At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison discussed the shocking decision to trade Luka Doncic as well as the overwhelmingly negative reaction to it from fans, who have been chanting “fire Nico” since the deal was completed.
“I did know Luka was important to the Mavs’ fan base,” Harrison said, per RealGM. “I didn’t quite know to what level.
“But, really, the way we looked at it is if you’re putting a team on the floor that’s Kyrie [Irving], Klay [Thompson], P.J. [Washington], Anthony Davis and [Dereck] Lively, we felt that’s a championship-caliber team. And we would have been winning at a high level. That would have quieted some of the outrage. So unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just went on and on.”
When asked why he should be able to keep his job, Harrison defended his Mavericks tenure, tweets Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News.
“Well, one, I think I’ve done a really good job here,” Harrison said. “And I don’t think I can be judged by the injuries this year. You have to judge the totality, from the beginning to end. I think I have a really good working relationship with [governor Patrick Dumont]. I think you add in Rick [Welts], the leadership we have is really elite and you’ll see next year when our team comes back. We’re going to be competing for a championship.”
Here’s more from Harrison’s press conference:
- Harrison was pressed on why the Mavericks couldn’t get more assets from the Lakers for Doncic. “I think the biggest thing is if you don’t value AD as an All-NBA player and All-Defensive player, then you’re not going to like the trade,” Harrison said, according to Curtis (Twitter link).
- The Mavs’ head of basketball operations said Dumont didn’t pressure him to make the deal, as Curtis relays (via Twitter). “Not at all. Patrick reminds me of the leadership that I had at Nike and a really good leader doesn’t tell the people that work for him what to do. It’s a collective, well thought out process to make a big move like that. Also, unfortunately, I’m super stubborn so someone telling me to do something doesn’t work too well for me.”
- Despite the intense backlash, Harrison claims his relationship with Dumont has actually been “strengthened” in the two-plus months since the trade was made, according to Marc Stein (Twitter link).
- Harrison said Davis won’t need surgery this offseason and he doesn’t believe Lively will either, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Both players missed significant time with injuries, but were able to return before the team was eliminated in the play-in tournament.
- Regarding Kyrie Irving‘s $43.96MM player option for 2025/26, Harrison said he wasn’t sure if it would be exercised, but he’s confident the 33-year-old will be in a Mavericks uniform next season. “It’s too early to tell what Kyrie is going to do, but what I do feel is he’s going to be a Maverick next year,” Harrison said (Twitter link via Curtis).
Enough already! Mavs are in cancun. Kings are…still in greater sacramento eating california rolls? Lol Luka is still playing on his current team. How many times do we need to hear the same useless quotes from Nico. Move on already unless they’re going to retroactively void the trade or something.
Shouldn’t be judged for the injuries this year despite acquiring two older, injury-prone players. Okay, sure.
There was also this gem: “It’s a collective, well thought out process to make a big move like that. Also, unfortunately, I’m super stubborn so someone telling me to do something doesn’t work too well for me.” Not a contradiction at all.
It takes a pretty big narcissist to be delusional enough in digging your hole deeper and deeper without even realizing it.
Didn’t quite know to what level, lol. I don’t need to read or hear any more from this guy.
I enjoyed the bit about how he views himself as stubborn and will not listen to anybody else.
“I can’t be blamed for the injuries…” after trading for one of the most injury-prone stars is just nonsense. No accountability, I think the fans are right for wanting him fired.
Not to mention running Kyrie into the ground, even though they say there’s no correlation between his injury and playing the highest minutes in the league after Luka was traded.
People do undervalue Davis so I think the trade package was fine. Christie, a pick and Anthony Davis was probably the best they were going to get if the goal is to win now. It’s just that Doncìc is one of the top five players in the world, only 26, led the team to the WCF and Finals and the rest of the team was built around Doncìc. Davis is 32, injury prone and needs shooters around him to be at his best. Outside of Irving and Thompson when he’s hot they don’t have that. How can it be a win now move if you have to rebuild the roster to fit with Davis?
People undervalue Davis only because he’s always injured. I think everyone recognizes that in an alternate universe, a healthy Anthony Davis is consistently a top 5 player in the league with several MVPs.
@ Chucktoad1
“Christie, a pick and Anthony Davis was probably the best they were going to get”
For last season’s scoring champion, the guy that led the Mavs to the Finals?
It’s hard to believe you’re serious – clearly they could have gotten more had they involved the rest of the league and used those offers to negotiate more from the Lakers.
