The Mavericks have been living a nightmare since they sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers. Fans showed their displeasure with the franchise’s decision-makers, especially Nico Harrison, after what they went on to call the trade in NBA history. After the departure of what was once an idol, the Dallas team seems to be touched by bad luck and accumulates injuries.
Currently, the Mavericks are the team with the most money tied up in the infirmary. Among the seven players with physical problems, they receive $129 million, 73% of the spending on the squad. They are Jaden Hardy, Caleb Martin, P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II, Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving.
The last two cases are especially painful. The center arrived from Los Angeles in the Doncic trade and was injured on his debut night after having a great game. The point guard tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the game against the Kings and will miss the rest of the season.
The fans turn their backs on the team
The Mavericks’ fan base is irritated by the Doncic trade and on top of that they have been hit with an average 8% increase in season tickets for next season. When you add to that the ugly defeat to the Kings in the last home game, you can understand why by the end of the third quarter many fans were beginning to leave the arena. It was an ugly sight.
Given all these circumstances, one wonders whether Doncic’s transfer will end up becoming one of those legendary curses that plague world sport, especially in the United States. Here are some of the most famous.
The ‘Curse of the Bambino’
In the early days of 1920, Harry Frazee, owner of the Boston Red Sox, sold Babe Ruth, known as the ‘Bambino’ and one of the best baseball players in history, to the New York Yankees. The deal was one of the most important in one of America’s most traditional sports. Since then, Boston, who had won four titles between 1912 and 1918, fell into a winning lethargy that prevented them from winning again until 2004.
The Curse of the Billy Goat
In 1945, the Chicago Cubs were in position to win the World Series for the first time since 1908. They were playing the Detroit Tigers and Billy Sianis, owner of an establishment called Billy Goat Tavern, thought it was a good idea to watch the game at Wrigley Field with his goat. Due to the smell and discomfort caused by the animal, many fans asked him to leave. He cursed them. The Cubs lost that final and did not return to another until 2016. It had been 71 years and 108 since their last title.
The curse of Bela Guttmann
Benfica was one of the great football teams of the 1960s. In fact, it was the team that, with two consecutive European Cup titles (1961 and 1962), broke Real Madrid’s dictatorship, as they won the first five editions in a row. The coach was Austro-Hungarian Bel Guttmann, who left the club in the summer of 1962 for financial reasons. Before leaving, he left a curse whose duration was in doubt. Some say he said: “Without me, Benfica will never win the European Cup again”. Others put the curse at 100 years. The fact is that, since then, the Lisbon club has reached five finals (1963, 1965, 1968, 1988 and 1990) and has not won any of them. Now Barcelona has crossed their path.
The Aaron Ramsey curse
It is said that the goals of Aaron Ramsey, a 34-year-old Welsh midfielder who now plays for Cardiff City, coincided with the death of a celebrity or occurred within a few hours. The midfielder scored on the same day that Osama Bin Laden, Whitney Houston and Luke Perry died and in other cases it was a day before the deaths of Steve Jobs, Muammar al-Gadaffi, Robin Williams, David Bowie and George Bush Sr.
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