The Dallas Mavericks rebuild the Cooper Flag after trading Luka Donsic, but Roland Blackman is willing to lie to the sleeping dog.
The Dallas Mavericks reversed their fortunes during the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, earning the first top pick in franchise history. Dallas certainly will be a comprehensive selection of Duke’s outstanding Cooper Flags and will begin rebuilding in the year after Luka Don Sic.
However, Mavs didn’t have to pray for a 1.8% odds to be good fortune. They could have simply been built around Doncic, a player of his own generation who had already loved himself to his fans.
The Mavericks celebrate a new chapter, but it’s not difficult to imagine whether Don Sic had stayed in Dallas.
The former player and four-time All-Star Roland Blackman, a representative for the Mavericks onstage, was interviewed by ESPN’s Shamscharania shortly after the draft order was revealed.
Blackman was clearly excited and shocked, but he didn’t hold back when he was talking about a season that got caught up in the lottery in the first place.
“Well, for us, it was a tough year, as you all know,” Blackman said on stage. “But a key part of the whole thing is that you have the opportunity to move the franchise forward.
“We have an incredible, incredible staff and management, and the key to us is being able to continue that tradition and move forward.”
Dallas fans know that, fans on all other teams know that, media knows that, and Mavericks players knows that. Nico Harrison traded Luka Donsic for the Los Angeles Lakers over the night without entertaining offers from other teams.
The only person who doesn’t know that fact is Harrison himself, the architect of trade.
Since his contract, Harrison has beaten the “Defense Winning Championship” drums, claiming he has no regrets and is not even in Dallas four years later, so he wants to build a winner now.
With the seemingly all public (or semi-public) appearance, he would have been excited to use the draft lottery to claim some victory for himself and his staff, as he began to dig deep into the hole, but Blackman called the season a “ragged year,” clearly hinted at the pain of the trade, and brought Harrison back to his dog house.
Fans can celebrate the future, but the past is still very fresh, with the flag having a disastrous franchise burden on the shoulders.