The point was to make a trade to win now, not three years from now. Shai, Jokic, Tatum, Giannis and Edwards aren’t getting traded unless they ask to be. So who are they going to trade for with the intent to win now?
But they didn’t call every single gotdam team to check!? That’s malpractice
Reading the ESPN article that came out about how he cleaned out on the medical/training staff … just wow.
Luka might be the lucky one when they jettisoned him out of the franchise. Poor Klay … guy signed with them thinking they were close (after making the Finals last year) only to see everything burn down around him.
Klay had a good thing going and wanted a couple extra bucks to soothe his pride.
He didn’t leave for more money he just wanted to leave
Money wasn’t the issue with Thompson.
The Lakers reportedly offered 4/$80 million. He turned that down and signed with Dallas for 3/$50 million
It was also reported that klay’s team proposed he’d take 2/$20 million to stay two weeks before signing with Dallas.
This whole process has been a really great window for blue-collar sports fans on what a nightmare corporate America is at its upper echelons. Teams are usually full of former players and people that otherwise have an association with the sport (outside of sales and marketing, obviously). Nico Harrison is a perfect example of how vapid and soulless corporate Ameeica is. Just toxic vibes masquerading behind toxic positivity, with no regard, and actual contempt for the customers at the end of the trough. Of course none of this occurs without an even more grotesque enabler (Dumont/Adelson). Dallas mostly sucks, but I do feel bad for their blue-collar fans. They didn’t sign up for the corporate hell that is in store for them. The Luka trade is only the beginning. Any joy the team once brought them will be slowly sucked out of them and converted into vertical profits. The only positive that will come out of this is when Kyrie eventually gets fed up and starts posting pro-Palestine content on his socials (the Adelsons are the most t oxic Zionists, possibly ever).
^ 100% all facts here.
When the Milwaukee Brewers owner got all defensive when asked why his team didn’t go after any big name free agents, when they are clearly a contending team in need of them, his reply was pure corpo CEO-speak – “Is my job to win a World Series,” Attanasio said, via Bob Nightengale of USA Today, “or is my job to provide a summer of entertainment and passion and a way for families to come together?” – Ai couldn’t have said it better. Puke on puke. That’s the future of MLB if they don’t completely restructure the league so the teams are not hijacked by idiotic born rich capitalist owners, which is a thing they should have phased out in the 1970s when Oakland’s owners drove the 3-peat World Series title winning players out on purpose. Current Oakland especially was the test case for this, the Mavs are clearly copying the A’s route to Las Vegas, but Dallas is a top 10 USA city in terms of economy/population, it needs an NBA team. All of this is just disgusting. Capitalism is disgusting.
Didn’t know how important he was to the fan base? He’s joking right? That’s one side of the equation. When a 34 year old Kevin Durant fetches 5 first round picks and Luka only fetches one is a totally different thing. Luka is better than Durant. Luka lead his team to the Finals Durant never could without joining a super team in Golden State. There has to be some kind of wink wink agreement between Harrison and the Lakers like if you trade Luka here when the Dallas fan base runs you out you have a job here in LA. It’s the only thing that makes sense. No other team would hire him after that.
“I did know Luka was important to the Mavs’ fan base,” Harrison said, per RealGM. “I didn’t quite know to what level.”
Absolutely infuriating. This guy is a moron.
What will Nico do after he’s inevitably fired or resigns in 1-2 years? Will he return to Nike or another shoe company? In my opinion, there’s no way an employer would hire him for a high-profile leadership position, regardless of the industry he chooses. He made a business-altering decision and seemed unprepared, clueless, and lacking in knowledge. This decision cost his company millions. Will he have to start from scratch and get on indeed.com and find an entry level position in finance or something. I’m very curious how his post NBA career will go.
My guess is that he retires on the millions of $ Nike and/or the Buss family paid him under the table to send Luka to the Lakers.
Executive who makes money-losing decisions? Sounds like a perfect fit for the PE world.
First, he came for your generational talent. Now he’s here for your pension.
Absolute insanity. Even I knew how much Luka meant to the fans and I’ve never even been to Dallas. How can he honestly say that?
Trading Luka was smart. Guy had nearly 40 and Lakers still get blown out. The guy Luka guarded had his biggest game of his career going 11 for 13.
The best criticism is Dallas is a roster that has no chance of being fully heathy. Ky, Klay, AD….90% chance one of them is injured.