"Just get a better deal" - Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban criticizes the Luka Doncic trade

Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban recently became a minority owner after being the principal for years. This means he has no say in the trade deals being made for the athletes on the team. Recently, the Mavericks got Luka Doncic and Mark criticized the deal claiming they could have gotten a better one.

In a recent interview with WFAA, Mark talked about his views regarding the decision-making process of the team but refrained from saying anything direct about Luka Doncic.

During the interview, Mark highlighted that the core nature of any trade should be about securing the best possible return. His comments were not aimed at the past or present decisions of the Dallas Mavericks but represented the universal truth about business and sports in the same manner.

This meant negotiations about leveraging and timing and making sure that a deal was made in one's favor.

Explaining the Mavericks trade, Shark Tank's Mark said,

"If you know, if the Mavs are gonna trade Luca, that's one thing, just get a better deal."

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Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban shares his views on the Luka Doncic trade for the Mavericks

Mark Cuban, the Shark Tank investor, had purchased the Mavericks in 2000 after selling his company to Yahoo for 5.7 billion dollars in stock. He took direct control and led the team to win the NBA Championship in 2011. However, recently, he stepped back from the direct ownership of the team.

Talking about the same, he said that trades or business deals regarding the Mavericks in today's world come with immense scrutiny. It is because of the presence of social media and how the analysts dissect every decision and move. He said,

"Social media has changed things dramatically... to log in and scroll through your feed and just see what we’re seeing now—I don’t want my kids to go through that.”

This reveals that his decision to sell the majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks did not come from a point of financial gain but to avoid the burdens that come with the sports media landscape.

The Mavericks office has previously faced criticism about handling key players such as Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. When he was a majority owner, the Shark Tank investor was at the center of these decisions but now, his role is more minimal. He claimed to have not heard about the deal while it was taking place and only knew 5 minutes before the news broke out. He says,

"I knew five minutes at the most before everyone else. When the news hit, everybody knew at the same time... They might tell me something after the fact. Or now, with Rick Welts in particular, if there’s something going on where I’ve had experience, I’ll reach out to him and just say, “Hey, expect this, this, this.” But from a basketball perspective, I hear about it after the fact. I don’t hear about anything beforehand."

When asked if it is tough for him to be at the back end while he has taken the team from the ground up and built something out of it, the Shark Tank investor remarked that "there are parts that aren't fun."

However, he says that the current owners have paid for it and thus, are in a position to make decisions for themselves. Coming back to why he sold the team, Mark said,

"Sometimes I get mad and think, “I would have done this,” but no, not really. Go back to why I sold—I don’t want my kids to end up in this exact position. If they made a mistake, right? Imagine if I didn’t sell and my kids took over and made a mistake like this."

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Shark Tank season 16 episodes are released weekly on ABC at 8 PM Eastern Time on Fridays. They are later available to watch on Hulu.