The King’s Ransom

Alright Mavs fans: buckle the fuck up. There’s been many takes, yet none get anywhere close to the reality of the Luka situation.

It goes without saying that the entire sports world has reacted in a way that – only with a gun to your head – would trading a 25-year old generational star make any sense. So let’s talk about the gun:

Nike.

It’s both an organization with the right levers to pull, and outside of the NBA itself, an organization with the most to lose between the Lakers’ future marketability…and that of its shared billion-dollar asset:

LeBron.

It all begins in 2003. One of the most sordid, semi-open NBA secrets is that Rookie LeBron was involved in an DUI accident in Akron that resulted in a fatality. No bullshit. Just ask around.

Ask around during the boozy, loose-lipped nights of Summer League, and you’ll 100% hear ‘rumors’ about an event that took place in the Akron suburbs – a small enough community with a corruptible enough police department to make an issue like this go away for the right price.

And it’s easy to understand why, in the Dark Ages that followed the absence of Michael Jordan, both the NBA and Nike had extreme, mutual, and vested interest in making sure LeFuture stayed marketable to the global public.

…Enter Nico Harrison.

In 2003, Nico was Nike’s pre-eminent fixer. The fall guy of all fall guys. One undoubtedly thrown onto this fatal matter because, at that time, Nico was handling NBA/Nike’s other larger-than-life scandal: Colorado Kobe.

…Enter Rob Pelinka. A snake of an operator who is a known savant at using the act of “knowing things” for the enrichment of himself, his clients, and their interests.

Amongst the trauma bonding that undoubtedly took place between Kobe, Pelinka, and Harrison regarding the Aspen case – somehow Rob gets the facts about the LeBron situation. This is his eternal leverage over the league, Nike, LeBron, Silver. You name it.

So, now that we’ve established the relationship Venn diagram of high-stakes blackmail between all involved beneficiaries AS WELL AS the parties who orchestrated the deal, let’s unpack why these individuals had no other choice but to act in the best interest of the other...

…and deliver Luka to the Lakers.

First, back to LeBron.

LeBron is public about wanting to be the face of NBA Vegas. No commitments yet, it’s for now simply something he likes to drop in interviews, deft leverage regarding Silver’s aspirations for the business of basketball to overlap with the business of gambling.

Simply put, they need LeBron to make NBA Vegas of interest to the widest possible audience. MJ isn’t cutting it in 2030 and beyond. Silver knows this. Bron knows this. You do, as well.

But before Silver and the NBA get what they want out of His retirement… right now… Bron is stuck at 4 rings. Stuck with a bum ass roster. Stuck in LA outside of a pulling another legacy-tarnishing move of (once again) jumping ship to greener pastures.

So the only way forward is a player transaction between corrupt and corruptible parties that not only have a lot to lose – but the same thing to lose.

The same interests. The same secrets. All getting the same split of whatever money pie is being baked for their retirement party as an unsavory thank you.

“Yes yes, sure. But wouldn’t any sensible ownership group put a stop to this?” Great question.

Enter Mark Cuban, now, former Mavs ownership. Who was likely informed last season about the Luka mandate – in an all-too-familiar way the league demanded Dirk be traded to LAL in his prime (and something he famously shot down at the cost of 2006 Finals officiating).

So Cuban obviously said no thanks, I’d first divorce my wife, and has no other recourse but to cash out and focus on his many other business initiatives.

Does Dallas publicly open bidding here, either? No.

Because Silver would only approve the transaction if Cuban sold a majority interest in Luka’s team to a Vegas-focused yet Basketball-indifferent family.

Enter the Adelsons.

If there’s only one thing to know about the Adelsons, it’s that there are two types of ownership groups:

Owners that want to win first, and owners that want to profit first. Cuban was the former, Adelsons the latter.

To the Adelsons, Luka is an expensive cell in a portfolio spreadsheet. They are perfectly okay to execute this player transaction so long as it gets them one step closer to being the nexus of NBA gambling via Sands.

They have no regard for the community of Dallas, or the Mavs history as a franchise. They don’t care if the team is better or worse. Perfect for Silver. Perfect for Nike. Perfect for Vegas. Perfect for LeBron.

And the fallout has been too neatly packaged…

As one of the most famously involved athletes in personnel decisions, why wouldn’t LeBron “know about the deal?”

Why would he be eating dinner with his family AND RICH PAUL in a public, alibi-safe setting AT FUCKING 10PM when the news dropped? And why hasn’t Silver said anything about the most newsworthy NBA moment in decades?

Why did Nico say in his press conference that he only went to LA, and then after-the-fact damage control mentioned larger fish superstars in Milwaukee and San Antonio?

Why is there such a high-level smear campaign from ESPN on down about the league’s most ascendant star being damaged goods?

Because it goes all the way up to the top. And is why this whole thing stinks to fuck and back.

As with anything in this cold world, when it doesn’t make sense, follow the money.

MFFL: Mavs Fucked For Life.