The airline continues to contend with backlash after revealing plans to apply a checked bag fee. But the carrier briefly deflected the fallout to the Mavericks.

Southwest Airlines is trying to recover from the bad PR they just generated by pointing to an instance of worse PR. The airline giant sparked outrage this week by announcing the impending end of their policy allowing two free checked bags for every passenger.

The trade was orchestrated by Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, but fans were quick to point out that the team ownership, led by majority owner Patrick Dumont, would also likely have had to sign off on the deal. Recently, Dumont spoke on what went into the puzzling decision.