A Dallas Mavericks icon is letting the team have it over the decision to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Former Mavericks coach Don Nelson was honored Sunday with the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Basketball Coaches Association. Nelson was asked about the Doncic trade, and he did not hold back.
The former coach said he was actually wearing Doncic’s line of Luka 4 shoes on Sunday, and that the Mavericks made a “tremendous mistake” in trading him away.
“I think it was a tremendous mistake for the Dallas franchise to trade him — and I want everybody to know that,” Nelson said.
Chuck Daly Award winner Don Nelson makes a point to mention that he’s wearing Luka 4s as a form of protest of the trade that shipped Luka Doncic to the Lakers.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) June 8, 2025
“I think it was a tremendous mistake for the Dallas franchise to trade him — and I want everybody to know that.”
Nelson coached the Mavericks from 1997 to 2005, and remains popular among fans. He is hardly the only one with ties to the Mavericks to call the Doncic trade a mistake. Even Dirk Nowitzki has had a hard time defending it.
Obviously, Nelson is a big fan of Doncic and hated to see him leave Dallas. The team hopes he and everyone else will be able to embrace the new star they are about to land in a few weeks.
