It was never going to end well for Nico Harrison, not after making the decision to trade away a beloved generational star. Sure, there were flickers of hope that Harrison’s plan to transform a Dallas Mavericks team built around the offensive talents of Luka Dončić into a defensive menace spearheaded by Anthony Davis would work: the two-plus quarters Dallas played in Davis’s debut last February and the brilliant stretch Kyrie Irving put together after the All-Star break. But Irving’s knee injury dashed the Mavs’ chances of making a run last season, and not even the lottery luck that led to Cooper Flagg could save Dallas in this one.
“This decision reflects our continued commitment to building a championship-caliber organization,” said Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont in announcing Harrison’s firing on Tuesday. “One that delivers for our players, our partners and most importantly, our fans.”
Whatever. Dumont’s hands aren’t clean in this, as anyone with even a passing understanding of the NBA should have known to question the decision to deal a five-time All-NBA first-team guard months removed from that guard leading the team to the NBA Finals. Harrison cooked up the idea to trade Dončić, pitched it and ultimately closed, but Dumont agreeing that a Dončić deal needed to be shrouded in secrecy rather than robustly debated because the team acquiring him wanted it that way demonstrated a cartoonish level of incompetence rarely seen in NBA C-suites.
Still, Harrison had to go. Dallas dropped to 3–8 after Monday’s loss to Milwaukee. Without Irving, who is still recovering from knee surgery, the offense has cratered. The Mavs are 29th in offensive rating (102.8) and a league-worst 30th in points per game (107.2). They are one of two NBA teams shooting worse than 30% from three-point range and one of four handing out fewer than 24 assists.
Since trading Dončić, the Mavs have collapsed. Injuries to Irving, Davis and Dereck Lively II have been crippling, but Klay Thompson’s legs look shot (Golden State may have been on to something there) and D’Angelo Russell (27.8% from three) has not been the short-term answer at point guard the Mavs had hoped for.
When he made the Dončić trade, Harrison said he believed Dallas had opened up a three-to-four-year championship window.
Well, Year 1 is gone, and Year 2 isn’t looking much better.
That may not have lost Harrison the team, but it did lose him the city. “Fire Nico” chants have echoed through American Airlines Center since the Dončić trade in February, and this season they have only grown louder. They rumbled through the building on Monday, with Dumont watching from a courtside seat.
That’s significant, because the Dumont-led ownership group is interested in more than winning games. Since purchasing controlling interest of the team from Mark Cuban in 2023, it’s been well known that Dumont, who partnered with the Adelson family, co-owners of the Las Vegas Sands, is eager to build a new arena, perhaps one that could be the centerpiece of a resort and casino, should Texas laws regarding gambling change.
The public doesn’t have to love a team to support a new arena.
But they can’t hate it, either.
Firing Harrison won’t heal that relationship. But it will begin the process. Dallas named Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi, who worked under Harrison, as co-interim general managers, but they are just placeholders—tainted, even if only by association. There will be a “comprehensive search” for a head of basketball operations, the Mavs said in a statement, with a number of external candidates (Dennis Lindsey, the former Jazz top exec and Mavs adviser, is expected to be a candidate, a source said, confirming a report from veteran journalist Marc Stein) considered.
Then there is Jason Kidd. Kidd is in good standing in Dallas, both with ownership—which has extended him twice—and a fan base that remembers how Kidd helped deliver a championship as a player and steer the team to the Finals as a coach. His hands are (publicly, at least) clean in the Dončić deal—Harrison gave him cover when he said he didn’t inform Kidd of the trade until it was completed—and no one is pointing fingers his way for the flop of the Mavs’ injury-riddled roster. Under a Kidd regime, Dirk Nowitzki could be brought back into the fold.
Will Kidd want the job? Probably, people who know Kidd say. Kidd has craved input in personnel decisions at previous stops. And while he has come into his own as a coach in Dallas, a rebuild around Flagg is inevitable. Better to oversee it from an executive office than the coach’s box.
Whoever gets the gig will have options. More importantly, a clean slate. Harrison didn’t stand a chance in Dallas after dealing Dončić. He was Harry Frazee to Red Sox fans. Roy Boe to those loyal to the Nets. Harrison didn’t sell Dončić like Frazee sold Babe Ruth or Boe did with Julius Erving, but he didn’t do much better. Dončić, who is playing at an MVP level in Los Angeles, hung over Harrison like a shadow. No amount of success could escape it.
The Mavericks likely never will, either, but at least now they can make a fresh start. In an open letter, Dumont acknowledged the “profound impact” the last few months have had on the fan base and vowed to do more. “As fans of this franchise, you have every right to demand a commitment to success from us,” said Dumont. Fans got the firing they wanted. Success, though, is a long way off.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mavericks Had to Fire Nico Harrison After Luka Dončić Trade Debacle.
