CNN
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Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison admitted that he miscalculated the popularity of Luka Dončić among the team’s fanbase before the shocking trade with the Los Angeles Lakers in February.

The NBA world was stunned when Dončić was traded from the Mavericks to the Lakers in one of the most shocking transactions in recent history, despite the Slovenian superstar being the face of the Mavs and in his basketball prime.

Harrison has faced vehement backlash from Dallas fans in the aftermath of the trade, with many calling for him to be fired. The 52-year-old has consistently defended the move, but on Monday admitted that the love for Dončić from Mavs fans did come as a surprise to him.

“I did know that Luka was important to the fanbase,” Harrison told reporters during his season-ending news conference. “I didn’t quite know to what level.”

While Dončić went to Los Angeles in the blockbuster trade, the Mavs received 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis as the main piece in return with the hopes of transforming the team into a defensive juggernaut.

But since the transaction, the team has faced severe injury issues, with Davis missing a large portion of the season and Kyrie Irving suffering a torn ACL shortly afterwards.

After the trade and as a result of the slew of injuries, Dallas dropped down the Western Conference standings before just eking into the play-in tournament as the 10th seed. The team would win its first game before being eliminated in its second.

That has only brought even more pressure on Harrison, with fans heard chanting “Fire Nico” at Mavericks home games since the trade.

But Harrison remains staunch in his belief that Dallas has the makings of a winning team despite their season being over.

“We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” Harrison said, adding that being healthy is the only thing keeping the team from challenging for a title. “And so unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”

The move was made more difficult to swallow for Mavs fans given the Lakers’ success since Dončić moved to California, with the team booking its spot in the playoffs and rounding into a serious title contender.

Dončić was given a hero’s welcome when he returned to American Airlines Center for the first time earlier this month, with fans chanting his name throughout and Dončić himself overcome with emotions at the pre-game tribute video that was played.

The 26-year-old told ESPN recently that he threw and cracked his phone when he first heard about the trade, adding that he felt “sadness mostly” and that he “felt like my heart was broken, honestly.”

CNN
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The Detroit Pistons finally ended their NBA-record 15-game losing streak in the postseason, beating the New York Knicks 100-94 at Madison Square Garden to level the first round series at 1-1.

Detroit, appearing in the postseason for the first time since 2019, last earned a playoff win in Game 4 of the 2008 Eastern Conference finals against the eventual champion Boston Celtics. The Pistons were then swept in the first round of the playoffs in 2009, 2016 and 2019.

“It’s a great feeling,” Pistons star guard Cade Cunningham said, per the Associated Press. “It feels good to represent the city like we did tonight.

“It’s something that the city been waiting on for a long time, so we feel good about it and we’re ready to get back to the crib and perform in front of them.”

The Pistons will likely have been experiencing unwelcome déjà vu on Monday night when the Knicks, as they did in Game 1, surged back from an eight-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to level the score.

However, the Pistons didn’t crumble this time around and Dennis Schröder’s huge three-pointer gave Detroit a 97-94 lead with just 55 seconds remaining, before the German guard and Jalen Duren sealed the win with free throws.

“We found a way to maintain our poise and collect ourselves in a really similar situation,” Cunningham said, per ESPN. “We responded really well. I thought it was a great opportunity for us to respond and have a better outcome.”

Cunningham finished 33 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals, with Schröder chipping in 20 points.

The teams will next face off on Thursday in Detroit for Game 3.

“We got bigger things we’re out here for,” Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff said. “So our focus, and that’s why our guys have been able to grow and be consistent because they just think about the now and I thought they did a great job tonight of staying in the moment and doing what we needed to do.”

For the Knicks, Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 37 points to go with seven assists. Mikal Bridges added 19, but it was a quiet night for Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart and OG Anunoby, who finished with 10 points apiece.

Remarkably, Towns didn’t even attempt a shot in the entire fourth quarter, despite playing all 12 minutes.

After the game, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was clearly frustrated by the number of free-throws awarded to both teams, with the final total sitting at 34-19 in the Pistons’ favor.

“Huge discrepancy in free throws,” he said. “Huge. I don’t understand how, on one side, there are direct line drives with contact that just aren’t being called. Look, I really don’t give a crap how they call the game as long as it’s consistent on both sides.

“But if Cunningham’s driving, and there’s marginal contact that gets him to the line, then Jalen (Brunson) should be getting to the line.”

CNN
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Editor’s Note: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual acts.

Former NFL star tight end Shannon Sharpe has been accused of multiple instances of assault, sexual assault, battery and sexual battery in a lawsuit filed Sunday by an anonymous woman and her attorneys.

Sharpe’s legal representatives called the lawsuit an attempt to “shake down” the popular podcaster for millions of dollars and said he “categorically denies all allegations of coercion or misconduct.”

In the suit filed in a Las Vegas district court, “Jane Doe” accuses the popular host of the “Club Shay Shay” podcast of “manipulating and controlling” the plaintiff during a nearly two-year period that started in 2023 as a consensual relationship when the woman was 20 years old.

The civil complaint alleges Sharpe, 56, “violently sexually assaulted and anally raped Plaintiff,” in October 2024 and again in January of this year in Las Vegas, Nevada, “blatantly ignoring her requests for him to stop.”

The suit states: “After many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff — a woman more than thirty years younger than he — and repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her, Sharpe refused to accept the answer no and raped Plaintiff, despite her sobbing and repeated screams of ‘no.’”

When asked if Jane Doe had contacted police during or after the alleged assaults, the plaintiffs’ attorney, Tony Buzbee, said he could not comment.

The attorney told CNN, “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up against those with power, fame and money. I look forward to pressing this case in court.”

Sharpe’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said the woman is attempting to blackmail his client and that the pair’s relationship was consensual and “sexual in nature — and, in many cases, initiated by her with specific and graphic requests.”

Davis said Sharpe “looks forward to vindication through due process and a judgment based on the facts and the law.”

The complaint is seeking compensatory and punitive damages of more than $50 million.

The Pro Football Hall of Famer was inducted as part of the Class of 2011. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in 1990 and retired following the 2003 season as the NFL’s all-time leader in catches, yards and touchdowns by a tight end.

Sharpe won two Super Bowls with Denver and then another while a member of the Baltimore Ravens.