What Mavericks’ Anthony Davis said about returning too early from injury

Before Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison defended his shocking Luka Doncic trade and the backlash that came with it, and addressed Mavericks Anthony Davis’ injury, sources close to the situation came forward to reveal where the organization stands at the end of their 2024-25 campaign. Davis suffered a left adductor injury during his Dallas debut before returning to the lineup in a 120-101 win against the Brooklyn Nets in late March.

One source said the six-week timetable for that type of injury varies per athlete, but that team medical staff, seeing the added pressure Harrison received in the wake of his injury, wanted to expedite the process the best way possible, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

“It’s hard to say what a guy should have for a contact injury, but how fast they come back or how likely they are to reinjure it, that’s another story,” a team source said. “How do you get me back? How well am I when I got back? That’s the medical staff and the [performance] staff.

“I think that is where you really see the effect of the dysfunction, but not just within the medical department, but the pressure to tread water until other guys come back so that you can prove what decisions [the front office] made up until this point were the right ones. … I think there’s a dysfunction on an organization level because of the trade itself.”

Still, Davis says the team medical staff worked hard to pave the way for his return.

“They meet and communicate every day,” said Davis, who works with his own staff in the weight room instead of Belton. “Everybody is one big team.”

Another team source shared that before Anthony Davis’ injury, that wasn’t always the case within the Mavericks organization.

“With all the great organizations, the performance and medical [staffs] are seamless,” a team source said. “And here they’re just completely separate and at odds. It’s pretty clear to see the effect of the divide. The division created an unfortunate environment that ultimately the players had to suffer from.”

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