Everyone was saying the same thing about the comments made by Dallas Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont regarding the Luka Doncic trade.
Dumont spoke with “The Dallas Morning News'” Brad Townsend for a story that was published on Sunday. In his interview, Dumont was adamant that the Mavs had traded Doncic because of deficiencies in his work ethic.
“In my mind the way teams win is by focus, by having the right character, by having the right culture, and having the right dedication to work as hard as possible to create a championship-winning outcome,” Dumont said. “And if you’re not doing that, you’re going to lose.”
Dumont added more.
“If you look at the greats in the league, the people you and I grew up with — Jordan, Bird, Kobe, Shaq — they worked really hard, every day, with a singular focus to win. And if you don’t have that, it doesn’t work. And if you don’t have that, you shouldn’t be part of the Dallas Mavericks,” Dumont said.
Dumont punctuated his statement by saying, “if you want to take a vacation, don’t do it with us.”
The part of Dumont’s comments that had fans going nuts was him citing Shaquille O’Neal as an example of a player with a great work ethic. O’Neal was notorious for not being a hard worker.
Mavericks owner:
If only Luka worked hard everyday like Shaq.Kobe: pic.twitter.com/KCtFYnpXls
— Josh Eberley 🇨🇦 (@JoshEberley) February 9, 2025
I’m losing my mind at Patrick Dumont describing Shaq as someone who worked hard and stayed in shape.
— 🔪🗣️ (@knifetalkmavs) February 9, 2025
I can’t get over Dumont mentioning Shaq.
Shaq was very honest about not working hard, showed up to camp out of shape and used “company time” to get into shape as well as recover from injuries.
But hope they keep talking, just motivate Luka further. https://t.co/J9PUbt7Hz0
— JNav (@jnavla) February 9, 2025
It’s hilarious that he used SHAQ as an example of someone with an elite WORK ethic. Just insanely and profoundly stupid and ignorant
— Mavs Film Room 🐴🎥 (@MavsFilmRoom) February 9, 2025
Shaq openly had said that he did not work hard in practice.
Dumont mentions Shaq working hard every single day with a singular focus to win. Here's how out of touch he is. pic.twitter.com/3rGrjwKUmq
— 🧟♂️ (@CameronKohuss) February 9, 2025
Dumont citing Shaq only confirmed to fans their worst suspicions: he doesn’t know basketball. If he did, he wouldn’t have cited Shaq, and he wouldn’t have traded Doncic.
Here is the audio of some of Patrick Dumont’s comments to @townbrad and @dmn_mavericks
Pretty pointed and obvious as to who he’s talking about.https://t.co/UmIqOt26Na pic.twitter.com/3adOLneEh5
— Mavs Film Room 🐴🎥 (@MavsFilmRoom) February 9, 2025
