The jaw-dropping Luka Doncic trade cemented the reality, if it wasn’t already clear, that Mark Cuban has no influence on the Mavericks’ basketball operations.

In a conversation with Bill Gates at the Eisemann Center in Richardson on Friday night, Cuban was blunt in his first public response about the trade that sent the international superstar he drafted to Los Angeles. "I've had a rough week," Cuban told Gates to begin the event per Sarah Hepola of The Dallas Morning News.

Mark Cuban does not have as much control over the Dallas Mavericks as some may think in the aftermath of the Luka Doncic trade.