Sad news: The head coach of Dallas Mareicks sheld tears as two of his best player’s has made a final decision to terminate their contract
The Dallas Mavericks had a mathematical chance to qualify for the play-in tournament, but the NBA is curious as to why the team decided to sit out a number of their most important players in their final game of the season.
NBA investigators began looking into the Mavericks’ choices on Friday, the day of their game against the Chicago Bulls, in which Dallas rested Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic for the majority of the match. The Mavericks lost and were disqualified from the postseason after blowing an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Following players sitting during a crucial victory, Mark Cuban, Kyrie Irving, and Tim Hardaway Jr. of the Mavericks were eliminated from the playoff race.
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Additionally, that result might guarantee Dallas a pick in the top 10 this summer, and with it, possibly a 4.5% chance of taking home the lottery prize and being able to choose French sensation Victor Wembanyama.
“Last night’s Dallas Mavericks-Chicago Bulls game prompted the NBA to launch an investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding those decisions and the team’s gameplay, including the motivations behind those actions,” league spokesman Mike Bass stated.
Although NBA commissioner Adam Silver made it clear before the season started that the league would not tolerate any overt attempts at tanking, the potential penalties remain unclear.
“I know a lot of our NBA teams are drooling at the thought that they might win (Wembanyama) through our lottery, so they should all still compete very hard next season,” Silver remarked in October.
Prior to the match, Dallas coach Jason Kidd stated that “the organization” made the decision to bench players, and he mentioned that his superiors, general manager Nico Harrison and owner Mark Cuban, had also made the decision following the game.
For Friday’s win-or-else game, Dallas rested Josh Green, Christian Wood, Tim Hardaway Jr., Irving, and Maxi Kleber. Doncic was only able to play for about 25 minutes before being replaced. Doncic made a brief appearance on a night honoring his home country of Slovenia, during which the Mavericks gave mementos featuring scenes from Slovenia to the first 3,500 spectators. In the second quarter, he was replaced in less than a minute.
Irving’s recovery from a right foot injury, Kleber’s recovery from a right hamstring injury, and Irving’s left Hardaway’s sore ankle and Wood’s and Green’s rest. Doncic and the other five players participated in Wednesday’s Dallas victory over Sacramento.
Before Friday’s game, Kidd stated, “The organization made this decision,” and he later said, “We have to go by that.”
“This is maybe a step back, but hopefully it leads to going forward,” Kidd said after the game. We have to abide by the decisions made by our superiors, and we have faith that Cuban and Nico will put the pieces together to put us in a championship-winning position. And that’s only the beginning of the procedure today.
The Mavericks have drawn attention from the NBA before for their tendency to tank.
For remarks about tanking made by Hall of Fame player Julius Erving on a podcast, which Silver deemed “public statements detrimental to the NBA,” Cuban was fined $600,000 in February 2018. At the time of Cuban’s conversation with Erving about tanking, the Mavericks were well on their way to becoming a 24-58 season.
The Cuban later admitted to the Associated Press that the fine was something he “earned.” He admitted to the AP at the time, “I got excited talking to Dr. J and said something I shouldn’t have.”
To be fair, Dallas was already in a precarious position to secure the final play-in spot in the West going into Friday. Although defeating the Bulls would have raised their chances of making the playoffs, it did not guarantee anything. They had to triumph on Friday and Sunday and have faith.
that Oklahoma City would fall short against Memphis on Sunday in order to secure the tenth spot. They would still need to win two more road play-in games in order to advance to a first-round series against Denver.
Importantly, Dallas’ chances of selecting no lower than the No. 10 pick in this summer’s draft are improved by not qualifying for the play-in tournament. Dallas keeps the pick if the Mavs choose between picks No. 1 and No. 10. It goes to New York as part of the compensation agreed upon in the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade if it is ranked No. 11 or higher in the draft.
Only a few days ago, the NBA rejected the Mavericks’ protest regarding an unclear series of events that resulted in an uncontested basket for Golden State during the Warriors’ two-point victory in a game earlier this month.
The Mavericks, who were fourth in the West in the middle of February and looked to be a title contender after acquiring Irving to partner with Doncic in a suddenly talented backcourt, suffered a setback during that game.
However, the Mavericks have lost seven of their previous seventeen games, and their only remaining game is Sunday’s now-meaningless finale against San Antonio.
