CHICAGO — Matt Riccardi let slip a clap. One clap, as the reality dawned on the Dallas Mavericks assistant general manager that the Mavs, with 1.8% chance to win the NBA draft lottery, had landed the No. 1 overall pick. One clap, to celebrate the fortunes of a franchise changing with four bouncing Ping-Pong balls. One clap—though after the year Dallas’s front office has had, no one in the lottery drawing room would have begrudged him a standing ovation.
Incredible. Three months after trading Luka Doncic, the Mavs are riding high again. Three months of pain—self-inflicted pain, it should be noted, caused by Dallas GM Nico Harrison’s decision to trade Doncic for a puzzlingly light package—has given way to hope. When the drawing was over, Riccardi pocketed the winning combination—10, 14, 11, 7—and peeled back an owl sticker, a lucky charm he borrowed from his 13-month-old son, Lio. “Amazing,” Riccardi said. Indeed. Last month, Dallas was a play-in team facing an uncertain future. On Monday, they watched a championship window open.
