his Substack page<\/a> still trying to make sense of the deal. Stein spoke to Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban for the story and Cuban was very frank about his thoughts on the Doncic trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a mistake and I wish they would have spoken to me first,\u201d Cuban said. \u201cI\u2019m happy for Luka. And I\u2019m happy for Mavs fans that we\u2019ve got [Cooper Flagg], even though I recognize that we all still miss Luka.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people responsible for that [deal] are for the most part gone, which I think was necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Of course, the main person he\u2019s referring to at the end of the quote is former general manager Nico Harrison, who traded Doncic, faced immense backlash for the deal and was ultimately fired just nine months after making the stunning deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cuban said he was at a conference in Florida when he received a text from Harrison asking that he call him immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis words were: \u2018Of all the calls, this one was the hardest to make MC,\u2019\u201d Cuban said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s when I said: \u2018Wait. So you\u2019re saying it\u2019s done?\u2019 And the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason Harrison was able to swing the deal without Cuban\u2019s blessing was he got the signoff from new majority owner Patrick Dumont. Cuban sold the team to Las Vegas billionaire Miriam Adelson, who is Dumont\u2019s mother-in-law, but later said he fully expected to still run basketball operations after the sale<\/a>. That\u2019s not what ultimately played out and Dumont allowed the trade to happen.<\/p>\n

Now, with Harrison out, Cuban is back in the fold as an \u201cadviser\u201d to Dumont to help navigate the post-Doncic era<\/a>. One thing is certain: The miracle of winning the draft lottery to land Flagg and his subsequent meteoric rise during his rookie season has eased the sting of Doncic\u2019s departure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NBA All-Star reserves announced: LeBron James\u2019 streak hits 22 years, first-timers, more<\/a>Numbers suggest Mavericks\u2019 criticisms of how Cooper Flagg is officiated might have merit<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has officially been one year since the infamous, stunning trade that sent Luka Doncic from the Mavericks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4643,102,104,2582,103,4646,4975,4281,3080,6538,6468,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-147132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-dallas-news","13":"tag-luka-doncic","14":"tag-mark-cuban","15":"tag-mavericks","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nico-harrison","18":"tag-patrick-dumont","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}