Sports is a business; we all get that. Heck, even little league is a business these days.
But the Dallas Mavericks’ midnight decision to send Luka Doncic packing to Los Angeles feels like something different, like a deep drain on the sense of magic that sports gives us.
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We aren’t naive enough to think it will last forever. Winning teams have a way of covering over all sorts of fan frustration.
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But sports has to be about something other than a jersey. Fans need to be able to invest in the players as heroes to their cities, and Dallas has poured its heart into Luka in ways we have with few players.
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Our colleagues on the sports desk are far better suited to sort through the consequences for the team’s winning and losing record than this editorial board is. We have at least one person on this board who refers to all athletic competition as “sportsball.”
But we are all about Dallas and its spirit, and the news that Luka Doncic would no longer be playing for our city hurt.
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We already have the Dallas Cowboys, a football team where we know the brand, and the revenue that brand generates, are more important than the product on the field. Now we have a basketball team where we have not only lost local ownership but now the baby-faced star who electrified the court with passes and shots that defied imagination.
Add to that the reality that online sports gambling and the TikToking of sports viewing are changing the way we experience games in ways that, at least as we see it, are draining the fun away.
Watching basketball in hopes of nailing a parlay is nothing like praying your home team puts together a championship run.
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Yes, bigtime sports is business. But if it’s just business, then it’s nothing at all really.
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The Dallas Mavericks might well be on their way to better teams and more winning in the years to come. Their general manager is right that time will tell whether he was right about this trade, whether it was good for the business of winning and, so, for the business of the team.
That’s his job, and you can’t fault him for doing his job.
But from where we sit, something deeper was lost overnight this weekend, something that the city believed in. And getting that back feels a little harder each time the business of sports comes first.
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We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com
Luka Doncic loss to Lakers hurts Dallas in ways few losses have
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