Donnie Nelson’s concerns were clear.
After 16 years as the head of the Dallas Mavericks’ front office, from Dirk Nowitzki’s one-of-a-kind run to the Luka Doncic era that has shown so much similar promise, Nelson had begun to wonder if he was truly in charge of the team’s roster or coaching staff anymore. But when he relayed these fears to owner Mark Cuban, sharing his growing belief that Haralabos Voulgaris, the former professional gambler who served as the team’s director of quantitative research and development, was encroaching on his influence over personnel moves and strategy, the course correction that he’d never hoped for arrived.
Nelson had wanted Voulgaris to stay in his proverbial lane, to avoid overstepping the bounds of his role and focus on being a trusted adviser to Cuban whose analytics-based views would always be taken into account.
