The first four months of 2025 weren’t exactly good ones for the Dallas Mavericks. They traded away generational superstar Luka Doncic in early February, and afterward, they suffered injuries to multiple key players.
They stumbled into the play-in tournament, where they defeated the Sacramento Kings in the first game but lost to the Memphis Grizzlies in the second game and thus missed the playoffs.
Dallas badly needed some good fortune after its season ended, and on Monday, lightning struck in the form of the NBA draft lottery, which awarded it the No. 1 pick in next month’s draft.
The franchise will now have the ability to take Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, and minority owner Mark Cuban reacted on X.
“Unreal,” he wrote.
“[Expletive]
“Let’s Go Mavs”
Cuban was known for many years as the passionate and loquacious principal owner of the Mavericks. He bought a majority stake in the franchise in January 2000, and under his leadership, it went from a laughingstock into a perennial contender.
It reached the NBA Finals for the first time in 2006, and five years later, it brought home a world championship.
The Mavs also got to the NBA Finals last season, and it looked like they had years of title contention left in them, as Doncic turned 26 in February. But the team has received a boatload of criticism, especially from its own fans, after jettisoning the Slovenian superstar.
Now, Flagg, assuming he’s Dallas-bound, has a chance to become the team’s next major superstar. He is a do-it-all two-way 6-foot-9 forward who has been compared to Scottie Pippen, the Hall of Fame forward who won six NBA championships with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.
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