The controversies continue, leaked from Dallas, about the alleged physical condition of Luka Doncic that led the Mavericks to trade the Slovenian player to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis.
In November, Doncic missed five games with an official wrist sprain.
The New York Times, according to Mavs sources, reports that in reality, the injury was not 100% true and that the former Real Madrid player was sidelined to improve his fitness.
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Nico Harrison, the mastermind behind Doncic’s trade: “We really believed in it”
The Athletic claims that Nico Harrison’s doubts about Doncic’s future fitness were decisive in closing the trade for the Slovenian.
“There are people who fit into the culture and people who come in and contribute to the culture. Those are two different things. I think the people who come in contribute to the culture,” said Nico Harrison, Dallas general manager and a big fan of physical preparation, at a press conference to explain Doncic’s trade.
C. Clark, M. Vorkunov and F. Katz report that Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont “laughed” the first time Nico Harrison raised the option of trading Doncic, a decision they ultimately decided to adopt despite being aware of its unpopularity.
“The easiest thing for me to do is do nothing, everybody would praise me for doing nothing. We really believed in it. Time will tell if I’m right,” Harrison said of the Doncic trade.
The Mavericks had no plans to pay Doncic a $345 million supermax contract
Had he stayed with the Mavericks, the maximum contract Luka Doncic would have been able to aspire to would have been $345 million over five years, a ‘supermax contract’ option that league sources say Dallas would never have offered the Slovenian.
