Dallas Sports Fans Losing Both Luka Doncic And Micah Parsons In The Same Year Is The Epitome Of Sports Hell

By now, chances are you've heard the news. With the NFL season about to start, the Packers have put their nuts on the table and pulled off a blockbuster trade for Micah Parsons 

As you can imagine, I'm sure Packers fans across the globe are over the moon with this development, given the fact that Micah Parsons is pretty decent at the whole playing football thing

But when this news first broke, my brain went in a different direction. I couldn't help but feel for the people of Dallas and Dallas sports fans everywhere. I mean, what they've been put through these last 6 months is legitimately insane and honestly something I wouldn't wish on any fanbase (outside of Lakers fans, obviously). In February, they had to watch Nico Harrison trade their 25 year old franchise superstar in the middle of the night to a rival team in the same conference. A trade that is largely considered the worst trade in NBA history. Then, when Luka made his first return back to Dallas, those same fans had to watch him erupt for 45 points

Not even winning the Lottery and being gifted Cooper Flagg could heal the pain of what that franchise did to their own fanbase. I'm not even totally sure the Mavs winning a title would do it either. That's how beloved Luka was. 

Fast forward a few months and here we are, with another Dallas team kicking their fans directly in the nuts. Like Luka, Parsons was shipped off to a rival. Even if this may have been on the table given how the negotiations were going between Parsons and Jerry Jones, the fact that it actually happened had to bring back all of those same feelings and all that same pain for Dallas fans that they experienced back in February with the Luka trade.

Perhaps I'm just being a prisoner of the moment, but have we ever seen something like this? Where two teams in the same city trade their best player and franchise cornerstone to a bitter rival, all because they may not have wanted to pay him? For Luka, it was the Mavs not wanting to give him the supermax. For Parsons, it was his own massive extension. To the surprise of no one, once Luka became a Laker he signed on for 3/$165M, and as you can see above, Parsons just got his own extension of 4/$188M with $136M guaranteed from his new team.

Safe to say, both the Mavs and Cowboys fumbled like you read about.

While Cowboys fans are certainly familiar with sadness and disappointment, that tends to come from the underachievement on the field. There's a difference in that type of sadness compared to what I'm sure they're feeling now. Tough losses are hard to stomach and can take you to dark places depending on how close to the top of the mountain you get. But something like this? This is 10000000x worse because now they are gone forever. There's no "we'll get 'em next time". Now, you're forced to watch them succeed with your rival. That's a new level of pain. Then you add in the fact that this is the second 25-26 year old franchise cornerstone that was ripped away from them in the same year over bullshit. I wouldn't even know how to process that, and I can't help but feel for those fans. 

At least for the Mavs, they were able to bring back a pretty damn good player in Anthony Davis (as long as he's healthy). That's not quite Luka, but it's better than nothing. He still at least gives you All NBA potential. The Cowboys are getting a couple 1sts and Kenny Clark. That feels pretty light, but I'm not exactly a football expert. From what I can gather, this isn't exactly being talked about as some sort of massive return.

With Kyrie still out with his ACL and his return still TBD, you could make the case given how competitive the West is, that the Mavs' season is a bit cooked. With such a massive trade now happening for the Cowboys a week before their season starts, you have to think the same is true for them as well right? I'm sure Dallas fans were hoping the Cowboys season would help distract them from what's going on with the Mavs, but as it turns out, Dallas fans basically can't watch either team without a constant reminder of both of these trades. 

To me, you add up the last 6 months for those fanbases, and it's the epitome of sports hell. I'm sorry to say it, but unfortunately, it looks like they're going to be stuck there for the foreseeable future.