It was no surprise to see Mark Cuban at Crypto.com Arena for Luka Doncic’s first Los Angeles Lakers game against the Dallas Mavericks since the shocking trade in early February. Unsurprisingly, Cuban and Doncic engaged in a bit of “playful trash talk” during the Lakers’ 107-99 victory, a game in which the former Mavericks star notched a triple-double.
Former Maverick Chandler Parsons was at the “electric” game with Cuban and relayed some play-by-play on the Doncic-Cuban interactions on Wednesday’s Run It Back show. Parsons said Cuban booed Doncic every time he touched the ball, leading to the Lakers star saying, “Mark, shut up!” That brought a laugh from everybody involved.
“At one point, Luka looked over at him and literally said, ‘Mark, shut up!'”
Chandler Parsons after taking in Luka vs the Mavs beside Mark Cuban
(via @RunItBackFDTV)pic.twitter.com/CvOj8AOwlz
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 26, 2025
Cuban never thought he would be in a position where he would be on the opposite side of Doncic. The longtime Mavericks owner brought Doncic to Dallas in a draft-night trade in 2018 and watched him develop into one of the best players in the NBA. Cuban infamously even once joked, “If I had to choose between my wife and keeping Luka on the Mavs, catch me at my lawyer’s office prepping for a divorce.”
However, Cuban sold his majority stake in the franchise to the Adelson family in 2023 and doesn’t have a say in basketball operations anymore. While Cuban likely wouldn’t have approved a Doncic trade, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison was able to sell new governor Patrick Dumont on the move to ship out Doncic and bring in Anthony Davis while not negotiating with any other teams. Cuban didn’t even know about the deal until it was too late.
So now Mark Cuban has to watch Luka Doncic tear it up for the Los Angeles Lakers. While the Mavericks’ current braintrust might have gotten sick of Doncic for a variety of silly reasons, you’ll never hear that kind of slander come from Cuban’s mouth. It’s a tough pill for Cuban to swallow, but he’ll still support his Mavericks as they try to win without Doncic moving forward.
The post Luka Doncic’s 3-word response to Mark Cuban’s Lakers-Mavericks game trash talk appeared first on ClutchPoints.
