After the fourth or fifth question about the Luka Doncic trade Monday, Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison revealed he had hoped to be done talking about it by now.
That was the impetus for meeting off-camera with a small group of Dallas-based reporters last week, he said. Chalk it up to another miscalculation by the embattled former Nike executive turned NBA decision maker.
Harrison’s end-of-season news conference turned into another inquiry focused on the fallout from his decision to deal the franchise’s popular star last February in exchange for Anthony Davis and Max Christie. He was asked directly why he shouldn’t be fired, defended the rationale behind the trade, promised a championship contender next season and then eventually admitted he underestimated the backlash trading Doncic would generate, particularly within the Mavericks’ fan base.
‘I did know that Luka was important to the fan base. I didn’t quite know it to what level,’ Harrison said. ‘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 feel that’s a championship caliber team, and we would’ve been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage. And so unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.’
Nico Harrison addresses job security
Harrison said his relationship with Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont has improved since the trade because the two speak more frequently now. He pushed back against any questions that alluded to whether Dumont or anyone else in the franchise’s front office asked or forced him to trade Doncic. He said coach Jason Kidd only learned of the deal at the ’11th hour.’
‘We’re kind of linked together to this, so it’s made us have a lot more conversations,’ Harrison said about Dumont. ‘He came out and supported me publicly. I don’t take that lightly and now I have to deliver on that.’
Harrison acknowledged hearing Mavericks fans chant ‘Fire Nico,’ on several occasions since the trade, but ‘my job is to make decisions that are in the best interest of this organization and I got to stand by the decision,’ he said. ‘Some of them are going to be unpopular and this was clearly one that’s unpopular.’ He declined to discuss specifically why he didn’t believe Doncic could be part of a championship contender in Dallas, but returned to a familiar refrain since the trade about the importance of defense in winning a title.
Harrison, in defending his tenure running the team, indicated once more he’s not willing to concede the trade everyone wants to criticize him for will be remembered as one of the worst deals in NBA history.
‘I think I’ve done a really good job here and I don’t think I can be judged by the injuries this year, Harrison said. ‘You have to judge from totality, from beginning to end … The leadership that we have is really elite, and you’ll see when our team comes back next year that we’ll be competing for a championship.’
Nico Harrison comments on Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks fan friction
The immediate aftermath of the Doncic trade did not go in the franchise’s favor. Dallas missed the 2025 playoffs after losing in the NBA play-in tournament to the Memphis Grizzlies and saw Davis miss 18 regular-season games after aggravating an adductor injury in his Mavericks’ debut. The Mavericks fans, meanwhile, held protests once Doncic was traded and the team offered refunds to some fans who canceled their tickets in the wake of the move.
The trade also reportedly caused friction between the Mavericks and franchise legend Dirk Nowitzki, who maintains a close relationship with Doncic after the two were teammates during Doncic’s rookie season.
‘It’s important to say he’s the single-most important figure to the franchise, so that’s extremely important,’ Harrison said, without going into further detail when asked about any distance between the organization and Nowitzki. ‘I believe winning will help repair the relationship with the fans and that’s what we plan to do next year.’