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          SVP's One Big Thing: Luka, Kyrie and the evaporation of the Mavericks

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          LeBron, Luka combine for 64 as Lakers win 7th straight (2:13)

          LeBron James and Luka Doncic combine for 64 points and 21 assists in the Lakers' rout of the Pelicans. (2:13)

          • Scott Van PeltMar 5, 2025, 11:36 AM ET
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              Scott Van Pelt joined ESPN in Spring 2001 as the network's lead professional golf reporter. He has since become a SportsCenter anchor, primarily hosting the 11 p.m. ET edition while remaining the lead reporter and host of the network's coverage of golf's grand slam events. In April 2008 he was named co-host of ESPN Radio's Tirico & Van Pelt weekday show (2-4 p.m. ET on weekdays). A native of Brookville, Md., Van Pelt graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor's degree in radio/television and film.

          Once a game, minimum, as I watch L.A., I will say out loud: Luka Doncic plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.

          It's jarring to see him in the jersey and all that. Beyond the optics is the reality. A multiyear first team All-NBA player didn't just switch teams late at night one weekend in February. He joined the Lakers and left a team he led to the Finals a season ago. Dallas Mavericks fans were stunned and irate in the way a fan base is when they have absolutely no idea something so unexpected isn't just a possibility ... it has already happened.

          The dust wasn't close to settling when Anthony Davis, the prize they got back, was injured in his first game and now remains on the sidelines. They lost Daniel Gafford to injury three weeks ago and he has three more to go, minimum. It all felt more than a little star-crossed ... and then Monday night happened.

          Kyrie Irving being lost to an ACL tear is almost impossible to fathom. It feels like a cruel punch line at the end of a sick joke. But none of it is. It's just the reality where the Dallas Mavericks and their passionate fans now exist. Eight months after they were in the Finals, Luka is a Laker, the key player they got in return for him is injured, Kyrie is lost for the remainder of this season and who knows how much of next, but hey -- at least Dallas increased ticket prices. That happened a month after they moved Luka. The gall to do that is almost impressive in its absolute lack of self-awareness.

          It's all just such a stunning reversal for a team that took the massive step last season and made the Finals. It's often a process, and THAT hurdle was a huge one. They had Luka, they acquired Kyrie and it was all coming together in a way that doesn't always happen. Sometimes that's as close as a team gets, the retreat can be gradual, and it can be cruel when you're stuck in that "so close but not quite" place. In some ways, it's worse than pulling for a team that's awful, because at least then you're never confronted with what-ifs.

          But this feels like the whole thing just evaporated. Wasn't I just talking to Kyrie about what going back to Boston to face his former team in the Finals represented to him? More recently, wasn't Dallas just trucking along in early February waiting for Luka to get back from the Christmas calf injury, and now it's March and they're here? I don't know where that is, but it has to feel like light-years from where they just were. Because, for the moment, and maybe for a lot longer, it is.