Jason Kidd said Friday he was not part of the process that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, pushing back after Mark Cuban said on a podcast that Kidd and former general manager Nico Harrison played roles in the deal. Kidd said he was told only at the 11th hour, and that he called Cuban as soon as he heard the comments.
The trade on Feb. 1, 2025, sent Dončić to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick, and the news first broke at 11:12 p.m. CT. Kidd said Harrison brought him into the room and told him the move would go public at 11 o’clock. “I was informed at the 11th hour. And that’s the truth,” he said.
Cuban’s comments landed because the trade has become one of the most infamous in recent NBA memory, a move blamed for Dallas slipping from contender status to one of the worst teams in the league. Dončić is averaging 33.5 points per game for the Lakers, who are in third place in the West, while the Mavericks have spent the months since trying to steady a roster and a front office that has changed sharply since the deal.
The aftermath has not helped Dallas explain the logic of the swap. Davis made his Mavericks debut a week after the trade and suffered a left adductor strain in his first game with the team, then played 29 games for Dallas before being traded to the Washington Wizards. Harrison was fired in November amid a 3-8 start to the season, and the Mavericks are now searching for a new head of basketball, with team officials saying they want someone in place ahead of this year’s draft.
Kidd has been tied to the organization’s next step as much as its past mistakes. He received a contract extension in October after the Mavericks blocked him from interviewing with the New York Knicks, and he praised Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont as “the best owner in the league.” Dallas is building around rookie forward Cooper Flagg now, but the Dončić trade still hangs over everything because it changed the franchise’s direction in one night and left the club to explain a move that its coach says he did not help make.
