Piece by Lou Pastor
The Dallas Mavericks’ front office has been divided for some time, and their recent playoff collapse against the LA Clippers prompted several reports to seep out of the organization. According to reports, there was a rift between the Director of Quantitative Research and Development and the ‘Assistant General Manager’, Haralabob Voulgaris, and several other people in the Dallas Mavericks’ organization, including young superstar, Luka Doncic. Mavericks’ Owner Mark Cuban has publically supported Voulgaris throughout the process.
Most recently, the Dallas Mavericks parted ways with both Donnie Nelson - who had been the President of Basketball Operations for the past 24 years - and Haralabob Voulgaris, completely clearing out their front office. Dallas also parted ways with long-time championship-winning coach Rick Carlisle, and is reportedly interested in hiring Jason Kidd to be the new head coach. Carlisle will become the head coach of the Indiana Pacers, according to reports.
Who is Haralabos Voulgaris?
To begin to understand the divide with the Dallas Mavericks front office, it is important to consider the role of Haralabob Voulgaris - one of my all-time favorite NBA analysts/poker players. Haralabob Voulgaris is a famous gambler who amassed incredibly high amounts of money during the late 1990s and early/mid-2000s betting on NBA games. By the age of 25, it was not uncommon for Voulgaris to place wagers of $1,000,000 or more for a single day’s worth of NBA games. Haralabob Voulgaris exploited market inefficiencies through extensive data collection processes that gave his predictive modeling a substantial edge over sportsbooks. Voulgaris has also appeared in several high-stakes poker tournaments, including The World Series of Poker, The World Poker Tournament, and The European Poker Tournament. I know Haralabob Voulgaris primarily from his occasional appearances on the famous Bill Simmons Podcast. During the 2018 offseason, Haralabob Voulgaris was hired by the Dallas Mavericks, with his titles being the Director of Quantitative Research and Development and ‘Assistant General Manager’.
A Struggle for Power
The obvious problem with the Dallas Mavericks’ front office situation was that they hired an overqualified person to play the role of ‘Assistant GM’, while Donnie Nelson was still in charge of all final decision-making. It’s difficult for any group of individuals to operate smoothly if there aren’t clear roles specified beforehand. A power struggle took a stranglehold of the Mavericks’ front office, which explains why both Nelson and Voulgaris were dismissed a week and a half ago.
Apparently, there were issues with communication between Voulgaris and many other front office members. Many have also reported that Mavs’ young superstar Luka Doncic held disdain for Voulgaris, which was exemplified during a game in which Doncic yelled angrily at Voulgaris after being told to calm down. It’s unclear how much of the finger-pointing is just political maneuvering by people around the Dallas Mavericks organization, but there was clearly some negative energy infecting the situation.
Mark Cuban publicly responded to a tweet stating, “Bob Voulgaris has been the most influential voice in the Mavs’ front office since being hired: initiating transactions, dictating rotations, and even frustrating Luka. There are internal fears about how it could affect Luka’s future” by tweeting back “Total bullshit”. What’s interesting to me is that if the tweet was entirely false, then not only is Luka Doncic’s future not in question, but Haralabob Voulgaris did not receive the position of authority that some in the media are suggesting.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that Dallas should have made Haralabob Voulgaris the undisputed decision-maker from the get-go, instead of creating an unclear totem pole of power levels.
Haralabob Voulgaris should immediately become one of the most sought-after free-agent executives in the NBA market, depending on if he’s willing to get involved with another NBA organization.
Based on all reports, Luka Doncic is happy playing basketball in Dallas and intends on signing a supermax contract extension with the Mavericks in the near future.