Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has spoken about the Mavericks’ decision to trade superstar guard Luka Dončić.
Mayor Johnson discussed the trade with The Dallas Express on Thursday, saying he has faith in the Mavericks’ front-office decision-making and that no organization can rely on a single player to maintain greatness.
“I don’t think there’s any dispute that Luka Dončić is a unique talent. He’s a great player, a great basketball player. I think that’s beyond dispute. But here’s where I kind of fall on all organizations that are great ones or aspire to be great ones. It can’t ever be the case that any one person makes or breaks any organization. If that’s the case, then you don’t have an organization. You have a wing and a prayer,” Johnson explained.
“Because anybody can blow out a knee, or anybody can be incapacitated or hit by a bus or anything else. And so, if the Dallas Mavericks are a legitimate franchise that’s well run and worthy of being the NBA franchise for a city like Dallas, it can’t be that one single player was going… We were going to pin all of our hopes for the next 25 years on one player.”
Mayor Johnson continued by saying that Dončić was an incredible player to watch and support. However, he trusted the front office with the decision to trade away the 25-year-old guard and believes the Mavericks can still compete at a high level.
“As much as I’m sad that I won’t get to see him play every other night here in Dallas because he was that fun to watch, I have to believe that the players that were still left behind and the ones we’re going to bring in can be coached up and can play at a level that can get us back to the NBA Finals again and hopefully win us a championship, which is what we’re here for as basketball fans,” said the mayor.
“I want to see my team win a championship. So yeah, sad to see him go, but confident that the Mavericks are going to continue in the upward direction.”
Dallas committed to winning a championship this season by acquiring Anthony Davis in the trade for Dončić, leaving Kyrie Irving as the main playmaker.
The Mavericks also received Max Christie, who has put up 15 points in each of his two appearances for Dallas, and a 2029 first-round pick while sending Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to Los Angeles.
Mayor Johnson then addressed a conspiracy theory that the team is considering moving to Las Vegas, explaining that it does not make sense to him and that the Mavericks will stay in Dallas for the foreseeable future.
These conspiracies revolve around the sale of the Mavericks to Las Vegas Sands Corp’s majority shareholder, Dr. Miriam Adelson, and Las Vegas Sands President and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Dumont.
“I don’t think it’s part of some conspiracy to move the team or anything like that. I don’t even quite understand the conspiracy. I don’t understand why you think an entity that already essentially controls Las Vegas needed to buy a basketball team in Dallas to move it back to Las Vegas,” Mayor Johnson told The Dallas Express.
“If you’re going to go down the gambling rabbit hole, if that’s what you think this is all about — I think, if anything, people are looking at the expansion of gambling east of Las Vegas and coming to places like Texas. I don’t see why moving our team to Las Vegas would be on anybody’s agenda.”
“I just don’t openly believe any of that. But as far as a basketball move, which I think is what this is, I think you have a general manager and an owner and I guess a coach. I don’t know how they make their decisions up there, but somebody came up with the idea that this could be addition by subtraction.”
This conspiracy theory grew large enough for the Mavericks to address the rumors and firmly state that the team would not be moving to Las Vegas.
“The Adelson and Dumont families have already started and are committed to investing and building in Dallas/Fort Worth,” wrote the organization in a statement sent to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“The families have absolutely no plans to move the team out of North Texas.”