When Matt Zerai heard that his favorite team, the Dallas Mavericks, had traded Luka Doncic, their 25-year-old superstar, to the Los Angeles Lakers over the weekend, he was devastated.
“It kind of did feel like I lost a family member,” Zerai said. “No one trades a franchise player in their prime like that. They want to make excuses about his conditioning and about him gaining weight. He literally took us to the finals last year.”
He and a few friends hatched a plan to host a funeral for the franchise. They ordered a coffin, blue like one of the Mavericks’ colors, and had it delivered overnight. They dressed in suits to strike a somber tone. They held a moment of silence in front of American Airlines Center, where the Mavericks play, and where others had gathered in protest.
Attendees shared their favorite memories of Doncic. Much of the ire was directed at Nico Harrison, the team’s general manager. One sign had the acronym M.F.F.L., which stands for Mavs Fan for Life, crossed out with red ink.
It was not the kind of reaction fans would have for just any trade. But in the seven years since he was drafted as a teenager out of Slovenia, Doncic had become fused with the team’s identity. His jersey was by far the team’s biggest seller and has been one of the 10 most popular in the league in each of the past six seasons. He is one of the most scintillating players in the N.B.A., already a five-time All Star, and led the Mavericks to the N.B.A. finals last season. He loved playing there and, despite a few whispers about discontent over his conditioning and commitment to playing defense, there was no reason to believe he wouldn’t be the face of the franchise for the next decade.
Now the organization faces a complete rebrand that few saw coming.
“Winning absolves everything, doesn’t it? Or does it?” said Peter Carton, director of sports management at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He added: “I don’t know if anyone knows the answer to that, and that’s what’s so dynamic and intriguing from a sports marketing standpoint. You have to say if we don’t win this year or next year, what is the silver lining for the marketing side of the business? How do we come back from this?”
The Mavericks did not respond to a request to speak with someone from their marketing department. In a few days, Doncic was scrubbed from the team website. A banner on which Doncic appeared most prominently was removed from outside the arena.
A few hours after the trade became official, the Mavericks posted an image on their social media platforms with Doncic’s face in black and white and a message thanking him. A day later they posted a highlight video with the caption: “It was an honor to watch The Magician work.” The comments on both posts eviscerated the organization, accusing it of betraying its fans.
To understand the vitriol, it’s important to consider Doncic’s history with the fan base.
Doncic was taken with the third pick in the 2018 draft when he was 19. He had already proved himself in professional basketball, dominating grown men as a teenager in Europe.
His first season with the Mavericks was the final season for the German star Dirk Nowitzki. Marketing experts believe in the importance of having a unique brand identity — with Nowitzki and then Doncic, the Mavericks had it.
In 21 years with the Mavericks, Nowitzki won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2007 and led the team to an N.B.A. championship in 2011. The phrase “loyalty never fades away” appears on the statue of Nowitzki that the Mavericks erected outside their arena in 2022. On Sunday, near the base of the statue, someone painted graffiti that called Harrison a “bum.”
“That quote isn’t actually a quote about Dirk,” said Jason Gallagher, a podcast producer and director who grew up in Dallas. “It was a quote about the identity of the Dallas Mavericks. That really is what it felt like. Loyalty never fades away. When you pick your guy, that’s your guy.”
In the 1990s, when the Dallas Cowboys ruled the city, Gallagher remembers going to Mavericks games with his father. It was often cheaper than going to a movie. Those who chose to root for the Mavericks felt a kinship to the team that went beyond wins and losses, he said.
Gallagher said his 11-year-old son was angry when he heard about the trade, then declared that he would now be a Lakers fan. And while Gallagher has ties to the Lakers — he is the head of production for a podcast company co-founded by Lakers Coach JJ Redick and has produced a podcast featuring their star LeBron James — he’s considering his options. He lives in Oklahoma City, which has an exciting N.B.A. team.
“Unlike the Mavericks, I’m not going to say yes to the first person who answers my phone call,” Gallagher said cheekily.
Part of the fans’ connection to the team had also been through Mark Cuban, who bought the Mavericks in 2000.
“Mark was so personable, so engaging, was so passionate,” said Carton, S.M.U.’s director of sports management. He added: “He gave his heart and soul to the Mavericks and to the Dallas market. I think that created that bond.”
In 2023, Cuban sold a majority stake in the franchise to the family of Miriam Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate who spent $100 million on President Trump’s campaign. Her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, is the team’s governor, its top decision maker. Cuban had said he would remain involved in the team’s operations, but this week he told local reporters that he was not involved in trading Doncic.
In exchange for Doncic and two other players, the Mavericks acquired Anthony Davis, a 10-time All Star; Max Christie, who is in his third N.B.A. season; and a first-round pick in 2029.
Carton said he thought that in order to recover some good will, the Mavericks would have to familiarize their fans with their new players as soon as possible and convince them they are worth embracing. He thinks a pivot to making Davis and Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks’ point guard, the faces of the franchise will need to happen quickly.
“I would do tons of fan engagement and social media trying to get them involved with the team,” Carton said.
Davis, Carton said, could frame himself as an innocent bystander who was also blindsided by the trade, but wanted to help the team win anyway, “to be seen as less of a mercenary.”
Hunter Ostdick had spent the days after the trade commiserating with other Mavericks fans at Celestial Beerworks, a brewery where he works. He persuaded the founders of the brewery to create an I.P.A. called Sell the Team, a common refrain for fans unhappy with the direction their favorite franchises have taken.
The company began brewing the Sell the Team beer on Wednesday, and will start selling it after it finishes fermenting in two and a half weeks. The response from the brewery’s partners and the community, according to Molly Reynolds, a founder of Celestial Beerworks, has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It seems like Dallas is upset and wants someone to feel their pain with them,” she said.
Ostdick said that he was no longer a Mavericks fan, but also that he was unsure of how firmly he would stand by that declaration. By contrast, Zerai, who helped stage the funeral on Sunday, said he would not return to rooting for the Mavericks even if the team won multiple championships with its new roster. They both think they might start following the Lakers more closely.
“It was not really about the championship,” Ostdick said. “It’s about the guy.”
Doncic grew up in Slovenia and spent his adolescence in Spain, but he embraced the trappings of Texas, often wearing cowboy hats and bolo ties on his way into games.
“He’s pulling up in the souped-up Camaro and the full Texan get-up,” said Ostdick, who was born and raised in Dallas. “He liked being here.”
When Doncic landed in Los Angeles, the Lakers posted a video of him saying hello to his new team’s supporters.
“What’s up, Laker fans?” Doncic said. “I’m in L.A. Excited to meet y’all.”
The last word, “y’all,” a mark of a Texan dialect, struck Ostdick’s Mavericks-fan heart the hardest. It was a reminder of everything the team had with Doncic and everything it had lost now that he’s gone.
