Mavericks owner Patrick Durmont on trading Luka Doncic: ‘This was a decision about the future’

Dallas Mavericks owner Patrick Durmont said trading NBA superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers “was a decision about the future.”

The Mavericks traded Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis and Max Christie in what is being called the most shocking deal in NBA history. 

Patrick Dumont reasons to trade Luka Dončić. Thoughts? #MFFL pic.twitter.com/Uvbu8PkKXd

— Luka Updates (@LukaUpdates) March 13, 2025

Doncic appeared in 422 games with the Mavericks. He averaged 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists and made five All-Star teams and five All-NBA teams.

Back in February, Dumont insinuated that Doncic didn’t work hard. 

“If you look at the greats in the league, the people you and I grew up with — [Michael] Jordan, [Larry] Bird, Kobe [Bryant], Shaq [O’Neal] — they worked really hard, every day, with a singular focus to win,” Dumont told NBA reporter Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. “And if you don’t have that, it doesn’t work. And if you don’t have that, you shouldn’t be part of the Dallas Mavericks. That’s who we want. I’m unwavering on this. The entire organization knows this. This is how I operate outside of basketball. This is the only way to be competitive and win. If you want to take a vacation, don’t do it with us.”

According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Nico Harrison no longer wanted the Mavericks to orbit around Doncic. 

Harrison would have tried to trade Doncic this summer if the Lakers deal hadn’t happened.

“Yet naturally now, with a bit of distance from the initial shock, you have begun to hear more of the whispers that the Mavericks had somehow concealed for months,” Stein wrote. “Whispers via league sources suggesting that Dallas’ decision-makers, most notably general manager Nico Harrison, no longer wanted Planet Mavericks to orbit around Dončić and had grown determined to trade him by this summer at the latest.”

Doncic was eligible to sign a five-year, $345 million extension with the Mavericks this summer. 

According to The Athletic, Dallas wasn’t going to offer Doncic the supermax extension.

The Lakers can offer Doncic a four-year, $229 million extension this summer, or, like other teams, a five-year, $296 million contract in the summer of 2026. 

Doncic, 26, has career averages of 28.5 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists with the Mavericks and Lakers.