MW03 said:

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I don't care much for thread police. To minimize that our team just made the stupidest trade in modern professional sports and act like people should just move on cause it's "next man up" is dumb. There is no "next man." I will never be able to root for another team. Not a possibility. But if people want to pissed off about something the Mavs did, then a Mavs thread is the right place for it.

Some facts about the last couple of days:

• Arguably the most talented player in the NBA was cast aside for no good reason.
• Tonight, the Mavs were dominated inside in the 4th - at least in part - because they guy they traded him for and who is infamous for always being injured...was on the bench, injured
• This same night, ESPN, Gatorade, Jordan brand, the basketball media, etc. all rolled out the red carpet tonight for Luka's first game to talk about how Luka is poised to be the face of the Lakers and the NBA for the next decade.
• Meanwhile, if you show up to a Mavs game and have the audacity to say "Fire Nico," they escort you out. And yall want to call people "still" upset with the trade soft?
• And while Dallas is escorting its fans out, and there's a half empty arena watching an important OT game, ticket prices have tripled to watch your guy and mine make his debut in LA. In purple and gold.
• He didn't ask for a trade to go play with his buddies. Or decide he couldn't win in Dallas. He was dismissed and then **** talked on the way out by a guy who used his mother-in-law's money to buy the team, and who only wants guys like Jordan and Kobe and Shaq.

By the way, where was 41 tonight? I didn't see him sitting courtside next to Cuban, watching that important OT game and supporting the front office. Guess he's not a real one after all, either.

If you want to teach somebody basketball, start with the "governor" and GM. They took the team you love, the team I love, and made it the laughing stock of professional sports. Here's what they find funny while people clown memes in this thread.

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bingo

gigem isn't going to budge and that's fine. He supports his team, nothing wrong with that. Just an unpopular stance right now.

I'm literally at the point where I hope a mob fanbase swarms Nico and Dumont, drags them to the center circle and beats them until they are unrecognizable.

It's just a game, but it's not just a game. It's hard to explain. I think it's important that the anger never subside, but I fear it will and we will let the front office off the hook.

1) this was an idiotic trade
2) I'm not going to get over it in a week and I'm not gonna shut up about it
3) I was attending games in the expansion season. I'll put my Mavs fandom card up against any if you "get over it" mother****ers

Gigem called me a fanboy. **** that guy. Some of us have been going to games since the late 80s. I'm a Mavs fan way before a Luka fan, but you don't just get over your team throwing away your Shaq/Kobe/Jordan/Bird to use dumont's ******ed quote against him in a week.

I don't think the *****ing over the trade is getting in the way of the thread. We will talked about the game plenty last night. This thread can be boring af sometimes. Just be glad we have **** to talk about if nothing else.

From ESPN

Quote:

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Two of the fans held large poster board signs that read, "FIRE NICO" -- a reference to Dallas general manager Nico Harrison. One of those men was seen mouthing "fire Nico" on the arena video screens earlier in the game before the camera quickly panned out.

"In the first incident, the guest brought in a sign that broke the following rule included in the NBA Code of Conduct: Clothing, garments or signs displaying explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterization towards any person(s)," Mavericks vice president of corporate communications Erin Finegold said in a statement released to reporters.

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But Cuban was recorded

Quote:

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"Shut the f--- up and sit the f--- down!" Cuban yelled, according to footage a fan showed to ESPN.

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Is that also not considered profanity. Sounds like Mark Cuban should have been kicked out of the game.

The Ticket is also saying fans are being removed for things like having tape over the logo on their shirt. They are only fanning the flames of animosity by doing things like this. Turning your arena into a police state where you can't say anything negative is a terrible PR move.

The issue is that some of us older fans that lived the 80s and 90s saw what can happen when your best players hit their early 30s and you aren't lucky enough for the stars to align quickly to get the next great player, and instead it takes a decade. NBA Wilderness. It's hell. So beyond the affinity for Luka, living thru that decade of basketball has left some scars.

And I see some real similarities to the late 80s right now. Old, oft injured team that the window will quickly close on. An ownership without much basketball knowledge who have development around a new stadium as more of a priority than the team (Perot group and Victory, now Dumont/Adelson and a casino).

