Mavericks' new owner is already stumbling well behind Mark Cuban

It was Patrick Dumont who added salt to the wound to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks fans when he described Doncic as someone who just didn't work hard enough following the trade. That's the opposite of the truth, as Doncic has already played like a Hall of Fame basketball player in his short NBA tenure. Doncic was voted as No. 3 for MVP back in 2024, but Dumont apparently doesn't think he works hard enough and seemingly believed everything that Nico Harrison told him about the trade he thought of.

Notably, Dumont didn't even name the greatest Maverick of all-time, Dirk Nowitzki, as one of the hardest-working guys in history. Nowitzki, their NBA Finals MVP from their lone championship, didn't even get recognition. The avid Mavs fans know that Dumont has been making some ridiculous statements since taking over for Mark Cuban, but some fans might not even realize that Dumont has been living under a rock compared to Cuban, one of the NBA's loudest voices at one point.

Cuban was one of the more controversial voices during his tenure as a Mavericks owner, but nonetheless, he had a voice, and it really showed if Dumont is only going to come out in rare circumstances, or if he's just going to be behind the curve after taking over one of the biggest voices in NBA history.

Patrick Dumont remains mostly silent even after replacing Mark Cuban

It seemed like life was all good when Dumont was on the stage with the Mavericks right after they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves easily in five games in the Western Conference Finals. Fans got to see their first taste of what a post-Cuban era was going to be like. This wasn't like whenever Cuban was on stage with Nowitzki; this was a new era, and everything seemed to be all smiles in the organization.

Fast forward more than eight months, and Doncic would be traded in one of the more controversial trades in sports history. Dumont stood by Harrison's decision, and the raining boos would turn to chants of "fire Nico" in a way the Dallas fanbase had never seen before. Cuban revealed that he didn't want to stand in the way of what the Mavericks were doing and said that Harrison really didn't want Cuban involved in basketball decision-making.

Dumont and Harrison are all in this together, and it shows how both guys really tried to stretch any Doncic questions to the media as long as they possibly could. Near the end of the season, a Mavericks PR stunt was head-scratching to say the least, when the Mavs held a press conference with only select members of the media.

If Cuban was still the owner of the Mavs, this trade wouldn't have happened anyway. Cuban once stated that the NBA derailed his plan to continue anything involving basketball operations for the Mavericks. This was seen as a massive development and a clear shift within the organization. The man who helped build one of the more consistent fanbases in the NBA was no longer involved in operations.

Dumont and Cuban clearly operate differently, and it looks clear more than ever that Dumont will only be on a microphone if something ultra-significant happens, like arguably the worst trade of all time.