NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has finally commented on the Mavericks’ decision to trade Luka Dončić, joining a growing list of officials who told fans to trust the organization.
Silver discussed the trade at a media session during the NBA All-Star Weekend and said he was unaware of the discussions before the announcement.
The commissioner further stated that “time will tell whether it was a smart trade” for Dallas, but fans of the franchise should “believe in their organization.”
“Their organization truly made a trade that they believed was in the best interest of the organization, and in many cases, again, it doesn’t mean they were right or wrong, but it’s very difficult to put yourself in their shoes,” he said, according to ESPN.
“They are living with the situation. They have a philosophical belief on what’s necessary ultimately to win championships, and I’m not in a position to second-guess that.”
Silver’s comments regarding defense and culture relate to statements made by Maverick’s General Manager shortly after the trade was completed, citing those two factors as the main reasons for the trade, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Although Silver told Mavericks fans to trust the front office, he also said that he is “empathetic” to the emotions of those who have supported Dončić since his arrival in 2018.
Silver’s comments are similar to those made by Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who told The Dallas Express, “It can’t ever be the case that any one person makes or breaks any organization.”
“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.”
Despite Silver and Johnson’s preaching of their faith in the Mavericks’ organizational decisions, many fans have publicly disapproved of the trade.
This disapproval has resulted in fans creating signs that say “Fire Nico” and chanting that same phrase during games, prompting the organization to eject those attendees from the American Airlines Center.
The Dallas Express reported that the organization removed multiple fans from a game earlier this month for these actions and claimed that the fans violated the NBA Code of Conduct.