The Dallas Mavericks lost another game Saturday night, a 138-131 defeat in overtime to the Los Angeles Clippers. Dallas has lost 11 straight home games and sits at 23-48 on the season.
It’s been this way for most of the season. Dallas hung around in the play-in race for a few weeks, but eventually everyone realized the better path was to try and secure a higher draft position — and they’re doing that well. Dallas’ success in losing has propelled them to the 6th-best odds to secure the No. 1 overall
pick in this summer’s NBA Draft.
This phenomenon is nothing new. Philadelphia fans went through this for years with their “Trust the Process” era and Utah this season has been in total freefall, often sitting out their best players late in games to secure losses. Washington traded for Trae Young and Anthony Davis this trade deadline, but was in no rush to put either of them on the floor as they also look to secure premium draft positioning.
The game is the game, and I’m not here to propose a solution for this problem. There are hundreds of articles, podcasts, television clips, and more on the internet that claim to have the answer to the league’s tanking problem, which has now ballooned to nine of the league’s 30 teams actively trying to lose games for the last six weeks of the season.
But at the same time, I can’t sit back and pretend this doesn’t bother me. I’m a diehard Mavericks fan and have been since I was four years old. I’ve watched this team win 67 regular season games just to lose in the first round. I’ve watched Luka Dončić go down swinging in epic fashion in back-to-back heartbreaking losses to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2020 and 2021 — and then I watched this team trade that superstar to one of our most bitter rivals.
This team has put me through hell at times, but this season feels different. Maybe it’s the haze of the post-Luka trade, maybe it’s just a part of getting older, but this has been the hardest season of Mavericks basketball I’ve watched in my lifetime.
Even in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, when the team decided to shut it down towards the end of those seasons to try and improve draft positioning, it was still fun to watch the games. I could lie to myself about a Harrison Barnes masterclass or a Dennis Smith Jr. highlight reel.
Now, I watch the games knowing I’m going to get a few good stretches out of Cooper Flagg and then the rest of the game is filled with guys that probably won’t be here two years from now.
We went from NBA Finals games to draft boards. 20 months ago, we were three wins away from basketball immortality. Now, our biggest day of the year isn’t even a game day, it’s a chance to watch an NBA official draw ping pong balls out of a machine.
And don’t get me wrong, if Dallas can defy the odds again and jump up to No. 1, I’ll be ecstatic — but it won’t make the last year any easier. Sports is supposed to bring a community together, and right now, I feel farther than ever from the MFFL community I’ve come to know and love over the last 20 years, and that sucks.
I still try to watch every game, and I still find myself growing attached to the guys that do go out there every night and give it their all. Naji Marshall has turned into one of my favorite players because I know I’m watching his best every night.
And maybe a few Kyrie Irving games would make this suck a little less — having our best player on the sideline during this stretch has made it feel even more unbearable, but I find myself struggling to find a reason to be excited about this team. The thrill of playoff games at AAC and deep runs at a title have been replaced with studying NBA lottery odds, praying the math gods can bless us again.
I think it’s important to document these things from a fan’s perspective. I love this team, and this article is not meant to disparage the team in any way. The Mavericks are doing the only thing they can do. Struggling to win 36 games just to miss the play-in and have an even worse draft pick would be ridiculous.
I just miss feeling excited about this team. I miss turning on the TV and rooting for wins. Rooting for losses is hard, and it’s made me start watching less games. Maybe a Flagg-Darryn Peterson duo can bring me back. Hell, a Flagg-Kyrie combo will probably pique my interest next year. I’m a sucker for this team, but this season has sucked, and I thought someone should document that perspective of this season. Basketball isn’t supposed to be about strategic losing and ping pong balls; it’s supposed to be about winning, and every season we go through with those objectives flipped is another season we lose fans instead of gaining them.
