Now that the Dallas Mavericks have come away from the NBA draft with star prospect Cooper Flagg in tow and have straightened away most of their loose ends from a business perspective and (almost) from a roster standpoint, the not-so-fan-favorites within the organization’s front office are not missing their opportunity to bask in the warm and oh-so-very-needed reversal of fortune that fell out of the sky and into their laps 6 weeks ago.
Prior to securing the number one overall pick in the draft lottery, the entire Dallas fanbase - and pretty much everyone alive on planet Earth - was casting shade towards Nico Harrison and company for the unforgivable treason he conjured up - and then committed - against the city of Dallas by trading Luka Doncic away to the Lakers over what amounts to little more, probably, than the fact that Nico couldn’t stand the fact that Doncic was more powerful than he was. Now that the world knows more about Harrison’s character, it wouldn’t be surprising if Doncic couldn’t bring himself to fake esteem or civility towards the Dallas GM during their time together in Dallas. Knowing what I know about insecure people, that probably kept Harrison from sleeping at night. Ultimately, it’s pretty sad that the franchise would allow Harrison to prevaricate and relentlessly attempt to obscure the true reason for the trade (if the world actually knew that it was due to Harrison’s petty nature, he probably would’ve been selling shoes at a Foot Locker right about now).
As it is, the incredible draft luck and the addition of Flagg now has Nico trying to affect a little bravado on the back end of the NBA Draft, as he’s begun to low-key brag about the fact that “his vision” is finally beginning to come together in Dallas. Oh, yes. That vision that included being awarded the first pick of the draft against all odds. And who else but Maverick’s aging mascot, (27% owner) Mark Cuban, has decided to get in on this nauseating marketing scheme in an attempt to win Mavericks fans back just 5 months after treating us like an unwanted stray dog. In an effort to praise Harrison’s handling of the franchise’s affairs of late (or actually to paint a picture that everything is better than it’s ever been in Dallas, despite everything you’ve heard since February), Cuban had the following to say:
“Where I’ll really give Nico and the front office credit is, you look at a lot of teams right now, they’re blowing up their team. They’re dropping bombs on their teams because of the second apron. We’ve got our guys locked up and with the way the cap’s going to move we should be in really good shape.
“Nico and Kyrie have had a strong enough relationship that they were able to work together to give us a little wiggle room to have somebody to fit in when Kyrie is out. So for all the hell that Nico has gotten, he’s done a great job of putting us in a really good position.”
Yes, yes. And even though Satan betrayed me and made my life really difficult for a little while, he’s done a really nice job setting up Hell to look like a super cool place for the eternally damned to occupy in their perpetual anguish. And I thought the three-headed dog and the black candle wax were smart design choices.
I used to not mind Cuban that much. Wasn’t a fan of letting Tyson Chandler get away after we won the championship, but I came to peace with that. When Cuban (sort of) showed some dissatisfaction with the Maverick’s decision to move Luka, it seemed like he might actually have at least one honest bone in his body. But now that he’s openly heaping praise on that coward that ruined the state of the franchise, I certainly won’t need any more time to finish forming my opinion about Mark Cuban for the long term.