Nico Harrison is out as Mavericks GM months after he dealt away the team's biggest superstar in Luka Dončic and became public enemy No. 1 in Dallas.
Mavericks fans have made their voices heard over the last several months with their thunderous "Fire Nico" chants that reportedly made it more difficult for the Mavs to play at home than on the road. Eleven games into the 2025 season, fans got their wish, and Dallas will kick off a new era under Mavs owner Patrick Dumont, who has since taken ownership of the ill-conceived Dončic trade.
Harrison, who had two seasons remaining on his contract, had no shortage of memorable quotes in the drama-filled aftermath of dealing Dončic. Many of them, much like the trade itself, didn't age well.
But one of them did. Harrison spoke to the media the day after his secret overnight trade with the Lakers and explained why he believed Anthony Davis was a great fit for the Mavericks' long-term plans.
"If you pair him with Kyrie and the rest of the guys, he fits with our time frame to win now and in the future," Harrison said in a Feb. 2 press conference. "The future to me is three, four years from now. Ten years from now, I don’t know. They’ll probably bury me and J(ason Kidd) by then. Or we bury ourselves."
Bury him it did, with Harrison out of a job less than a year after changing the course of Mavs franchise history.
Harrison never got to see if his big-time gamble paid off, though it seems even he had an ominous inkling that he wouldn't stick around in Dallas long enough to witness it. Davis and Kyrie Irving played in just one game together last season due to injuries, and the former Lakers star's future could be up in the air now that Harrison has been ousted.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Old Nico Harrison Quote About His Mavericks Job Aged Surprisingly Well.