So we see dangerous territory ahead and aren't gonna shut up about it

Jesus. Every day we wake up and this trade somehow gets worse. And we're supposed to stop talking about it?

DannyDuberstein said:

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1) this was an idiotic trade
2) I'm not going to get over it in a week and I'm not gonna shut up about it
3) I was attending games in the expansion season. I'll put my Mavs fandom card up against any if you "get over it" mother****ers

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This.

It's barely been TEN DAYS since that a-hole dropped this bomb on an entire fanbase IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

I reserve the right to be pissed about this for as long as that smug b* stard is the GM. I only blame Dumont slightly less because he's obviously an idiot about basketball and more obviously the relationship between a franchise and its fanbase.

F* ck Nico.

wangus12 said:

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From ESPN

Quote:

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Two of the fans held large poster board signs that read, "FIRE NICO" -- a reference to Dallas general manager Nico Harrison. One of those men was seen mouthing "fire Nico" on the arena video screens earlier in the game before the camera quickly panned out.

"In the first incident, the guest brought in a sign that broke the following rule included in the NBA Code of Conduct: Clothing, garments or signs displaying explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterization towards any person(s)," Mavericks vice president of corporate communications Erin Finegold said in a statement released to reporters.

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But Cuban was recorded

Quote:

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"Shut the f--- up and sit the f--- down!" Cuban yelled, according to footage a fan showed to ESPN.

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Is that also not considered profanity. Sounds like Mark Cuban should have been kicked out of the game.

The Ticket is also saying fans are being removed for things like having tape over the logo on their shirt. They are only fanning the flames of animosity by doing things like this. Turning your arena into a police state where you can't say anything negative is a terrible PR move.

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This is setting up to be the worst possible outcome for ownership, and that isn't fans showing up in protest gear. It's empty seats. When you start to lose a packed crowd atmosphere and you instead get an empty, cavernous environment, it is hard to change it back.

I mean we literally have cuban cursing at paying in the arena fans for daring speak out against a bs trade that his transaction set into motion. He's allowed to sell the team, but to then lash out at fans when he's already admitted to not being in favor of the trade...like wtf Mark.

This is interesting to me because I went to the game on Saturday (first home game after the trade), and besides a group of "protestors" outside the arena, everything seemed pretty normal, if not more hyped than normal.

Maybe that was everyone wanting some excitement for the AD trade and trying to remain positive. (plus the Mavs were winning the whole game).

Maybe now that he got hurt instantly, the negativity is going to show more.

Cuban yelling at fans is hilarious to me. Always thought he was a smug cock-bag and now that his little fiefdom he built is starting to fall down around him (of which he has no control), he is starting to panic I'm sure.

Quote:

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Maybe that was everyone wanting some excitement for the AD trade and trying to remain positive. (plus the Mavs were winning the whole game).

Maybe now that he got hurt instantly, the negativity is going to show more.

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Honestly, if AD comes in and does well and the team is winning, everything probably dies down in a few weeks. And it started well enough on Saturday.

But then you have the worse case scenario which is AD getting hurt in his first game and its a decent amount of time out. Then the ownership continuously doubles down and their decision and now you are tossing people from the game for harmless things. Instead of turning the stove off and letting things simmer down, they've turned it up and are trying to bring it to a boil.

Feel bad for those Mavs employees trying to cold call fans to sell tickets or anything like. The PR team is having a nightmare.

Just a masterclass in horrible PR decisions

Yeah, the smartest move they could make is acknowledge that they've taken a risk they hope results in title(s), acknowledge the frustration and concerns, and then just let the frustration naturally fade out. Winning would help with that. Digging in is not the move here.

seen a couple hot takes from mavs talking heads saying they think AD is really out for months, if not whole season and the organization is just letting things cool a bit before announcing. I'm gonna call bs on that....hopefully. Could you imagine the vitriol that would spew if that ends up being the case? You think you need security now Nico....he better hope AD is only out a few games. People will riot.

