Timing may be key to Doncic trade

By David Mullen

For decades, in political, corporate and public relations circles, the practice has been known as the “Friday news dump.”

Generally, if a business or individual has bad news to release like a negative earnings report, an alleged crime of some proportion, etc., they release the news on a Friday evening. That way, the news can avoid the peak times when more people are paying attention to pressing issues.

And if the news is really bad, consider releasing the information during the weekend. A “Saturday news dump“ may signal extremely bad news.

The “news dump” theory is a bit archaic and certainly not as applicable as in years past. Daily newspaper readership has hit all-time lows. Local TV news outlets are becoming less relevant. Because of the downturn in influence, news organizations have become siloed. Editors and producers are not reporting factual news as much as spinning the news into what their readers and viewers want to read or see.

Today, there is the 24 hours a day, seven days a week primary news source called social media. You can run from social media and try a Friday or Saturday news dump, but news will get out and travel fast. People today rely on their phones and laptops for their source of information. Breaking news is not gleaned from newspapers or the linear TV airways, but from the comfort of a hand-held device.

A news dump was one of the first things that came to mind when — as Saturday night, February 1 was becoming Groundhog Day Sunday — the unthinkable happened. News was released that 25-year-old Dallas Mavericks wunderkind Luka Doncic was being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. Of all teams, why must the Mavs trade Luka to the hated and privileged Lakers?

If Doncic were traded to the Charlotte Hornets, would news of the trade be softened or any less shocking? A little bit, because of the Lakers factor, but not much. Dallas basketball fans watched Doncic grow from NBA Rookie of the Year at age 19 into a five-time All-NBA player in his first six seasons. Dallas fell in love with Doncic when he first put on a Mavericks uniform in 2018. 

Was the news about the Doncic trade released late Saturday night because the Mavericks wanted to delay the bad news and quell the inevitable negative reaction? Coincidence or caution? Based on the reaction locally and nationally, any attempt at a news dump quickly became a dumpster fire.    

Trading Luka for AD is more newsworthy than drafting Detlef Schrempf and passing on Karl Malone in the 1985 NBA draft. Bigger than winning the 2011 NBA Championship. Bigger than the Mavs moving from cuddly Reunion Arena into the glitzy, now considered outdated, American Airlines Center in 2001. Bigger than the retirement of Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki.

The news is even bigger than Mark Cuban selling the team to out-of-town casino owners, which also no one saw coming. To use the oft misrepresented Shakespeare line from “Hamlet,” “ay, there’s the rub.”

Fans and pundits can pontificate about all of the reasons for the trade and whether Davis is a better fit for the current Mavericks roster than Doncic. Former owner “Cuban would never have let this happen,” barked social media hacks. Maybe so. Cuban said that the trade caught him off-guard like everyone else. 

Mavericks GM Nico Harrison and head coach Jason Kidd said the trade will give the Mavs a better culture. Was Doncic really a “team cancer?” Is the team giving up on a 25-year-old with the third highest scoring average in NBA history for a 31-year-old power forward who has earned the nickname “Street Clothes” from Charles Barkley because of his propensity to being on the bench injured and out of uniform?

Here might be the real reason behind the trade. Miriam Adelson and her family are majority owners of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., a gaming company based in Las Vegas. The Mavs team governor, Patrick Dumont, is Adelson’s son-in-law. Immediately, social media speculated that the trade was the first step in the eventual move to Las Vegas. The Mavericks are not moving to Las Vegas. The NBA would not let that happen. Expansion fees bring the league more money.

But the threat of a move could be used as leverage to reach Adelman’s ultimate goal, which is not to win an NBA Championship. It is to build a casino in Texas.

Adelson is a huge supporter of President Donald J. Trump and has given millions of dollars to his campaigns. Trump is the king of leverage and shares his wealth with his natural or inherited family members, just like Adelson.

The Sands Corp. doesn’t appear to care about the emotions of Dallas basketball fans as much as leveraging the Mavericks into getting a Dallas area gaming casino and basketball arena. They own much of the vacant land at the former Texas Stadium site in Irving, just up Interstate 35 from the AAC. 

If Adelson doesn’t get her casino, which is likely given that the “Austin Powers” of Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and AG Ken Paxson vehemently oppose gaming in Texas, then she has leverage. Without the prospects of a casino, she can threaten to move the team to her Las Vegas home. If she gives up on the premise, she can sell the team at a profit. A team with a lower payroll and without long-term contracts is more enticing to new owners.  

It is too early to tell if the Doncic for Davis trade benefits the Mavericks in any way. But the Adelson family bought the Mavericks with the goal of owning a casino, with a luxury arena, in DFW. What else could be behind trading the face of Dallas sports and announcing the news at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night?