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The Dallas Mavericks are proving to be the surprise of the Western Conference as they're pushing the Oklahoma City Thunder to the very edge of their talent, but all eyes turned to an off-court racism scandal during the series, which exploded on social media.
The storm broke when an X.com, formerly Twitter, with the handle @Mavs_FFL, posted artwork of the Mavericks' Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving with Doncic starring as a Cowboy whilst Thunder player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was running away from the horse...
To make matters worse, the Slovenian was using a lasso as though he was preparing to "capture" Gilgeous-Alexander, leading to many to claim that the image has racist connotations considering the history of slavery in the United States as many fans slammed the post, which was later deleted.
It does appear to have had a good intention by hyping up the Mavericks and the iconography of Texas and the Old West, but it was definitely not vetted before being sent out and doesn't have a good look to say the least and fans pointed that out...
"I get Dallas and Texas and cowboys and everything but Jesus, how tone deaf can you be," one posted onto X.com.
"The bad old days," a second replied, humorously.
"Man, I wanna like this graphic so much but just cause of his skin color it feels mad weird. They shoulda had Kyrie with the lasso lol," said a third.
"This just feels racist," added a fourth.
When do the Mavs play next?
Unfortunately for Mavericks fans upset by the image, their day didn't get much better either as the Thunder tied the series 2-2 after four games in the Conference Semifinals as their team blew a 54-43 lead with two horrific final quarters.
They will go again on Wednesday, May 15 at 21:30 ET/18:30 as they bid to get into the Conference Finals to leave them one series away from the NBA Finals and a chance for talented players like Doncic to get a much needed ring on their CVs.