Mark Cuban's Message Makes It Appear That He Was Completely Blindsided By The Luka Doncic Trade
As the dust is beginning to settle around the blockbuster trade sending Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks, it's becoming more and more clear that the number of people who were involved in the move you can count on one hand.
Dallas head coach Jason Kidd was completely unaware of the trade, and even LeBron James claims he didn't know about the move until someone broke the news to him during a late-night dinner in Manhattan over the weekend.
Another person who doesn't appear to have had anything to do with the trade is Mark Cuban, which may come as a surprise to the casual NBA fan.
While Cuban has been connected to the Mavericks for more than two decades after purchasing a majority stake in the franchise in January 2000, he sold his controlling interest of 74% of the Mavericks in December 2023 to billionaire Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont.
Despite now only being a minority owner of the franchise, one might imagine that Cuban was involved, or at the very least was given a warning about the team shipping off a generational talent like Doncic, but nope, that wasn't the case.
Mark Cuban didn't have a clue the Mavericks were in talks to trade Luka Doncic. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
According to former NBA forward Chandler Parsons, he reached out to Cuban shortly after news of the trade broke and he received quite a telling response.
"I texted him, and I said, 'I'm so confused,'" Parsons explained on ‘Run It Back’ on Monday. "And he wrote back, 'That makes two of us.' So he's probably just as shocked as we all are."
"By the way," Parsons continued. "This new ownership — Patrick Dumont and the Adelson family — are business people, right? They're Vegas casino and real estate moguls. They know nothing about the NBA or basketball. So they've fully given Nico [Harrison] the keys to make decisions and bold moves like this. I believe Mark. I think this is just as much of a shock to him as it is to all of us."
As part of the three-team trade, the Lakers also received Markieff Morris and Maxi Kleiber while the Mavs acquired Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick. As for the third team involved, the Utah Jazz acquired Jalen Hood-Schifino while swapping 2025 second-round draft picks with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Doncic has not played in an NBA game since Christmas after picking up a calf injury and it is unclear when he will make his debut for the Lakers this season.