Life After Luka: Mavs Look Awful In Opener; How Can Fans Remain Hopeful?

DALLAS - It is Feb. 2, 2025 at 7:03 a.m., and I’ve got breaking news … for my girlfriend.

“Heyheyheyheyheyheyhey!,” I say, not-so-gently yanking her from her Sunday slumber. “Remember this moment, right now, because I’m about to tell you something that’s going to shape our world for years to come.”

After sitting up in bed and blinking her tired eyes open, she responds “Oh my God! Aliens?! Did we drop a nuclear bomb? Are we being attacked? Tell me!!”

After an attempt at a deep, calming breath, I break it to her: “The Mavs traded Luka.”

Her incredulous look, followed by an exasperated eye-roll, disgusted exhale and bee-line toward the coffeemaker did not do justice to the gravity of the moment. Because here we are - in the wake of opening night for the Dallas Mavericks a season-and-a-half later - still feeling the aftershocks of the worst trade in Dallas-Fort Worth sports history.

Luka Doncic is in Los Angeles with the Lakers. The Mavs, meanwhile, were in Houston to tip-off the 2026-27 season Wednesday night against the Rockets. But they are also in a deep rebuilding process, with little hope on the horizon. ...

And it showed.

"We had a couple of things that didn't go in our favor, and we just didn't hold our composure," said new coach Dusty May after a shockingly lopsided 128-110 loss. "We let go of the rope as a group, but overall, I thought we played and competed three out of the four quarters. Just the second [quarter], we couldn't figure out a way to right the ship."

Not one single word of that statement is encouraging. At all.

According to Las Vegas odds, the Mavs are projected to win only 35 games. They are a 180-to-1 longshot to win this season’s NBA championship, better than only eight teams.

The fallout from the Luka trade still resonates.

The player he was traded for (Anthony Davis) suited up for only 29 games as a Maverick and is now long gone to play for the Washington Wizards. The general manager who pulled the trigger on the deal (Nico Harrison) was fired by the Mavs and is still out of the NBA. The coach left to deal with a Luka-less roster (Jason Kidd) was also "parted-ways-with'' after last season’s 26-56 record.

I could pour a half-glass full of optimism and lie about the imminent success sure to be ushered in by new team president Masai Ujiri, new head coach May, a new starting lineup featuring 2025 Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg (who had 32 points in the opener) and the return of Kyrie Irving (who looked healthy in scoring 15), and a new roster bolstered by first-round rookies Morez Johnson and Sergio De Larrea.

But you’d see right through it. Because Dirk Nowitzki is gone, and the fresh memories of the 2011 title are gone, and Luka is gone, and the once-buoyant MFFL spirit seems eternally drowned in lingering sorrow.

Luka took to the Mavs to the NBA Finals in 2024. Then the team took our hearts by shockingly, sadly trading him in the middle of the night 20 months ago.

“I’m not saying you were right because you way overexaggerated it,” the girlfriend says these days. “But everybody still talks about. Nobody is happy they traded Luka.”

Just wait until I tell her the terrible tales of Kidd, Steve Nash and Jalen Brunson …