Everyone makes mistakes in life, but one of the most important things to do in response is to own up to it and apologize. That's what one teenage Mavericks fan, who had flipped Dallas owner Patrick Dumont the bird while attending the team‘s season-opening loss to the Spurs, set out to do thanks to some prodding from his father.
"When I was on the way out, I was talking smack to Patrick and ended up flipping him off on my way out of the game," the fan toldThe Dallas Morning News. "My dad saw me flip Patrick off and was like, ‘That’s not OK. The next time you’re at a game, you have to apologize to Patrick.‘"
And so that's what the young Mavericks fan did. He and Dumont could be seen having what was described as a "pleasant" and "cordial" conversation courtside during Dallas‘s 116-114 loss to the Bucks at the American Airlines Center on Monday night. Little did the fan know that Dumont was about to own up for something he apparently was beginning to feel was a mistake he had made: the stunning Luka Dončić trade, which incensed the Mavericks fanbase, put general manager Nico Harrison under the microscope and blindsided Dončić.
"He said he was trying to do what’s best for the organization," the fan said Dumont told him of the Dončić trade. "And ‘sometimes you have good intentions and you make mistakes.’ We all do it."
Well Dumont‘s apparent remorse about the Dončić trade took on a whole different meaning after the news that broke Tuesday morning.
The Mavericks are expected to fire GM Nico Harrison
Less than a year after the stunning Dončić trade, Dallas is expected to part ways with the deal‘s maker, Harrison, amidst a disappointing 3-8 start to the 2025-26 campaign. The news comes as the Mavericks have lost five of their last six games, are once again without injured star big man Anthony Davis—the centerpiece of its return in the Dončić trade—and currently own the NBA's worst offense.
Mavericks fans, still furious about the stunning trade of whom they thought was the franchise star for years to come, have let Harrison hear it in the form of boos and 'Fire Nico‘ chants, of which there were many during the team‘s Monday defeat. ESPN had reported that a Harrison firing was a matter of when, not if, given the apparent "eroding of trust" between he and Dumont.
Who knows? Maybe an enlightening conversation with a teenager who had flipped him off gave Dumont new perspective on one of the most stunning trades in league history—and the job status of said deal‘s chief architect.
Crazier things have happened.
More NBA on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mavs Owner Apologized to Fan Sitting Courtside for Making Luka Dončić Trade.
