(02-07-2025, 10:06 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: Welcome to the 'bargaining' stage of grief. Unless you believe one of the conspiracy theories, then yes, this seems to be Nico's thinking. It is a $350mm bet he didn't want to make. Unfortunately for Nico, I don't think he can win over the fans still firmly entrenched in "anger". If Dallas makes a long playoff run, fans will say "Luka could have done that". If Luka balloons to some massive weight or continues to miss large swaths of time from injuries, fans will say "you can't prove it would have happened here". And that doesn't even account for the scenarios where Luka plays well or AD suffers a serious injury.
In my opinion, what Nico failed to understand, is the Dallas culture. Even myself I only got it with this trade (at least I think I understand it, please correct me if I am wrong). Dallas culture is about loyalty. The team and fans were loyal to Dirk for 21 years, in good and bad. Endlessly happy they won the title. Fans thought this will continue with Luka for another 20 years. Nico just went in and ignored that culture. Even saying at the press conference that Luka doesn't fit the culture. He didn't even try to explain to fans that he understands the current culture, but that he thinks it needs to be changed, because the new culture he is trying to install will lead to more success.
Imho, Dallas will lose a lot of the "old" fans and it will take time (and good results) before new generation of fans will happen. One, that will follow "new" culture. Not sure Nico or the new owners will stay around long enough.
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