When superstar Luka Doncic found out he was traded, he was immediately sadden and incredibly. In fact, the rage he felt made him throw his phone across the room.

With his TV not working, he laid in bed watching a movie. Everything was peaceful, until it wasn’t. While on his iPad, he had discovered he’d been traded.

“I was actually in the bed,” Doncic said. “My TV wasn’t working so I was on my iPad watching a movie about to go to sleep. First thing I said, probably three times, was, ‘Is this [an] April 1st [joke]?'”

While trying to process the entirety of this situation, the prominent emotion he felt was sadness.

“Sadness, mostly,” Doncic said. “I was still in shock. Like, crazy shock. I felt like my heart was broken, honestly.”

His plan was to pull a “Dirk Nowitzki” and remain loyal to the Dallas Mavericks for his entire career. This is the team that traded for him in the 2018 NBA Draft – a significant moment for both the franchise and one of the world’s best players.

Doncic now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, with LeBron James, in hopes of reaching the NBA Finals. A spot he was originally in last postseason.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, general manager Nico Harrison was forced to do the behind closed doors press conference to talk about the Luka Doncic trade and the future of the team.

Owner Patrick Dumont essentially forced Harrison to do it, in fact, he enforced it. Not only was it closed off to the public, but Dumont made sure they couldn’t record the conversation. However, he permitted select reporters to publish the transcripts of the conversation.

“My understanding is Nico Harrison didn’t want to do this closed door roundtable,” said Shams Charania. “This was not his idea. This was something that was enforced by their owner Patrick Dumont.”

The Dallas Mavericks continue to try to do damage control even months after trading the most beloved player in organization history since Dirk Nowitzki.

According to the man himself, Nico Harrison has no regrets or sadness from trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.

Harrison and newly promoted Dallas Mavericks’ CEO Rick Welts held a private press conference to speak on the trade and the future of the Mavericks.

“There’s no regrets on the trade,” said Harrison. “Part of my job is to do the best thing for the Mavericks, not only today, but also in the future, and some of the decisions I’m going to make are going to be unpopular. That’s my job and I have to stand by it.”

Harrison stated that fans have not always liked his trades, beyond the significant one he made a couple months ago.

“Well, the beauty of Dallas is it is a passionate fan base,” Harrison said. “For us to reach our goals, we need that fan base. And to be honest with you, every trade I’ve made since I’ve been here has not been regarded as a good trade, and so sometimes it takes time. When I traded for Kyrie, it was met with a lot of skepticism and it was graded as a terrible trade and you didn’t see it right away, but eventually everyone agreed that that was a great trade. When I traded for [Gafford] and [Washington] again, it was like, ‘Oh, he gave up way too much. These guys aren’t going to help us.’ Now that trade, you saw the evidence a lot sooner. So I think a lot of times trades take a little bit of time.

The general manager still believes they have a three-to-four year window of competing for a championship.