The Dallas Mavericks are still dealing with the fallout from trading young megastar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis and Max Christie. And every word coming out of the Mavs’ front office has not made the situation on them any better.
Rick Welts, who took over as the CEO of the Mavericks. spoke with Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News about a few things, including the Doncic trade and plans for a new arena in Dallas.
Welts admitted that he “probably underestimated the reaction” from Mavericks fans about the Luka Doncic trade. Fans have protested the trade inside and out of the American Airlines Center, even bringing a casket to the plaza near Dirk Nowitzki’s statue. He also believes that the Mavericks did the “best we can, basically, with the staff and trying to do the right thing with everybody who touches the Mavericks. It’s incredibly emotional, an incredibly difficult time for so many people. But I still believe we’re going to come out on the other side, with a future that’s incredibly bright. That’s kind of my glass-half-full approach there.”
Getting a new arena for the Mavs is “the most important thing I’ll probably do while I’m here, to make sure we get that right,” Welts said. The Mavericks’ lease on the AAC runs through 2031, and the new ownership group of the Adelson/Dumont families have been very open about wanting to build a new arena with casinos attached to it.
Welts said of the plans, “This will look nothing like Chase Center [Golden State Warriors]; it will look nothing like the Intuit Dome [LA Clippers]. This will hopefully be the greatest expression of what Maverick fans would expect when they walk into the arena to see a Mavericks game. It will have everything about Texas and Dallas that we can bring to it, to give it a shape and form that will be a foundation for economic competition over the next 30 or 40 years.”
While there have been some rumors that the ownership group may be trying to move the team because of how absurd the Luka Doncic trade was, that has been denied to this point, even by NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Mavs governor Patrick Dumont.
