Anthony Davis emphatically announced his arrival with the Mavericks less than five minutes into his Dallas debut by dunking his own missed shot, pointing to the roaring crowd and yelling, “I’m here!”
The 10-time All-Star didn’t finish the 116-105 victory over the Houston Rockets because of an injury, adding fuel for fans angered over the seismic trade that sent 25-year-old franchise icon Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Besides Dallas backers being shell-shocked over losing a player they thought would be in Dallas his entire career, general manager Nico Harrison was criticized for trading a young superstar in his prime eight months after a run to the NBA Finals for a 31-year-old with an extensive injury history.
Not to worry, according to Davis, who exited late in the third quarter of Dallas’ first home game since the trade and didn’t return with what he said was tightness near his groin and quadriceps.
An abdominal strain had kept him out of his final two games with the Lakers before the trade and the first two he could have played with the Mavs.
“It wouldn’t loosen up and let go,” Davis said. “But it’s nothing serious.”
The crowd greeted Davis enthusiastically, and he responded with 24 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and all three of his blocks in the first half. He finished with 26 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists.
Outside American Airlines Center two hours before the game, fans — many wearing Doncic’s familiar No. 77 — were still dealing with the shock and grief of losing Doncic in a protest that featured signs and chants, most of them directed at Harrison.
“It’s going to take time,” Davis said. “It’s still fresh like a divorce — on both sides. Not saying it’s going to go away in one day.”
Plenty of those watching or joining the second protest of the week at the team’s arena made it inside for the game.
“Seeing a lot of 77s in the stands, it kinda hits hard,” center Daniel Gafford said. “It’s like we always say, it’s a business. We’ve got to get used to it.”
There were raucous cheers from protesters for a cargo van carrying an electronic sign that read “Inside Traitor” with a picture of Harrison and a pickup truck with a large sign in the bed that read, in all capital letters, “Fire Nico. Sell the team.”
The “sell” reference was for the club’s relatively new owners. The Las Vegas-based Adelson and Dumont families, who run the Las Vegas Sands casino company, bought the Mavericks from Mark Cuban in December 2023. Patrick Dumont replaced Cuban as the team’s governor and had final say on the Dallas side of the Doncic-Davis deal.
Among the many visceral reactions from Dallas fans is the unfounded suggestion that the trade was a ploy to move the franchise to Las Vegas.
The anger is also rooted in retired Dallas superstar Dirk Nowitzki spending a record 21 seasons with the same franchise, leading the Mavs to their only title in 2011, and overlapping with Doncic for one season before turning things over to the next young European star.
Many fans assumed Doncic’s career would mirror Nowitzki’s and are blaming ownership for the sudden shift.
“They’re not from Dallas,” said Diana Milan of Dallas, who has had season tickets for more than 25 years. “They don’t know the Mavericks fans. They don’t know how beloved Dirk was and then Luka was. We just feel like they’re outsiders (who) came in and ripped that all away from us.”
The Adelson and Dumont families are getting off easy compared to Harrison, the subject of several derogatory chants during Saturday’s protest. He hasn’t appeared publicly since answering questions from reporters before a game at Cleveland on a five-game road trip.
Harrison skipped Davis’ introductory news conference in Dallas on Friday, and wasn’t in his normal seat a few rows from courtside opposite the Mavs’ bench for the Rockets game.
“I think he broke our fan base’s heart, and so I think he needs to do something about that,” said Brian Craft, a 48-year-old lifelong Mavs who lives 25 miles from Dallas but has a condo near the arena that he uses when attending games. He hung a banner from his balcony that read “Luka” with a broken heart.
“Even an old-fashioned apology probably goes a long way in a lot of these things,” Craft said. ‘But let the fan base know that you hear them and that, yes, you made you thought a technically sound, good decision, but you probably overlooked the human aspect of it.”
Davis’ splashy debut was exactly what Jason Kidd expected to see on what was a strange day for the Dallas coach, who was part of one of the other big trades in franchise history when the Mavs sent their point guard to Phoenix 2 1/2 years after drafting him second overall in 1994.
“It was weird. It is weird,” Kidd said. “Everybody wants to talk about the trade. Yeah, it’s different. We keep pushing forward. It was there, but understanding that the business of basketball happens.”
Mirsad Grabus understands, but that didn’t make it any easier for the native of Bosnia who lives in Kentucky has lived in the U.S. for 25 years. Grabus got a Doncic jersey from his son for his 60th birthday, which he celebrated earlier this month with a Mavs birthday cake.
Grabus became a Mavs fan when Doncic, who is from Slovenia, was drafted. They had been planning to see him live for the first time in Dallas for a month. The trade happened five days before the Houston game, but they decided to make the trip anyway.
“It’s like I lost a kid,” Grabus said. “Wherever he goes, I go, too. It’s sad to say now I’m now Lakers fan.”
That might be going too far for the locals, even with the still-raw emotions.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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