Nico Harrison's postseason press conference shows Mavs GM's logic is fatally flawed

Embattled Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison gave his post-season press conference on Monday, and the topic was, predictably, the Luka Doncic trade that sent Dallas' season skidding into the gutter.

And, much like it has every time he's spoken about this trade, it went spectacularly poorly.

He opened his comments by saying he doesn't think he should be fired, because he thinks "I've done a really good job here."

When asked about whether his repeated insistence that trading Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis was saying it was impossible to build a championship caliber defense with the 25-year-old guard in the fold, Harrison replied "No, I think it was doubling down on defense."

Did he elaborate further? Of course not.

He went on to say that while he knew Doncic was important to Mavericks fans, he didn't know how important the talismanic 25 year old was.

Nico on fan outrage: "I did know that @luka7doncic was important to the fanbase. I didn't quite know to what level." pic.twitter.com/v0Xcs8goG9
— FOX 4 NEWS (@FOX4) April 21, 2025

And, if that weren't enough, Harrison told reporters he'd "never spoken ill" of Doncic, despite overwhelming evidence and reports that that simply isn't true.

All of it adds up to to the same thing that's been true since Harrison shocked the basketball world with this trade in February: none of his logic makes the slightest bit of sense.

Not knowing that the face of your franchise, the player around whom your entire team's identity has been built, meant as much as he did to your fans, is mismanagement of the highest order. Assuming that the lineup of injury-plagued stars would stay healthy enough to put the loss of Doncic out of fans' minds was always going to be delusion of the highest order.

But, all of this lines up perfectly with how Harrison has handled running the Mavs. He'd removed as many potentially dissenting voices from the room as possible, including former owner Mark Cuban. He fired the team's beloved trainers, alienating both team icon Dirk Nowitzki and Doncic in the process. By doing so, he removed yet another voice from the room, someone else who could express dissent about decisions Harrison would make.

Removing those potential points of dissent made dealing Doncic significantly easier for Harrison, as Mavs governor Patrick Dumont seems to be taking a very hands off approach to the team and was unlikely to push back on the decision.

But the bigger issue was less that Harrison was the only voice and perspective in the room, it was that that perspective seems to be incredibly flawed.

How do you not recognize that Doncic ranked as one of the NBA's most beloved figures, a player who loved the city he was playing in as much as the city loved him? How could you not look around the arena on a daily basis, see all of the Doncic jerseys on fans' backs, or the murals around Dallas, or the way that every conversation around the team was fully and completely centered around Doncic, and not realize the impact that trading him would have?

Even now, Harrison seems not to understand why fans are upset.

When asked about whether he understands fans' pain at losing Doncic, Harrison replied "when you have 20,000 people in the stadium chanting 'fire Nico,' you really feel it," before doubling down again.

"But, my job is to make decisions I ultimately feel are in the best interest of this organization," Harrison continued, "And I've gotta stand by the decision, and some of them were going to be unpopular, and this was clearly one that's unpopular."

That's not a man who's learned from his mistakes, or who has changed a single thing about how he goes about his job. It's a person convinced he's correct about his choice, even if no one else sees the vision.

Fortunately for Harrison, Dumont's hands off approach is likely what's keeping him in this job; at any other organization, the trade of Doncic either would not have happened, or would have wound up being grounds for a firing. But under Dumont's stewardship, it's clear he's content to let Harrison steer the ship right up to and past the point where they hit the iceberg.

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Nico Harrison's postseason press conference shows Mavs GM's logic remains fatally flawed

By Sam Westmoreland | Apr 21, 2025