Culture Can Mark Cuban Save the Mavericks—Again? The Dallas Mavericks traded away their star player and now face an uphill battle to regain relevance.  Mark Cuban could only watch in horror.  The former principal owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban was sidelined in February when his Mavericks traded away their playmaking prodigy, the 26-year-old Slovenian point guard Luka Doncic, to the Los Angeles Lakers. Had Cuban still controlled the day-to-day operations of the Mavericks, Luka, the former #3 draft pick and a fan favorite, would never have been traded. But Cuban, who sold away his majority ownership stake in December 2023 to Patrick Dumont, the son-in-law of Israeli-American businesswoman and Trump-influencer Miriam Adelson, no longer made the key decisions in Dallas. Away Luka went.  Fans in Dallas, who had come to expect sharp strategy from Cuban’s front office, were in for a shock when Dumont arrived. Dumont, who knew little about basketball aside from a fan’s perspective, spent his early career in investment banking with Bear Stearns before helping the Adelson family launch a $140 million takeover bid of the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2015.  In some ways, that background is no different than many of the men who own and control the destinies of multi-billion dollar sports teams. Take the Los Angeles Clippers owner, Steve Ballmer, for example. What does boisterous Ballmer know about basketball? Well, he knows how to cheer and that’s about it. Which isn’t a dig, by the way; many of the great sporting owners simply sign checks and enjoy the games. And in a lot of ways, Dumont’s background wasn’t all that different from that of Cuban, who had used his billions earned during the dot-com boom to finance entry into a very different NBA than the one we see today.  When Cuban purchased the Mavericks for $285 million four days into the new millennium, the Mavericks were known as one of the worst teams in league history. They boasted a 40 percent win rate over the previous 20 years before Cuban’s arrival and a less-than-stellar 21–32 record in the few playoff appearances they had made in that time span. Cuban immediately began to change the culture in Dallas. In a league governed by the notoriously tight commissioner David Stern, the brash, loud-mouthed Cuban immediately made himself an adversary of the NBA’s top brass. Cuban became the maverick of a league known for its straightforward owners. Cultivating enemies and fans who glommed on to his unconventional approach to management, Cuban racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fines, including $100,000 for confronting officials on the court in January 2014, only weeks before Stern’s retirement.  Cuban and the Mavericks prospered in the years that came after Stern’s retirement. Under the leadership of the current NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Cuban was fined less and found success in a league that suddenly became data-driven. Cuban also inherited one of the smartest men in the game, Don Nelson, who, as general manager, engineered a draft-day trade that brought the future star Dirk Nowitzki to the Mavs in 1998, a year and a half before Cuban’s arrival. While Cuban stalked the sidelines and berated officials over the next two decades, Nelson helped build the German Nowitzki into a ball-dominant big man who revolutionized the power forward position.  Nowitzki never left the Mavericks, a career arc that many hoped Luka would replicate. Dirk played all 21 seasons of his illustrious career in Dallas, leading his team to a remarkable NBA championship in the 2010–11 season. For that, Nowitzki became an icon in a city that adores winners. It was a Cinderella story: a down-on-its-luck franchise bought by an up-and-coming tech titan who splashed cash where needed and left the front-office decisions to a grizzled vet.  As Nowitzki’s career came to a close, the Mavericks began searching for the next franchise cornerstone. The year was 2018, and although Nowitzki, the French guard Tony Parker, and the Spanish big man Pau Gasol had proven international players were a formidable force in the NBA, there were still looming questions about the ceiling for foreign stars in a league run by Yanks.  Though many talking heads were convinced that the then-19-year-old Real Madrid star Doncic had the stuff to lead an NBA franchise, some doubted that his game could translate. When draft night arrived, the two big men DeAndre Ayton and Marvin Bagley III came off the board first and second. Doncic fell to third, where the Atlanta Hawks took him as part of yet-another draft day trade involving the Mavericks, who selected guard Trae Young at pick #5 before swapping the two players.  In Young, the Hawks got a franchise player who has lived up to his billing. On the other hand, the Phoenix Suns and the Sacramento Kings, who both passed on Luka, have spent years in turmoil as their chosen big men failed to live up to the hype. The one player who did live up to the hype and more: Doncic, who immediately became a playmaking shotmaker for the Mavericks. By the end of his first season in the United States, he had won Rookie of the Year and was being touted as the future of the NBA.  In the years that followed, Doncic was a revelation for Dallas. Not only did he will his team to the promised land; he became a fan favorite for his style of play. His passing instincts were among the best in the league. He played with a tenacious energy, leaving everything on the court. In a league struggling with the concept of load management, Doncic played every night he could, even when lumbering through various injuries. More than anything, Luka was clutch; in the big moments, he never shied away. He sought out the big shots and he made them.  