Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m sure I’m not the only one who couldn’t care less about the change to the NBA All-Star Game format.
In today’s SI:AM:
🤠 Mavs start fresh
🏉 A rugby lifer’s NFL contributions
🙏 CFP rankings give Miami hope
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Mavs finally send Nico packing
Mavericks fans have chanted “Fire Nico!” at just about every home game since general manager Nico Harrison traded Luka Dončić to the Lakers in February. On Tuesday, they finally got their wish.
Harrison was fired Tuesday after four-plus seasons in charge, nine months after he sent Dončić to Los Angeles in exchange for Anthony Davis. The trade was so widely panned at the time that it seemed inevitable that it would cost Harrison his job. The only surprise is that it took this long for him to get sent packing.
“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,” Mavs owner Patrick Dumont said in a statement announcing the Harrison firing.
The Mavs can’t undo the Dončić deal, but they can remove some of the stink by axing the guy who authored the trade. How could the team and its fans ever believe that Dallas could turn things around and become a contender again with Harrison still running the show? Firing Harrison is the first step toward putting the trade behind them and trying to make the Mavs’ franchise identity something other than “the team that traded Luka Dončić.”
A loss on Monday to the Bucks, in which the Mavs blew a 13-point fourth-quarter lead and fell to 3–8 on the year, made Tuesday as good a time as any to fire Harrison, but it should hardly come as a surprise that Dallas is stumbling this season. Kyrie Irving is recovering from a torn left ACL and may miss at least the next two months. It’s tough to expect any team to get off to a winning start without its starting point guard. On top of that, Davis has missed the last six games with a strained left calf. You can’t blame Harrison for Irving’s injury, but the fact that the Mavs’ other star player is also unavailable is something Harrison certainly could have foreseen when trading for the oft-injured Davis.
The handling of Davis’s injury also sheds light on the decision to fire Harrison. The Mavericks had reportedly been considering having Davis return to the court last weekend for the team’s game against the Wizards. NBA insider Marc Stein reported that Davis wanted to play in the game on Saturday in Washington, and that Harrison was also in favor of Davis taking the court. The Dallas medical staff, however, believed Davis should play it safe and sit out to avoid aggravating the injury. Dumont stepped in and sided with the medical staff, Stein reported. Davis did not play, nor did he play in Monday’s home game against Milwaukee. Stein wrote that Dumont’s decision to insert himself in the matter was “a timely and telling illustration of the depths of the erosion in ownership’s faith in Harrison.”
Firing Harrison presents the Mavericks with an opportunity to start fresh. The franchise got exceedingly lucky when it won the draft lottery a few months after the Dončić trade and had a generational prospect in Cooper Flagg fall right into its lap. Flagg hasn’t been terribly impressive over his first 11 NBA games, averaging 15.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. But with Harrison gone, the Mavs can focus on turning over a new leaf and doing everything they can to maximize Flagg’s development. As Liam McKeone writes, the first step toward helping Flagg adapt to the pro game should be trading Anthony Davis. With Davis occupying the power forward spot and Irving injured, Flagg has been forced to play most of his minutes at point guard. Running the point for an NBA team is a lot to ask of an 18-year-old rookie. Flagg would have an easier time adapting to the NBA game if he could do so at a position that’s more natural to him. He may be capable of playing a point forward role later in his career, but he’ll have an easier time as a rookie if he doesn’t have to grapple with that responsibility.
Trading Davis and getting some draft capital in return is the best approach for a team that seems destined for the draft lottery this season. The Mavs already have what should be the centerpiece of their franchise for years to come. With any luck, they’ll have an opportunity to draft another promising young player near the top of the first round next year. And most importantly of all, Dallas fans don’t have to worry about Harrison screwing it up.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Greg Bishop profiles Scottish rugby lifer Richie Gray—the “Collision King”—and how his smarter, safer tackling methods are reshaping the NFL.
- Gilberto Manzano checks Matt LaFleur’s suddenly warm seat in Green Bay and assesses whether the Bears are actually a playoff lock.
- Chris Mannix explains why Dallas had to fire Nico Harrison after the Luka Dončić trade debacle and how the Patrick Dumont–led reset aims to rebuild fan trust beyond wins.
- Miami’s back in the CFP hunt. As the Hurricanes climb to No. 15, the hope that fuels them might also be what burns them again, writes Bryan Fischer.
- Daniel Flick spotlights five Week 11 risers—led by USC wide receiver Makai Lemon—while LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier’s stock slides toward Day 3.
- Is USC a true contender? Dig into our women’s college basketball roundtable, which also examines Gianna Kneepkens’s standout performance and the biggest risers and fallers from the first week of action.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog’s first regular-season goal since March 8, 2022. Landeskog was sidelined for nearly three years with a knee injury before returning in the playoffs last season.
4. The exciting finish to the Celtics-Sixers game.
3. Chet Holmgren’s dunk all over Draymond Green.
2. An even better poster dunk by Wake Forest’s Myles Colvin.
1. An unreal backhand goal by the Jets’ Gabriel Vilardi.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Mavs Close the Book on Disastrous Luka Doncic Trade by Firing Nico Harrison.