Say what you want about him, but Cuban was self-made. And he was a fan. The Mavs were a passion project for him. He did what any of us would have done. Buy the team and spend as much time as possible being around the team. We laughed at him putting playstations in their lockers. We rolled our eyes at him practicing with the team. We cringed at him standing just outside the huddle in key moments. We got mad when he went after the refs and made the players a target for bad calls. But for better or worse, Cuban loved the Mavs and was one of us. He sold the players on that love. "Come here. Be a part of us. We'll treat you better than anyone else. We value loyalty, and we reward it." It became part of the fabric of the team.

Dumont was an investment banker that married into the Sands Corporation. The Mavs are an investment for them, a foothold to get gambling in the state, a venture capitalist exercise in brining in investors and then weeping while the strip you for parts to maximize profitability. They don't love Dallas, and they damn sure don't love the Mavs or their players.

So Dallas better get glitzy and fast. Because we can't sell the same story we've sold the past 25 years. Not after they sold Luka for parts in secret and under the cover of night, betraying the very loyalty engraved on Dirk's statute. I'm just thankful Cuban didn't sell the team sooner, because I have a "41.21.1" t-shirt I'll always treasure.

shack009 said:

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The rest of the season hangs on what we hear about Gafford. If he has to miss 15+ games then there really isn't any point. You can't overcome losing all of your big men, Luka or not.

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Even before the trade, this year has been so frustrating with the nonstop injuries to players.
I think we all thought this team had somethign special and a real chance to make another run at the title, and were interested to see how the changes like Naji Marshall played out against the Celtics.

Now we not only dont get to see that team, but are possibly not even going to really see what the new look Mavs would have done. Which that would have at least been interesting, even for those of us pissed off at the trade.

Just a cluster F all around

MW03 said:

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Say what you want about him, but Cuban was self-made. And he was a fan. The Mavs were a passion project for him. He did what any of us would have done. Buy the team and spend as much time as possible being around the team. We laughed at him putting playstations in their lockers. We rolled our eyes at him practicing with the team. We cringed at him standing just outside the huddle in key moments. We got mad when he went after the refs and made the players a target for bad calls. But for better or worse, Cuban loved the Mavs and was one of us. He sold the players on that love. "Come here. Be a part of us. We'll treat you better than anyone else. We value loyalty, and we reward it." It became part of the fabric of the team.

Dumont was an investment banker that married into the Sands Corporation. The Mavs are an investment for them, a foothold to get gambling in the state, a venture capitalist exercise in brining in investors and then weeping while the strip you for parts to maximize profitability. They don't love Dallas, and they damn sure don't love the Mavs or their players.

So Dallas better get glitzy and fast. Because we can't sell the same story we've sold the past 25 years. Not after they sold Luka for parts in secret and under the cover of night, betraying the very loyalty engraved on Dirk's statute. I'm just thankful Cuban didn't sell the team sooner, because I have a "41.21.1" t-shirt I'll always treasure.

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this is where I'm still at with it. No matter how many moronic quotes they put out there, I still think there's something more nefarious at play here. Buying a beloved and very local-loyal franchise is not the investment taht you should pounce on. There were any number of teams with much milder fan interest (in other sports too since they've admitted they don't care all that much about basketball) that they could have turned into a VC investment type scenario. Nefarious might sound strong here, but in sports, I can't think of anything more nefarious than looking at a beloved sports team as nothing more than a $ sign. Hell, you don't even see that with Saudi money...they buy up teams all over the place and immerse themselves into the fandom. The quotes this week lead me to believe that the conspiracy theories are warranted. If Dumont had a single clue about the pulse of this fanbase, there's no way those quotes come out. It tells me he's tone deaf, doesn't care that he's tone deaf and that there's just a new day for the owner/fan relationship here.

DannyDuberstein said:

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I do wonder if we'll ever see the new look Mavs much. Partly a function of deciding you are ok with the core of your team being 32-33

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what's not being talked about here much....I think we lose Kyrie this offseason without getting guys back healthy for a post season run. I'm sure he's pissed about the trade and has growing doubts about this roster's ability to maintain the health necessary to get a ring.

After being on good behavior and showing out for the Mavs for several seasons, he'll be a hot commodity and he'll have plenty of old heads on other rosters wanting to share the court with him for a final championship push.