Rockets Gov. Tilman Fertitta Trolls 'Dumbass' Luka Doncic Trade Between Mavs, Lakers

It's rare that a governor or executive of a team will go on the record to say anything negative about a move made by an opposing club, but the Luka Dončić trade continues to bring out a lot of opinions in people.

In this case, it was Houston Rockets governor Tilman Fertitta trolling the Dallas Mavericks for the "dumbass" decision to deal their superstar point guard to the Los Angeles Lakers during a recent visit to the White House.

The comment came when Fertitta was speaking to the Houston Cougars men's basketball team at their championship celebration.

Fertitta's comment might not be the harshest way anyone has described the trade from the Mavs' perspective. Some of the other terms that have been used include "malpractice" or "probably the worst decision in modern basketball history."

There are plenty of other comments that have been shared over the past two months, especially from Mavs fans, but those aren't appropriate to share.

You rarely hear team owners in any sport speak out against their peers publicly mostly because they don't want to be subjected to the same type of derision if they are involved in a similar situation.

The Dončić trade is such an anomaly though because teams almost never willingly give up on superstar talents, especially one who is only 26 years old. There have been plenty of superstars who get traded, but it usually happens because they requested out of a situation they deemed to be undesirable.

Given Dončić's response to the reaction from the Dallas crowd and his tribute video in his first game against the Mavericks at American Airlines Center on April 9, it seems patently obvious he had no desire to leave.

There was nothing the Mavs could do or say that would ease the sting of trading Dončić.

Fertitta's comments seem like a very common sentiment many people in the NBA expressed when the trade went down.

On the bright side for Fertitta, the trade did help his team. The Rockets finished with the second-best record in the Western Conference and won their first division title since 2019-20.

The Mavericks won the Southwest Division last season with a 50-32 record en route to reaching the NBA Finals as the No. 5 seed in the West.