It’s official. We are in the dark timeline now.

In my days before joining the staff of MavsMoneyBall, I would come here as a first stop to find opinion and analysis at junctures where I needed things to make sense. Why did the Mavs lose to the Warriors in the 2007 playoffs? Why did DeAndre Jordan change his mind? And so many other questions that are painfully insignificant in light of the bunker buster that landed on the Dallas Maverick fanbase. It is a daunting task to sit here in the dark and make sense of this because – at least as of this writing – there is no sense to be made.

Luka Doncic and Dorian Finney-Smith reunited – but it’s a new episode of Black Mirror, a surprise late-night drop on Netflix. This is awful. It doesn’t just hurt, it makes you question why you care and if you should keep caring. About this team, about sports.

“This deal materialized in the shadows … LeBron James had no idea this was coming. Anthony Davis had no idea this was coming. I’m told Luka Doncic is still stunned about this trade.”@ShamsCharania on the Anthony Davis-Luka Doncic trade between the Lakers and Mavericks pic.twitter.com/Hp4bL3UX2M

— ESPN (@espn) February 2, 2025

Luka’s availability issues and upcoming Supermax are just the golf course you were playing on, Mavs. It is a proverbial course the Wizards and Hornets have never and may never be granted access to. The Mavericks were stupefyingly lucky to waltz from the end of Dirk’s career right into the Golden Age of Doncic without any gap. Instantly relevant, a new statute-worthy saga unfolding year by year right before our transfixed little eyes.

This makes zero basketball sense, zero cultural sense, and zero fanbase goodwill sense. Then as if on queue, the Mavs via Tim MacMahon of ESPN relay some organizational justification that is downright bizarre. If Doncic’s conditioning was a major issue for the Dallas brain trust, you ride out the storm and find ways to help make it better given that the top 5 players in the league who are smack dab in their 20s do not grow on trees. Instead, they originate a trade that if pushed through on NBA 2K would rightfully cause your PlayStation to instantly combust.

The Mavs had major concerns about moving forward with Luka Doncic due to his constant conditioning issues and the looming commitment of another supermax contract extension this summer, sources told ESPN.

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) February 2, 2025

Few in Dallas would want to trade Luka Doncic for the 2020 championship-run iteration of Anthony Davis at 27 – much less the “about to be 32 in March” version headed to the Mavs. The delta between the name and salary of Anthony Davis and his on-court performance will only grow with each passing season he remains in Dallas. He is now paired with another star on the wrong side of 30 in Kyrie Irving. How long before these two chase their ring dreams elsewhere? Then what, Nico Harrison?

Tonight, I pulled my “Opening Night” coin from the first Maverick game ever in 1980 out of its original plush drawstring pouch and looked at it. Zales Jewelry sponsored that opening night promotion and my grandmother worked for them at the time. For some reason, she thought her five-year-old grandson should have it.

I held that coin and thought about all the bad basketball I watched as a teenager in the ’90s when Mike Iuzzolino started at point guard and Dallas spent first-round picks on guys like Doug Smith and Cherokee Parks. The era when winning that night’s game was a remote fantasy, let alone the playoffs, to say nothing of a championship. Then Mark Cuban (who has no decision-making power as a minority owner to prevent this travesty) saved us, Dirk redeemed us, and Luka prevented a trip to the basketball wilderness. In one fell swoop, Nico Harrison must have said to himself…ya know, the Sahara desert in a couple of years sounds lovely. A team, a future, and an era undone for naught.

In the weeks ahead, you’ll hear the usual suspects in the Mavs organization twist themselves into a pretzel to justify this grotesque piece of organizational malpractice by lamenting Luka’s injury history and their bleak outlook on how his body will age. When you hear that hogwash, you’ll want to yell at the screen and you should. Loudly and with gusto.

Nico Harrison just gutted this franchise after spending parts of 3 years building a near-perfect team around its star. It is inexplicable and unforgivable. If it is true that Doncic was not pushing for this to happen and was blindsided by it, it is the worst trade in NBA history and the worst moment in DFW Sports history. Worse than David Freese, worse than Jackie Smith, and worse than any moment your memory can muster.

The worst part is that Dallas has done this to themselves willingly. It wasn’t demanded by the player or some Roberto Clemente tragedy. This was a self-inflicted wound that the team may never recover from.

Shame on you, Dallas Mavericks.

You can listen to our latest podcast episode in the player embedded below, and to make sure you don’t miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Pod Maverick podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, Pocketcasts, YouTube, YouTube Podcasts, Amazon Music, Castbox.

You can check out our After Dark Recap podcasts, YouTube Live recordings, and guest shows on the Pod Maverick Podcast feed. Please subscribe, rate, and review.