As a forever MFFL, I will never forget this day. I will never forget laughing at twitter last night thinking Brad Townsend had been hacked before quickly realizing the absolutely basketball horror that was occuring.
I was born in the late 80’s and unfortunately have just heard stories of the great Dallas Mavericks teams of the 80’s who went toe to toe with the great lakers, Moody Madness, Dick Mottas abrupt resignation and more.
Then came the 90’s and as I grew up in the country side outside Dallas without a TV, listening to sports on the radio became my respite and one of my favorite things. I sat by the radio and the listened to Brett Hulls game winning goal in the 1999 Stanley Cup final and I remember being glued to the radio when Calvin Booth of all people played hero in the Mavericks shocking series win over the Jazz in 2001.
Since that time, MFFL has been a regular phrase and Mark Cuban, love him or hate him, has been one of the most successful NBA owners of his era. The Mavericks have been good as long as I can remember and a big reason why is because of loyalty. Now, loyalty isn’t perfect, just ask Steve Nash, but one thing I have greatly appreciated being a Mavs fan all these years is the master class in loyalty that Mark Cuban and Dirk Nowitzki showed us in their time together.
That loyalty paid off when the Mavericks finally broke through and won the 2011 title and they did said by beating a team that in many ways was the antithesis of loyalty. The 2011 Heat representing everything that I hate about sports and everything that I hate about the NBA. They represented one of the earliest super teams made up of stars who viewed chasing a ring over loyalty to their teams and their cities. I loathed players like Lebron James and Kevin Durant for this over the years and felt so secure in my Mavericks bubble of good vibes due to the culture that Dirk and Cuban had helped create over the years.
The only problem with this brand of loyalty is that for some reason, the games biggest stars didn’t want to come here. Despite Dirk being and eternally underrated all-time talent, it was always difficult to pair him with other stars who weren’t completely past their prime. Instead the Mavericks won their title in large part thanks to journeymen like Brian Cardinal, aging sharp shooters like Peja Stojakovic, unknown folk heros like JJ Barea and the insane talent of Dirk Nowitzki that was finally given its due on a national scale. That 2011 team will forever be my favorite team in all of sports and I will always cherish being an MFFL and never giving up that hope because when it finally came together, oh how sweet it was.
For any MFFL, they will tell you that the post 2011 Mavs weren’t the best to follow and it was difficult watching Dirks final years end without another legitimate shot at the title but we were okay because we had that title. The improbable had happened and most importantly it had happen the right way.
Fast forward to 2018 and I will never forget the excitement I felt on draft night. The Mavericks had done it, they had fleeced the entire NBA and Mavericks fans were getting what could be the next Dirk. There was hope and anticipation in the air at what Luka Doncic could be. This was our David Robinson to Tim Duncan, Brett Favre to Aaron Rogers moment.
Little did we know at that point just had unique and special Luka would turn out to be and it wasn’t long into we were all believers in Luka magic. Every night the Mavericks played the opportunity for something special to occur existed. We watched in awe as rookie Luka executed a personal 11-0 run to beat the rockets with his patented step back. We watched in awe as Luka beat the Clippers in the bubble on a go ahead three and in 2022 as he destroyed the pheonix suns with dagger three after dagger three, creating memes that would exist in the heads of some of the NBA’s brightest stars for the rest of their careers.
Luka was magical night after night and year after year until last year he gave us a 73 point game on an otherwise non-descript january evening followed by leading the Mavs over favored west heavy weights to their first finals appearance since 2011. The Mavericks were back, oh so back, and rather than rest on their laurels, their talented GM who had made countless shrewd moves to improve the team including bringing in Kyrie Irving, PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford, continued his aggressive nature by bringing in Klay Thompson as the final piece to the puzzle. Finally, the Mavericks we a team that good players wanted to join. Could this be real life? Expectations were sky high as the Mavericks began the 2024-2025 season not just for this season but for the long and foreseeable future.
Now, let’s take a step back for a second before I destroy Nico Harrison as he rightly deserves. Has Luka been perfect here? No. Luka has often struggled with remaining in game shape and even more so with maintaining his cool on the court and at times his antics have been costly to the team. Should it matter when you have a player the caliber of Luka who is shown nothing but commitment to the City and Team that drafted him since day 1? No, it shouldn’t and for every other NBA team in the league it doesn’t.
We have seen this play out time and time again. Superstar is either drafted or joins a good team. Said team begins to worry about either the cultural fit or the possibility that the superstar will leave them when their contract ends. So what does said team do? They trade the superstar for all the assets in the world, setting themselves up for the future before losing everything when the super star walks. Oklahoma City is a prime example of this. They once had James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Russell Westbrook and then they had all the assets in the world, now they are set up as a powerhouse for the foreseeable future.
Okay, back to Nico. As I mentioned before, 24 hours ago, I loved Nico Harrison, we all did. He was the general manager who go it. He understood talent, he understood team building and he appeared to be damn good at it. Little did we know what was coming. Should we have seen it when Mark Cuban abruptly sold the team last year and Vegas billionaires go involved? Mark Cuban was an MFFL before he owned the team. He understood how inextricably linked Mavs fandom was with their stars and he said himself if he had to choose between his wife and ever trading Luka Doncic, he would be talking to his divorce lawyer.
Instead here we are, still trying to grasp what just happened. If you are like me you are probably always going to remember the Mavs as Pre-Luka Madness and Post. I will never forget this day and I will never forget how I am feeling right now. I have spent the entire day consuming information trying to find something that helps this make sense. Something that would make me go okay, I hate it, but I get it. All I’ve seen and heard has just made me feel worse. What Nico Harrison and Patrick Dumont have done to this Mavericks will reverberate in the DFW sports landscape forever and I don’t believe in my lifetime will a more shocking and costly trade take place.
Nico Harrison has not only hurt the Mavericks and their loyal fans, he has hurt the entire NBA. This trade does a disservice to all NBA stars, teams who may be looking to trade those stars and those teams who spend years building up assets to have hope when that elusive star happens to hit the market. It’s all destroyed. All of it. Nothing makes sense anymore and we, the MFFL’s are the butt of the joke.
We had been given the gift of greatness and Nico has taken it away and with it he has destroyed the MFFL culture for the foreseeable future. Why would any star want to come here? Nico has made it clear he is clueless and willing to use you and abuse you for his delusional gain. Nico has also made it clear to those on the roster that loyalty means nothing. Team means nothing and family means nothing. I wouldn’t blame any Maverick on this current roster if they decide to leave. Nico deserves it and I hope he isn’t here long but something tells me that with new owners as delusional as they seem, we may be stuck with this leadership for some time.
This has been the worst day of my DFW sports fan life. I never thought it could get worse than October 27th, 2011 but here we are. I have been mad, I have cried, I have sat in numbing silence trying to understand this and I never will. If you are like me we are all in the same boat.
All I can say now is this. I will always love Luka. I will never be a lakers fan. I will somehow find a way to stay loyal as an MFFL because that’s what we do. When our owners, and general managers and sometimes players are disloyal, we stay strong because one day we will feel good about our MFFL family again. One day we will once again watch as our Mavericks, despite what’s happened today, raise a championship banner and as bitter sweet as it may be we will be glad we didn’t leave and give up.
I know that’s a lot of hope, but right now, what else do we have? Maybe I am delusional too.
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