Nine months after trading away Luka Doncic in a move that stunned and bewildered the sports world — and left Dallas fans livid — Mavericks owner/governor Patrick Dumont has fired general manager Nico Harrison.
"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 announcing the firing.
In the interim, Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi will serve as co-interim general managers. A "comprehensive search" for a permanent replacement will begin.
Dumont wrote this in an open letter to Mavericks fans:
On May 30, 2024, the Mavericks won the Western Conference championship. We came up short in the NBA Finals, but we all agreed our future was bright. As fans of this franchise, you have every right to demand a commitment to success from us.
No one associated with the Mavericks organization is happy with the start of what we all believed would be a promising season. You have high expectations for the Mavericks, and I share them with you. When the results don't meet expectations, it's my responsibility to act. I've made the decision to part ways with General Manager Nico Harrison. Though the majority of the 2025-26 season remains to be played, and I know our players are deeply committed to a winning culture, this decision was critical to moving our franchise forward in a positive direction.
I understand the profound impact these difficult last several months have had. Please know that I'm fully committed to the success of the Mavericks.
Thank you for your support, thank you for holding us accountable, and thank you for your passion and for your patience. You deserve transparency and a team that reflects your spirit. Our goal is to return winning basketball to Dallas and win championships.
Doncic trade led to fan backlash
Momentum toward the decision has been building since the moment the trade was announced and the fan backlash started in Dallas, which included mock funerals for the franchise and "fire Nico" chants at games. It was fueled at the start of this season by the Mavericks stumbling out of the gate to a 3-8 record, while Doncic is in the best shape of his life and has played like an MVP in Los Angeles — averaging 37.1 points, 9.4 rebounds and 9.1 assists a night — to lift the Lakers to an 8-3 start. Through all this, the trust between Dumont and Harrison reportedly eroded.
Trading away a player entering his prime who had taken the Mavericks to the Finals just a season before was an unfathomable decision. However, Harrinson — a long-time Nike executive who had a strong relationship with Kobe Bryant — was convinced we had seen peak Doncic, that he wasn't committed enough to conditioning and the game to take the team to the next level.
Dumont signed off on the trade at the time, backing his GM Harrison. (Also, he likely was OK with trading away a player that otherwise would have been up for, and deserved, the largest contract in NBA history.)
However, in a courtside interaction on Monday with a young fan, Dumont reportedly admitted his mistake. Dumont was approached by Nicholas Dickason, whose father forced him to apologize to Dumont for flipping him off after San Antonio blew out Dallas on opening night. Dickason later told Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News that Dumont admitted he made a mistake in approving the trade, saying, "'Sometimes you have good intentions and you make mistakes.' We all do it."
It was the negativity from the fan base about the trade that ultimately did in Harrison more than the record — the NBA is an entertainment business, and angering the people who spend their hard-earned money on tickets and jerseys is bad for business. Harrison and Dumont underestimated how much the fan base was attached to Doncic and saw him as one of their own, a lifelong Maverick in the Dirk Nowitzki mold. (Doncic admitted he saw himself that way, too; it took a while for him to come to grips with being traded.) Dickason had spoken with Dumont on Monday while wearing a Doncic Lakers jersey.
Anger about the trade subsided some after the Mavericks got lucky in last season's NBA Draft Lottery and, with a 1.8% chance, jumped up to the top spot and was able to draft Cooper Flagg at No. 1. There was hope that Flagg, Anthony Davis (the primary player Dallas got back in the trade) and Kyrie Irving (out until midseason while recovering from a torn ACL) could have the team at the top of the West. Instead, without Irving, and with Davis missing more than half the team's games so far because of injury (a very predictable outcome, based on Davis' history), coach Jason Kidd has tried using Flagg as a point forward, and the Mavericks have looked lost. While it's possible that all the puzzle pieces fit together once Irving is healthy (there is no specific timeline), this team will be in such a deep hole in the stacked Western Conference that the Mavericks will struggle to climb out.
Harrison was the GM who assembled key parts of the 2024 Mavericks' Finals team, making key in-season trades for P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford. Dwight Powell is the only Maverick on the current roster who was there before Harrison arrived. He had made other smart moves as a GM, but also made some poor ones, such as trading Quentin Grimes to Philadelphia for Caleb Martin last season, a move that put Dallas so close to its hard cap that it couldn't add players last season when injuries hit. The Mavericks fell out of the playoffs (but then got lucky in the lottery).
Ultimately, Harrison made one massive miscalculation that cost him his job and set the Mavericks back.
Kurt Helin
Raphielle Johnson
