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Luka Doncic is part of an investor group headed by former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson that is seeking to bring a team to Rome as part of NBA Europe, three sources told The Athletic. Nelson, 63, the son of legendary former NBA coach and executive Don Nelson, has a preliminary agreement in place to purchase an existing basketball team from northern Italy, Vanoli Basket Cremona, to potentially set up a much larger play of entering a team into NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s new European league.
Marc Stein: Dirk Nowitzki's spokesman Scott Tomlin tells @TheSteinLine that Nowitzki is not part of the reported investor group headed by former Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson that is in talks to buy a basketball franchise in Italy.
Doncic, 26, whom Donnie Nelson acquired in a draft-night trade with the Atlanta Hawks in 2018, is part of his group of investors, sources in American and European basketball with knowledge of Nelson’s plans told The Athletic. While the Milan-based sports publication La Gazzetta Dello Sport reported that Dirk Nowitzki was also a part of Nelson’s group, his spokesman, Scott Tomlin, said that was not the case. According to one of the sources, Rimas Kaukenas, a Lithuanian legend as a player who was a longtime star in Italy, is also part of the group.
While the Lithuanians had hoop skills, they didn’t have enough money to compete as an independent nation four years later in Barcelona. To get his team into the Games, Sarunas Marčiulionis, who signed with the Golden State Warriors in 1989, began fundraising in the Bay Area with then-Warriors assistant Donnie Nelson (son of legendary head coach Don Nelson). The Grateful Dead — formed in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1965 by Weir, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann — saw an article about the fundraising efforts in the San Francisco Chronicle and decided to help. Through the band’s nonprofit, the Rex Foundation, they gave the Lithuanians $5,000 and a box of tie-dye T-shirts.
“The owner comes up to me like, ‘Hey, do you want to coach?’” Barea remembers. After the surprise wore off, he answered with a question. “Man, I would love to, but I don’t know if I can.” Barea called Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and general manager Donnie Nelson to ask if the NBA or the team had any rules against him coaching in a separate league during the offseason. Mayagüez just needed someone to get the team through the end of the schedule. “They called me back, said, ‘You’re good to go,’” Barea recalls. “So I did it.”
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“We were with Dirk Nowitzki for 21 years, and the last three years were out of pure respect,” Nelson told Ekipa 24. “People like that deserve to say goodbye on their own terms and according to their wishes, and everyone deserves a decent funeral – figurative or literal.” Nelson admitted he was stunned by the trade, as were many in basketball. “Everyone was shocked,” Nelson said. “Some of us are still shocked.”
With FIBA EuroBasket 2025 approaching, Luka Doncic will have around the Slovenian national team a pretty familiar face, as Donnie Nelson has been named Slovenia’s special advisor. Interviewed by the Slovenian outlet Ekipa 24, with his words collected by Grant Afseth, he came back to the trade that brought the Slovenian phenomenon away from Dallas.
“Of course, this is the NBA, and trades can happen; players come and go. But with all due respect, you have to understand that some players are different, special, and even more important to the environment and the community. It’s important to treat those players with respect,” Nelson said. “That’s why there was so much disappointment after what happened to Luka. Not just my disappointment, but a universal disappointment. Could this happen to Real Madrid? Never. And it wouldn’t have happened when I was in Dallas,” Slovenia’s new special advisor added. “During my years in Dallas, we always considered what was important to that community. And we looked at the players being a part of that. It was never like we went to one of our ATMs, took out a player, used him until he was most useful, and then threw him away,” Nelson said.
Marc Stein: Former Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson has been named as a special adviser to Slovenia's national team ... reuniting him with Luka Dončić. Nelson has a long history in the international game working with Lithuania’s national team.
Tim MacMahon: “The parties have reached a resolution of their dispute on confidential terms,” Rogge Dunn, Donnie Nelson’s attorney, told ESPN. Mark Cuban declined to comment.
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In the lawsuit, which was filed in March 2022, Nelson claimed he was fired by the Mavericks in retaliation after he reported that then-majority owner Mark Cuban's "right-hand person" allegedly sexually harassed Nelson's nephew in a hotel room during the 2020 All-Star Weekend in Chicago. Nelson alleged that discussions with Cuban about an eight-figure contract extension abruptly halted when he reported the allegation.
Tim MacMahon: Reporting with @Bobby Marks: Former Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson’s lawsuit against the organization has been “dismissed with prejudice,” according to Dallas County court documents filed last week. The suit was scheduled to go to trial in December.
The wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson against the team is scheduled to go to trial Dec. 10, according to court documents. In the lawsuit, which was filed in March 2022, Nelson claims he was fired by the Mavericks in retaliation after he reported that owner Mark Cuban's "right-hand person" allegedly sexually harassed and assaulted Nelson's nephew in a hotel room during the 2020 All Star Weekend in Chicago.
Rogge Dunn, an attorney for Nelson, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The Mavericks also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the complaint, Nelson says he did not learn of the alleged February 2020 assault until later that summer and says the team "quickly and quietly settled" the nephew's claims in an attempt to "sweep [the allegations] under the rug."