Mavs' Masai Ujiri reveals whether he would've traded Luka Doncic
admin_news
Mavs' Masai Ujiri reveals whether he would've traded Luka Doncic originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Dallas Mavericks finally have their replacement for Nico Harrison.
It's only fitting that one of the things the new guy, Masai Ujiri, was asked about in his introductory press conference was the move that got Harrison fired.
Harrison, of course, traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The good news for Ujiri is it'd be almost impossible for him to make a move that bad in his tenure with the Mavs.
And frankly, he may not even have this gig if Harrison had never made such a deal.
But Ujiri is in town, and he was asked Tuesday if he would've made the Doncic trade. After chuckles from the reporters in attendance, this is what Ujiri said:
"I'm going to say it again. We have to respect everybody and everything that's happened here. He is a Hall of Fame player. He's gone. He'll always be a Maverick. We'll celebrate him in the best possible way that we're going to celebrate Maverick players and stars that have been here. But we have to move. We really have to move on. It's not for me to start criticizing what anybody else is doing. It's for me to criticize what I am doing and worry about what I'm going to do. If I continue to hop in on that, I think all of you are going to be asking me about what I am doing. I have to look to the future. Because winning is what we have to do here, and winning is a responsibility of mine."
Ujiri handled that about as well as he could've, and the reality pretty much goes unsaid: Of course he wouldn't have made such a trade.
He led the Raptors for a dozen years, including their championship team in 2019. Ujiri's front office work is among the most renowned in the modern NBA, and his hire is big news for Dallas.
It'll take years to know how it works out, but as Ujiri says, his task is to bring winning back to the Mavericks.
Maybe it never had to be taken away with Doncic's trade away, but it doesn't matter now. The hand Ujiri was dealt doesn't include Luka, and he knows that.
