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Mark Cuban spent part of a recent podcast living in the past. The big headline was him saying he did not regret selling the Dallas Mavericks, but he did regret selling to Miriam Adelson and the Dumont family.
Cuban also dredged up the Luka Doncic trade — and dragged Jason Kidd into it. Here are Cuban comments from the “Intersections” podcast: "I think there were issues that J-Kidd coached with Anthony Davis and was close to him, and [former GM Nico Harrison] was close to AD... You talk about confirmation bias, there was some of that as well. That doesn't justify it for our coach and general manager to stand up and trade our best player."
Jason Kidd was having none of that. Here was his response to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News.
"When are we going to move on? We have to move forward. We're focused on the present and the future, and we've got an incredible opportunity to build...
"And so the things that are going on between two owners is between the two owners. I think we have a great owner in Patrick, and he's going to give us every resource to build a championship team. Out of respect to Cuban, he helped me and my family. We won a championship together. The two owners will figure it out. I truly believe that we have to focus on the present and the future. We've got a great opportunity."
That "we have to move forward" mentality is what Kidd was saying the day after the trade — and from his perspective as coach, that's exactly what he has to preach. To the team, to the fans, to everyone. He said in his full comments that the Mavericks and their fans have to rebuild and, again, from his perspective, that is what has to happen. We can discuss how they wouldn't have to rebuild without that trade — and Doncic's recent MVP-level play, scoring 600 points in March, is a little salt in the wound — but that's living in the past, and Kidd has moved on.
It's a lot easier to move on and rebuild because the Mavericks lucked into Cooper Flagg, too.
