Former Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban Caught Looking Distraught Hearing 'Fire Nico' Chants

The Dallas Mavericks shook up the NBA world when they sent superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis. When Doncic was the main attraction of the Mavericks, back to when he was drafted in 2018, then majority owner Mark Cuban was arguably Doncic's biggest fan.

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However, after selling his majority stake about a year ago, things have clearly changed. Despite leading the team to the NBA finals last season, general manager Nico Harrison got the okay from the new majority owners, the Adelson and Dumont families, to trade away Doncic.

Harrison cited improving the team's defensive identity as the reason, and also, numerous stories came out about the team being worried about Doncic's conditioning.

That meant trading for the more defensive-minded, injury-prone big man Davis made sense for Harrison.

In Doncic's return to Dallas, a lot of people were emotional. The Mavericks gave Doncic a great tribute video, which brought him to tears. Fans were cheering for him when he got the ball, while simultaneously chanting 'fire Nico' whenever they could.

Cuban was also in attendance, and he was clearly emotional himself.

The video clearly shows Cuban looking miserable, with it starting with his head in his balled up hands. The whole experience likely made him feel sick, given as previously mentioned, he had a close relationship with Doncic.

This video also sums up how the whole Mavericks fan base felt when the trade went down. While Anthony Davis is a talented player, he is nowhere near the talent of Doncic, and is much older, and even arguably less proven on the biggest stage.

Davis did win a championship, but he won with LeBron James by his side, who now has Doncic alongside him. We have never seen Davis come anywhere close to leading a team to a finals appearance as Doncic did last season.

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Cuban has gone on record saying he loves Doncic more than his family, so the trade clearly indicated his lack of power in the organization. While ownership often isn't taken enough into account for trades and signings in sports, the Mavs' ownership change clearly had a huge ripple effect on the future of the Mavs franchise.

Cuban's Mavericks now seem marginally set up for the next year or two, rather than potentially the next ten years, as long as Doncic sticks around in free agency. Given his emotional reaction to returning to Dallas, it seems plausible to believe he would have stuck around long-term.

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