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Dan Beyer: “I think that Nico Harrison complete did not see the forest through the trees on what Luka Doncic meant to that organization, and that’s actually my biggest takeaway on what we had in the NBA last night. The Lakers donned all 18,000 seats in Crypto.com Arena with Luka Doncic shirts, while the Dallas Mavericks are ejecting fans for mouthing out ‘Fire Nico’ on the Jumbotron. I said it, if the Dallas Mavericks win a championship, I still don’t think fans will forgive Nico Harrison for trading Luka Doncic.”
Doug Gottlieb: “The other part of this that I find interesting is, when you’re running a basketball team, you have to balance out the aspect of culture and talent. I don’t actually think that Dallas fans are going to abandon them if they win a title. Now, there is something unique about Dallas, because Dirk Nowitzki flamed out in the first round of the playoffs way more than he ever went to the Western Conference Finals, yet he is absolutely beloved, similarly to Luka…everyone who takes over a team wants to implement their culture. Do things the right way, make sure everybody is equal. That sounds great, it really does, but sometimes one guy can put the ball in the basket at a much higher rate, create more excitement, create more baskets than other guys!”
On this edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show, Doug Gottlieb & Dan Beyer offered up more thoughts on the Luka Doncic – Anthony Davis trade, diving further into the fan reaction to the deal, how the teams have operated since then, and trying to make sense of Mavericks GM Nico Harrison’s thought process in executing the trade!