By 2024, Luka wasn’t just a franchise player for Dallas; he was a cornerstone piece for the NBA as a league. Fans from around the country were tuning into Mavericks games night in and night out just to see the one they call “Luka Magic.” When the Mavericks entered the 2024 playoffs as the 5th seed in the West, few thought they could challenge for a title. But Luka and the Mavericks proved them wrong.  In a post-season run that mirrored Nowitzki’s incredible performance in 2011, Luka led Dallas through a gantlet of better teams before sizing up the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. As usual, Doncic was fabulous. With the help of guard Kyrie Irving, Doncic rallied the Mavs past the Thunder and to an improbable Finals appearance against the vaunted Boston Celtics. In the end, Boston, behind stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, overwhelmed the Mavs in five games.  And though the Mavericks lost the 2024 Finals, basketball fans near and wide had come to see Doncic for what he was—arguably the best player in a league chock-full of talent. But back home in the proverbial garage, all was not well under the hood in Dallas. Nico Harrison, the general manager personally appointed by Cuban to run basketball operations in June 2021, wasn’t as sold as everyone else on Luka. Harrison privately wondered whether Doncic’s training habits and conditioning level, which had come under scrutiny as Luka’s weight ballooned following the NBA finals, were up to the expectations of a championship-minded organization.  Still, what transpired in April of this year left many pundits, casual fans, and Cuban himself stunned. Harrison, Dumont, and the Mavericks traded Doncic away. Not only did they part ways with Luka, they sent him to a Western conference foe whose name and reputation strike fear in clubs across the league: the Lakers. In return, Harrison bought an aging, oft-injured Anthony Davis. Harrison argued the Mavericks were in a “win-now” mentality and that defense, something Davis was best known for, is what really wins championships. But his rationale made no sense.  The Mavs stumbled to the finishing gate of the 2025 season and missed the playoffs. In a stroke of luck that defied Harrison’s mismanagement, the Mavs won the first pick in the NBA draft lottery despite having only a 1.8 percent chance at the top pick. With it, Dallas selected Cooper Flagg, an 18-year-old phenom from Maine who was so big and fast and prolific that he skipped a year of high school basketball. He enrolled at Duke as a 17-year-old before proceeding to torment and dominate every team he faced in the college hoops landscape.  But Flagg’s addition to the Mavs did little to sway animosity toward Harrison and Dumont. With an injured Davis lingering on the bench and the Mavericks off to a 4–11 start this season, fans let the two men hear their discontent. Harrison, who following the Luka trade admitted he “didn’t quite know” the level of support that Doncic had in Dallas, was especially on the receiving end of taunting that lasted throughout most home games this season. The “Fire Nico” chants grew so loud in the American Airlines Center at times that they drowned out actual support for the team on the court. The situation had become untenable. Nico had to go. And so, nine months after the worst trade of the Trump era, Harrison was relieved of his duties on November 11. Dumont cited fan frustration and said the move was made to “refocus on building a championship-caliber organization.” Harrison’s firing wasn’t the only thing that changed overnight in Dallas. Cuban, who had been essentially sidelined by the new organization following sale of his majority stake, has been tentatively brought back into the fold to help advise Dumont and ownership.  Cuban, who once turned around the franchise but who had since been reduced to the “world’s richest mascot,” is now working with Dumont’s team to find consensus and to direct operations back toward winning. First order on the list is finding a new general manager to replace Harrison. Cuban has suggested Dennis Lindsey, a former front-office executive with the Utah Jazz and the Detroit Pistons. Second, and perhaps most important, is building a roster that can contend with the dominant Thunder, who have premier talent at every position including the bench.  Flagg’s youthful presence on the team allows Dallas the opportunity to move its aging assets and build around one of the brightest young stars in the league. Expect to see big waves in and out of Dallas in the coming months as Dumont and his team attempt to work with Cuban to salvage a sinking ship.  Regardless of where they go from here, the decision to ship off Doncic will always be remembered as one of the most boneheaded moves in the history of professional sports. The Slovenian star looks spectacular in his limited time with the Lakers, and many are already predicting he will win MVP honors while wearing purple and gold this year.  Can the Mavericks be saved? That’s a question that only time will tell. But if Cuban is going to help resuscitate a franchise on life support, this time he’ll have to do it from the sidelines.  The post Can Mark Cuban Save the Mavericks—Again? appeared first on The American Conservative.