Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd joined the DLLS Mavs Podcast on Monday, where he claimed to understand Mavs fans, yet he instead highlighted the growing gap between the fans and the front office.
The Mavs have not done the best job of handling the Luka Doncic trade, and even though Dallas won the draft lottery, the city is still in an uproar.
Until this year, Mavs fans were largely on board with the organization's vision. While the team has made mistakes in recent years, most notably letting Jalen Brunson walk in free agency and losing him for nothing, the team has corrected these mistakes with moves like trading for Kyrie Irving and the trades made at the 2024 deadline that ultimately propelled them to the NBA Finals.
Kidd's comments belittle Mavs fans and misunderstand their frustration
Kidd was asked on the DLLS Mavs Podcast if he had a message for the fanbase about the direction of the franchise. "I can truly understand the frustration or the hurt of the trade," Kidd said, "but we have to move forward. There is a draft, and there is a next season...We will win another [championship] shortly."
Kidd's response is yet another gut punch to Mavericks fans. While Mavs fans will eventually move past the Doncic trade, telling fans to move on reinforced the mistrust within the fanbase. Mavs fans are not just upset about the facts of the Doncic trade. Fans are upset because the Doncic trade happened, then the Mavericks organization refused to address the fans' frustration.
Furthermore, telling the fans to move forward separates the fans from the organization. Rather than treating the organization and its fans as adults in a big family, Kidd's remarks come across as telling a stubborn kid to get over some trivial disagreement. But this was not a trivial disagreement; this was a franchise-altering series of decisions that had a 1.8% chance of redemption. The franchise is not in a good state because of the savvy moves from the front office, but instead because of good luck.
The 2025 NBA Draft lottery saved the Mavericks from a decade of misery following the end of the Kyrie Irving-Anthony Davis era. Without this luck this year, where the top prospect is a generational talent, the Mavericks would have no path forward after the Irving-Davis era.
Despite the sunny outlook for the team, Mavs fans still have every reason to be upset. The organization isolated the franchise legends still affiliated with the organization: Doncic, Cuban, and Dirk Nowitzki. When given chances to atone for his sins, Nico Harrison doubled down and slandered Doncic. The organization still has not given a good explanation for replacing Cuban with Patrick Dumont as head of basketball operations. And these heart-wrenching moves left Nowitzki estranged.
Kidd's comments neglect the fact that the franchise received a miracle to pull itself from being caught in basketball purgatory. They also downplay the emotional turmoil the fanbase has been subjected to.
Trading Luka Doncic at 25 years old for an inferior trade package is not something you simply move on from; it demands action and repentance that the organization simply has not given.