Preston and Adrienne Pannek with their Luka mural on Pete’s in Deep Ellum. Photo by Andrew Sherman 

The Forest Hills-based artists at House of Pannek, also known for Moouis Vuitton, have garnered significant buzz with their latest St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin wall mural, an image of Mavericks phenom Luka Doncic holding up a sign that says, “PLEASE SEND HELP.”

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It’s a sentiment expressed by Mavs fans (the way Cowboys fans say “Jerry the owner should fire Jerry the GM”) and backed by pundits. (“It’s no secret that the Dallas Mavericks rely heavily upon the heroic efforts of Luka Doncic on a nightly basis to succeed,” CBS’

No artist aspires to make everyone happy. That would be boring. And the response from Dallas dwellers has ranged from impressed and requesting a T-shirt to troubled and launching personal insults. All of that is expected and accepted, based on artist and Lake Highlands High School alum Preston Pannek’s comments on social media (“I don’t take it personally. We’re just having fun and painting here,” he tells one such insulter).

But Pannek told Doyle Rader at Mavsmoneyball.com that he was taken aback by team owner Mark Cuban’s response to the Luka piece. (See the entire Cuban-Pannek email exchange on that site.)

Pannek painted the mildly controversial new piece over an image of Doncic’s former teammate Kristaps Porzingis “The Unicorn” as a unicorn.

Photo courtesy Preston Pannek.

Photo courtesy Preston Pannek.

In an email to Pannek, Cuban called the new Luka Doncic “Please Send Help” mural “disrespectful.”

Pannek told Rader that Cuban took the mural a different way than it was intended and that he has been a die-hard Mavs fan since 2000.

It’s possible Cuban was less upset by the mural than by some of the responses to it on Instagram, such as dallasman86′ “Mark Cuban Do Your Job!” or william_lovel1’s “Cuban and this organization quit trying a long time ago.” Perhaps he’s taking it out on Pannek.

Whatever the case, Pannek told Cuban in a response that “if the Mavs organization gets help for the kid, I’ll change the sign to saying Thank You Mark Cuban.”

The House of Pannek is responsible for hundreds of colorful street murals throughout Dallas.

Pannek and wife Adrienne started by painting 10 around Deep Ellum — there was Bart Simpson in a psychedelic scene from the romantic comedy Say Anything (Say Yes, Say No at 3000 Canton) or Donald Duck as Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing (3013 Elm) — where they lived for the last 10 years before relocating to their two-story home on the large lot near White Rock Lake.

The Panneks also own Lash Loft in Deep Ellum. They recently told the Advocate they are eyeing a second location in Lake Highlands.