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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Brigid Kennedy

Mavericks Fire GM Nico Harrison Nine Months After Luka Dončić Trade

Nico Harrison is out in Dallas.

The Mavericks and owner Patrick Dumont fired the team's general manager on Tuesday morning, bringing an end to a tenure that started strong but ended with an influx of fan ire and discontent. ESPN's Shams Charania and Tim MacMahon preempted the official news with a report not long before.

Harrison's dismissal arrives almost a year after he helped orchestrate the bombshell trade that sent franchise cornerstone Luka Dončić to the Lakers, a much-derided move that has maligned fans toward the team and its GM in the months since.

On Monday, in fact, "Fire Nico" chants echoed throughout the American Airlines Center as Dallas lost to the Bucks to fall to 3–8 on the season. According to Charania, Dumont, the team's owner, "took accountability" for the Dončić trade and accepted it as a mistake when speaking courtside to a fan that same night.

Harrison was hired as GM in 2021. During his tenure, the Mavs made a Western Conference Finals appearance in 2021-22 and an NBA Finals appearance in 2023-24, after which the GM signed a multi-year extension. Following the decision to trade away Doncic at the deadline in 2024-25, a move reportedly the result of Doncic's health and presumed uninterest in signing an extension, the Mavericks' season took a turn for the worse. Things were looking up when the team drafted generational talent Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick of the 2025 draft, but clearly, that was still not enough to save Harrison's job.

“This decision reflects our continued commitment to building a championship-caliber organization, one that delivers for our players, our partners, and most importantly, our fans,” Dumont said in a statement on Tuesday.

With Harrison out, Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi will serve as co-interim general managers for the time being.


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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mavericks Fire GM Nico Harrison Nine Months After Luka Dončić Trade.

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