The whistle never came. That silence lingered longer than the final buzzer. What should have been another defining moment in Cooper Flagg’s explosive rookie stretch instead turned into the flashpoint of a growing frustration inside Dallas. And by Monday, that frustration boiled over publicly.

On February 2, following the Dallas Mavericks’ 111–107 loss to the Houston Rockets on Saturday night, minority owner Mark Cuban took to X to blast NBA officiating for what he believes is a repeated failure to protect the team’s 19-year-old rookie. “POV – You turn in Coop’s drives to @NBAOfficial and he still gets treated like a pinata and gets no calls,” Cuban wrote.

That single word from Cuban, “pinata,” was not hyperbole. It was an accusation. And it tied directly to one play that swung the game.

With 29 seconds left against Houston, Flagg attacked left, driving into traffic as Amen Thompson and Kevin Durant converged at the rim. There was visible contact. The ball rolled off. The whistle stayed silent.

Dallas never recovered. Flagg finished the night with 34 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists. The performance capped an absurd two-game stretch in which the 19-year-old totaled 83 points, the most ever by a rookie over a two-game span. Still, that historic output ended in another loss. Because of that no-call, the game stopped being about Flagg’s scoring and became about what he did not receive.

Cuban’s post made clear this was not an isolated incident, revealing Dallas had already submitted film of Flagg’s drives to the league office without any change in how those plays were officiated.

In Cuban’s framing, Flagg absorbs contact on a nightly basis without earning the same benefit of the whistle extended to veterans. That is why the “pinata” metaphor mattered. It suggested repeated punishment without protection.

That accusation landed loudly because it was echoed moments later by the Mavericks’ head coach.

Jason Kidd Put Names on the Officials

After the loss, Jason Kidd did not hedge. “I saw a foul,” Kidd said. “Sean Wright, Jason Goldenberg, and Simone Jelks were awful tonight. That was unacceptable. It’s a foul.” Kidd acknowledged the uncertainty of whether Flagg would have converted both free throws. However, he made clear that the referees’ job ended before that question even mattered.

“The referees did not do their job tonight,” he said. Flagg himself kept his response measured. “Definitely felt some contact,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s the refs who are making the calls. It is what it is.”

The numbers only sharpened the sting. Dallas attempted 26 free throws compared to Houston’s 15, yet the final possession still ended without a call. Meanwhile, the loss dropped the Mavericks to 19–30 on the season.

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That record left Dallas four games behind the LA Clippers at 22–25. As a result, postseason hopes continue to dim. The Mavericks have now gone 13–20 in clutch games, a trend that has defined their season more than any individual performance. Even Flagg’s surge has not been enough to reverse it. Still, officiating was not the only source of pressure swirling around the rookie.

Amid growing scrutiny over Flagg’s role, Kidd made it clear he was done entertaining the debate.“I don’t give a f— about the criticism,” Kidd said. “That’s your opinion. You guys write that bulls—. I’ve played this game at a very high level, and I know what the f— I’m doing.”

Early in the season, Kidd opened games without a true point guard. As a result, Flagg, a natural power forward, was asked to initiate offense. Dallas lost five of its first seven games and ranked last in offensive efficiency during that stretch.

Kidd briefly altered the approach by inserting D’Angelo Russell into the lineup on November 5 against the New Orleans Pelicans, before reverting to his original vision.

Before the season, the coach openly stated that he wanted to “make him uncomfortable” by placing Cooper Flagg in unfamiliar roles. Development, not comfort, was the priority. That philosophy has not changed. The backlash has only intensified.