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Ramona Shelburne
Nico Harrison used The type of suit that nobody could get lost. Electric Blue is probably the best way to describe it. And for 10 minutes, the general manager of the Dallas Mavericks stopped in the middle of the court, 15 feet away from the generational superstar that had changed to the Los Angeles Lakers just over three weeks ago, and was seen.
If Luka Dončić had something to tell the Executive who had overturned his career, and the NBA, with one of the most shocking trades in the history of the League, this was the time.
Thousands of fans and media members were already inside Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night, with testimony of the scene. The vast majority of them took cell phones to document it. Dončić on the side of the Lakers court, going through his warm -up prior to the game. Harrison in Midcurt, supported against the scorer table.
Dončić did not look up or recognized Harrison once. Not during warming. Not during the game, when Harrison sat down just behind the Bank of the Mavericks. And not after the game, when asked about it.
“I didn’t see him,” Dončić said with a mockery that would have proud Don Draper.
The exchange more than changes the game in the history of the NBA was a public and private repudiation of one of the best players in the world, their work habits, of the culture that, according to reports, of his future as the best player in basketball. Those close to him say he has alternated between shock, sadness and anger in the weeks after exchange. Every day that goes home to the Los Angeles hotel where he lives with his fiancee and a little daughter is a reminder of how much his life has taken.
This exchange is a decisive moment for all involved, for the Mavericks, for Harrison, for the Lakers, but especially for Dončić. What happens in the next 26 regular seasonal games will begin to shape its legacies and the league for the next generation.
“They have changed great,” said the Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, before the game. “When you look at others who have been exchanged, they continue. Yes, you will be angry. They are all human … but you can be exchanged or can cut you. How you answer after that is what everyone wants to see, and I really think Luka will be fine.”
Even so, even Dončić admitted that he had never experienced a rejection like this before.
“The closure will take time, I think,” Dončić said after the victory of the Lakers 107-99. “It’s not ideal.”
That process hit His first milestone on Tuesday night.
“I’m glad this game is over,” said Dončić. “There were many emotions. But we are going little by little, and every day is better.”
For Dončić, facing the Mavericks was an opportunity to face the people and the organization that had rejected him. For the Lakers, it was an opportunity to hug and support their new star at a difficult time.
“I think the best teacher of life is experience,” said LeBron. “When you start for the first time, you’re not great, but that’s your aspiration, that’s your goal. You want to be great, but you have to go through adverse moments.”
For Harrison and Kidd, whom Dončić did not recognize or hug, it was a time to support the decision and make any contempt or response that Dončić had for them.
On this night, Dončić decided to ignore them and any other person who could be considered as guilty for tradeing it. He would let his work speak for him: a triple-double of 19 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assistants, the first as Laker.
“I’m glad it’s over, sincerely,” said Dončić. “They were so rare, the moments. I felt that I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Kyrie Irving has remained in contact with Dončić since the trade, reviewing his emotional state more than anything. He feels protector of Dončić.
“I don’t think I expected change, and I think that is probably what leads him to feel his emotions even more in a deeper way,” Irving said. “I reject, I think it’s a strong word … but sometimes it can feel like that.
“You have to go through your grieving process. Lluelo … It is not a word that we use in the NBA circles, it’s like, ‘I only know hard, brother’. Everyone expects me to deliver the next page and overcome it.
Finally, Dončić will advance, or will not. Those close to him are working to help him do it sooner rather than later.
Hours before notice On Tuesday night, Nike published an advertisement in which a Purple Regera changes its plates No. 77 from Texas to California plates. The soundtrack is the success of George Strait “All My Ex’s Live In Texas”. The motto is “complete tank, without mercy.” Nike also used Tuesday’s stage to launch a new advertising campaign for the launch of his Luka 4S.
Before the game, that Purple river was stopped outside Crypto.com Arena to complete the show.
This type of deployment would only happen in Los Angeles, and after the exchange, the stage was ready for a massive Hollywood debut.
Dončić has already begun to point out that he will eventually adopt everything that comes along with the stage in the NBA glamor market. First, donating $ 500,000 for the recovery of forest fires in Los Angeles. Then, on Tuesday, buying a parking lot in the sand and offering free parking for fans by order of arrival.
These are early and positive signs that Dončić’s future is in Los Angeles, although he has the ability to become a free agent in 2026 and is no longer eligible to sign the mass contract of five years of five years and $ 345 million that he could have received in Dallas. Lakers can offer an extension of four years and $ 229 million this summer, or, like other teams, a five -year contract and $ 296 million next summer.
Yes, the franchise will have to surround it with talent, a task that the Mavericks fought for five years to achieve and one that will only get more difficult when James finally retires. And yes, the speed with which he and James build their association inside and outside the court are important.
Each game is a microcosm of pressure and the challenge of integrating two similar players, and the unique type of basketball brilliance that this association can create. There are times when James and Dončić seem to be turned to start the offensive, just like James’s first days with Dwyane Wade in Miami. Then there are times when they seem to have been playing a game of two men for a decade.
There are stretching, such as the fourth quarter of a defeat against Charlotte last week, when Dončić seemed a defensive and out of form, confirmation of the criticisms that the NBA world listened to after the exchange. And then there have been games, such as Sunday’s victory over Denver Nuggets, when Dončić has seen himself as the best player in the world, one who can conjure magic on the court and take a franchise to a championship.
The former owner of the Mavericks, Mark Cuban, who sat on the court on a couple of Luka 1 shoes for Tuesday’s game, took the absurdity of the moment.
Every time Dončić played the ball, Cuban made a sample of booing it. At one point, Dončić turned to Cuban, smiled and said: “Shut up, Mark.”
But when Tim Macmahon of ESPN was asked what he was rooted against Dončić, Cuban said: “He hated him.”
