The division of Mavs fandom after Luka just reached a boiling point.
A dichotomy of emotion and loyalty has been building in Dallas. It’s been growing for a while now, fertilized by bad decision-making, poor judgement and lack of integrity by people in charge.
It has created division and animosity between family members, across friend groups and group chats, in digital lives and the real world.
Its causes are found in greed, callousness and questionable character, and its effects will linger for years to come.
Its wounds run so deep that the differing sides now find it hard to even look each other in the eyes, even less be happy for one another.
And now the Dallas Mavericks have won the draft lottery. And with that a new chance to create something great.
But do they deserve it? Does an organization, who, led by its GM, made one bad decision after another the last months, deserve to be rewarded?
Luka Dončić was traded overnight, treated horribly afterward, everybody watched as they tried to tarnish his reputation. Done by an organization who had asked Dončić to carry so much for years, a man who never complained, a man who called Dallas his home.
After what they did, they don’t deserve this, one side of this local/international feud argues.
They don’t deserve this joy, when they took ours away.
Unfortunately, this situation forces us into new and complex territory. There is no right or wrong here in this world of philosophizing dichotomies, no correct way of feeling.
But the bottom line is that two things can be right at the same time. Luka Dončić deserved to be treated better, and Mavs fans deserve some joy.
The thing is, if joy is good and the pinnacle of sports fandom, shouldn’t we wish it on everyone?
I’ve seen Dallas fans in despair for months. Some have blocked me, because I continue to cover Luka Dončić, which has just been too hard on them, others spew hatred any chance they get, consumed with conspiracy theories.
Coping mechanisms in a time when everybody just wants to make sense of a senseless world.
Mavs fans have written to me with stories of darkness taking over, of hopelessness and grief. “I don’t know how to get over this,” one fan wrote to me, and all I could say was to hang in, it will get better with time.
And now, mid-May, things are looking up for Mavs fans. There’s finally hope. A faint whisper of joy to come for a fanbase who deserves it.
But we have to acknowledge that it’s really not that simple. One person – or a small group of people – took the joy away from a huge group of people, an international community of die-hard Luka supporters turned Mavs fans, and a community of die-hard Mavs supporters turned Luka fans.
People from Manila to Montpellier, from Rio de Janeiro to Helsinki, from Sydney to Berlin, from Oak Cliff to Deep Ellum – they all considered themselves part of this community.
Inspired by La Niño Maravilla, they came together to celebrate the talent that made them Mavs fans. Some had come for Dirk and stayed for Luka, others are born and bred in Dallas, or Texas, or New York or New England and just love this team.
For all of these people, and many more, things are more complex. They lost their community, people they called friends, and a big part of their joy and light in their sometimes tedious everyday lives. These people are still to this day torn between the love for a player, the love for a city and its team, and the perpetual anger towards a small group of people who thought they knew better, but really knew so little.
For these people, this is hard. For these people, it’s difficult to celebrate right now.
Does this mean, they ask themselves, that we actually live in a world where bad people or bad choices are rewarded? That’s hard to face. And it’s also not true.
No, the leadership who made one bad decision after another and stole so many people’s joy don’t deserve this.
But the struggling fans of Dallas do. And you know who else does? The workers, media people, people on the ground, the guards and salespeople, the administrators and coordinators, the entertainment crews, the video folk, the people working the concession stands. The podcasters and writers and radio folk. The commentators. These are people who looked into a year where they might have lost their livelihoods. Podcasts were going to be canceled, talented writers and reporters leaving to make a living somewhere else.
For these people, not only joy was lost with Luka, future plans were upended. Income and job certainty suddenly uncertain.
Luka Dončić will find his way, he will be alright, we all know that. He even said himself that he will always hold Dallas in a special place in his heart and forever be grateful for the love and passion the city and fans showed him throughout his time as a Mav. A generational talent on the biggest team in the world, a uniquely gifted player in a world of very gifted players. Ya, Luka will be ok, it was always the Dallas Mavericks’ future that was uncertain.
Irrelevancy, lack of youth, poor leadership haunting the team and its fans. No, it was the Mavericks who needed hope.
And now, for all the fans barely hanging in there, for all the fans disappointed and lacking faith after the trade, joy could be on the horizon again. It may not come in the shape of a lovable Slovenian teenager. It may take a little longer to reach its potential. And it may look slightly different. But once again, there’s hope for this team.
“Basketball is my outlet for peace”, a Mavs fan recently wrote online. And isn’t that what it’s all about? Sports giving you some peace, hope in the future and a lot of joy in the small things in life, despite the chaos of the times. Both in basketball and in life.