It’s been nearly a month since the Dallas Mavericks traded starman Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers– and it seems that new stories around the deal unravel themselves every day since. It’s already been established that Luka himself was distraught at the decision, and how Nico Harrison and the rest of the front office decided to handle the situation doesn’t display a good image for the Texan team. But Mavs legend Dirk Nowitzki is certainly on the side of the Slovenian after showing up to his debut for the Lakers against their win vs the Utah Jazz.

One of the greatest power forwards of all time, Dirk played all 21 seasons of his NBA career for the Mavs. His last year coincided with Doncic’s first for them, which birthed an unorthodox off-pitch bromance between the pair. The German Wunderkid wasn’t too confident about the then 19-year-old Luka. “When he walked in first time here in this practice facility, he’s a big boy but I’m like I’m not sure this is gonna work. Is he quick enough? Is he athletic enough to go by guys like he is in Europe? So there were plenty of doubts there from everybody in the team,” said Nowitzki on his first impressions of the Slovenian.

The Luka magic worked wonders for them though, which swayed Dirk to instantly become a fan of the rising star. Like many other fans, he was disappointed and taken aback by the decision of the Mavs to trade Doncic to the Lakers. The German was then seen at the Crypto.com Arena on February 11th in El Matador’s debut for the Cali team, wherein he recorded 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in 24 minutes as the Lakers beat the Jazz 131-113.

“He invited me to come out to his first game in LA, and I felt like I had to support him…  He’s a good kid, I felt like I had to go out there and support him, ’cause I think it was reported that he was obviously pretty disappointed on how it went down, so I wanted to be there for him, I wanted to be there for his family… At the end of the day I’ll never be a Lakers fan but I’ll always be a Luka fan,” said Nowitzki. Nothing like the support of a mentor figure to built your mental from the ground up right?

Mavs put out disrespectful social media post

It’s almost as if the Mavs hadn’t done enough to put their former talisman in the dirt- they’ve been caught disrespecting him again.

The most recent one takes place over a social media hype video featuring their current and former roster, with the likes of Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, and Anthony Davis making an appearance. This came ahead of their match against the New Orleans Pelicans, which they ended up winning 111-103. It was a hype video with the song “Mavericks” by rapper and Dallas native Dorrough. But the clips with a Luka appearance have seemed to be edited out for a hologram with a Mavericks logo on the face.

The backlash from the Mavs fans has taken over the internet, with most of them questioning the decision to blatantly disrespect a future legend like that. “You put the logo over his face? I mean, how many ways can you screw this up from a team and PR standpoint? Your PR people should be fired ASAP because they aren’t doing you any favors…” says a fan. Apparently, this is what happens despite clocking 28.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 7.8 assists per game as your team aims for a playoff position.

There are reports that the edited figure isn’t actually Doncic, but after not even giving him a customary farewell post, it doesn’t seem far off the Mavs to pull something like this. At least El Matador has the likes of Dirk Nowitzki supporting him- and that to Luka would mean more than anything else in the world.