Luka Doncic Congratulates Mavs Ex DeAndre Jordan Winning 1st NBA Title
The Denver Nuggets are NBA champions after defeating the Miami Heat in five games, and there’s one former Dallas Mavericks player who finally won a ring: 15-year veteran center DeAndre Jordan.
Once upon a time, the Mavs have big championship hopes involving Jordan when they recruited him in 2015 free agency. Dallas secured a verbal commitment from Jordan to join Dirk Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons and Wesley Matthews, but he infamously changed his mind a few days later and re-signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. It was a move that made the NBA offseason seems like an episode of the Maury Show.
Three years later in the 2018 offseason, Jordan and the Mavs finally united with a one-year deal in free agency. Jordan had some nice moments with then-rookie Luka Doncic, although he wasn’t a great fit. He was ultimately traded before the 2018-19 deadline to the New York Knicks as part of the Kristaps Porzingis deal.
Despite Jordan’s shaky history with the Mavs, that didn’t stop Doncic from congratulating his former teammate for reaching the NBA’s mountain top.
“Congrats brate!!!,” Doncic posted on his Instagram story while tagging Jordan.
Although Jordan didn’t have many on-court contributions for the Nuggets during their title run, he was still a steady veteran presence that had a positive influence in the locker room. Perhaps Doncic seeing a couple of his friends in Jordan and Finals MVP Nikola Jokic win a title will add more fuel to the fire for a deep Mavs playoff run next season.
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