By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
It was noisy when the Dallas Mavericks decided to trade away Luka Doncic in February. The Slovenian sensation was sent to the Los Angeles Lakers. The majority of Mavs supporters were expressing their disgust, general manager Nico Harrison was under pressure from constantly growing protests, the basketball world was stunned, but Jason Kidd was instead focusing on his team.
“I was told by my boss, Nico, that we were going to make a change,” he said during an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday, “This is in the hotel in Cleveland. And so he said the news was going to hit in an hour, and that’s how it went down.”
“There was no arguing. This is what was going to take place. And so for me, it’s to move forward,” he explained his approach, “I thought my players and my coaching staff did an incredible job with, once they heard the news, of preparing to keep moving forward and especially with the trade and the injuries, I thought we did an incredible job.”
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old Slovenian guard was officially out of the team, ending a seven-year stint in Dallas, highlighted by reaching the 2025 NBA Finals presented by YouTube TV.
“I texted him on that morning, and that’s the last time I’ve talked to him,” Kidd confirmed the lack of communication with Doncic since the blockbuster trade, “From the experience of being traded, maybe being surprised, upset, feelings are high.”
“I loved the opportunity of coaching Luka. He’s an incredible person, and we all know his talent is one of the best in the world,” he continued, “I’ve always said this publicly and privately, I wish Luka the best.”
Dealing with several injuries, his side settled in tenth place in the Western Conference standings with a 39-43 tally in the 2024-25 Regular Season. In the SoFi Play-In Tournament, the Mavs beat the Sacramento Kings but lost to the Memphis Grizzlies and were eliminated from the Playoffs presented by Google.
“I didn’t cry. I was more or less trying to figure out how are we were going to make this thing work,” he added to his reaction, “I didn’t call anybody. I put my phone down and looked at the ceiling, and started trying to brainstorm of how this is going to go down. I did not call anybody once this hit, and my job as the coach is to make sure that we are all pushing in the right direction. There were going to be a lot of questions that morning from staff and players, and I thought Nico did a great job of handling it by having the meeting and for us pushing forward.”
In a huge boost heading to the 2025-26 campaign, the Mavericks won the lottery and will select first in the 2025 NBA Draft presented by State Farm. Therefore, promising upstart Cooper Flagg is heading to Dallas.