Ex-Mavericks owner Mark Cuban jokes about blockbuster Doncic trade

If you want to know how to effectively laugh through tears, just ask Mark Cuban.

The former Dallas Mavericks governor and now minority shareholder was at an event Friday evening and publicly spoke about the team’s recent blockbuster (and largely criticized) trade of star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.

Although he broached the topic in a light-hearted manner, he did start by letting people in attendance at the Eisemann Center know that “I’ve had a rough week.”

In attendance with Cuban was Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, and the ex-Mavs stalwart took it as an opportunity to ask a prudent question.

“If after you left Microsoft, you found out that Steve Ballmer (Former Microsoft CEO, current L.A. Clippers owner) traded Windows 11 — the new hot operating system — for Windows 10 — a Hall of Fame but older operating system, what would you do?”

Cuban was not-so subtly referring to the fact that Dallas shipped off a 25-year-old perennial MVP candidate in Doncic for Davis — who is no slouch as a nine-time All-Star but is six years older and has had his fair share of injury concerns.

Gates waited for the crowd’s laughter to subside before he responded with: “I might have to hide from the press.” To which Cuban said “I know a couple of other people that are in that situation,” with a smirk.

Once news broke out last week of the shocking deal between the Mavericks and Lakers, unsurprisingly, basketball fans in Dallas were outraged. Many took to the streets and began protesting outside the Mavericks’ American Airlines Center, aiming much of their ire in the direction of general manager Nico Harrison — the man who orchestrated the deal.

Things got so intense that on Saturday, the Mavericks had to increase the level of security and law enforcement personnel outside the arena ahead of their first home game since the deal.

While Cuban hadn’t commented on the move made by the team he once primarily owned for over 20 years before his joking remarks on Friday, the admiration he had for Doncic was no secret

Since taking over as the Mavericks owner in 2000, Cuban saw the rise and peak of Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki up close. The Hall of Famer spent all 21 years of his NBA career in Dallas, bringing the franchise its lone title in 2011 with Cuban bearing witness to it all. There were presumably hopes that Doncic — who was selected third overall in 2018 and the Mavs traded for on draft night — was going to follow that same model.

In 2020, Cuban famously said, “If I had to choose between my wife and keeping Luka on the Mavs, catch me at my lawyer’s office prepping for a divorce.” He went on to sell a 73 per cent stake of the team to Miriam Adelson and Sivan, along with Patrick Dumont in 2023.

Safe to say his wife won’t have to worry about those divorce papers anymore.

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