02-27-2025, 02:23 PM
(02-27-2025, 12:43 PM)joshuadx89 Wrote: I've read this board for a few years now but never posted. This probably isn't great use of my first post but did want to chime in on the trade and the aftermath.
A little background. Like many 90's kids I grew up a Bulls fan. Continued following the Bulls through the Derrick Rose/Noah years but my fandom of the NBA in general fell off a lot towards the end of the 2010's.
Fast forward a bit to when the Mavs drafted Luka. My at the time 7-year-old son fell in love with basketball, and almost instantly was a Luka/Mavericks' fan. Over the last 7 years he and I have bonded a ton over sports. His love of Luka made us both Mavericks' fans. We watched as many games as we could on the east coast. That culminated last year when we watched our favorite team go to the NBA Finals. My son has grown into a 13 almost 14-year-old with an absolute love of the game. He's modeled his game after his favorite player. So much so I had a stranger ask me if he was my kid at his last game this year. When I said yes, he told me he plays like little Luka.
When the trade happened, I found out through text from a friend I play old guy basketball with. When my son woke up and I told him, he was devastated. I thought back to being 13 or 14 and being completely in love with this sport and wondered how I'd feel if I woke up and found out the Bulls had traded Michael Jordan. We've continued to watch the Mavericks when possible. It's not the same. We've also continued to watch Luka. Its also not the same. Luka looks wrong in a Lakers jersey. The entire thing is wrong. The sad part is its fairly obvious Luka still wants to be in Dallas. I will hold out a sliver of hope that he comes back after next year.
All of that said, I think the Mavericks' front office came across clueless and classless when trading Luka.
Nice compilation of your story. But I digress Luka would ever come back to the Mavs. Pride is a tough thing to recover from, and Luka was hurt from this trade.