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It has been months since the Dallas Mavericks left the basketball world stunned by trading the face of their franchise, Luka Doncic, to the Los Angeles Lakers via a transaction that also involved the Utah Jazz. On the surface, it was an abrupt end of Doncic's era in Dallas, one that prompted countless questions about the trade's true nature.
But the proverbial beginning of the end of the Slovenian superstar's marriage with the Mavericks might have also taken place a year before Doncic led Dallas to the 2024 NBA Finals, according to Tim McMahon of ESPN.
According to McMahon, Doncic's era with the Mavericks “truly began to disintegrate, along with the franchise's culture, 18 months earlier” — or the year before the said Finals appearance of Dallas — when Mavs general manager Nico Harrison decided to fire the team's then-director of health and performance, Casey Smith.
Harrison fired Smith via video conference, as the latter informed the former that he wouldn't be able to meet in person, as he wanted to be with his sick mother in Ohio. It's been regarded that the Smith firing led to Mavericks icon Dirk Nowitzki distancing himself from the team.
Harrison also handed athletic performance director Jeremy Holsopple and manual therapist Casey Spangler their walking papers a year later, following the Mavericks' loss in the Finals to the Boston Celtics.
The departure of Smith, Holsopple and Spangler appeared like big losses for Doncic, as the three helped him adjust to his new surroundings in Dallas as a teenager while also developing a close relationship with the star to the point that they have become his confidantes.
But with the Smith, Holsopple and Spangler gone, Doncic's personal medical staff were left to work with new faces on the Mavericks' medical team hired by Harrison. But as noted by McMahon, Mavericks director of player health and performance Johann Bilsborough “didn't endear himself to Doncic's camp.”
In any case, the Mavericks are now without Doncic, who, unlike his former team, is playing NBA Playoffs basketball with the Lakers.
In 422 regular-season games with the Mavericks, Doncic averaged 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists while posting a 47.0 field goal percentage and 58.8 true shooting percentage.
