The chants never let up at American Airlines Arena.
They started in February after Dallas Mavericks general manager and president of basketball operations Nico Harrison initiated a trade that sent superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers and continued to occur at home games throughout the end of last season and into the 2025-26 campaign.
On Tuesday morning, those vocal fans got their wish, as Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont announced that Harrison had been let go weeks into his fifth season with the team. Dallas went 182-157 under the former Nike executive, including a 3-8 start to this season.
Assistant general managers Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi were named co-interim general managers to oversee basketball operations.
Read more:Luka Doncic underlines his 38-point night with monster dunk in Lakers' win
“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.
Harrison spent nearly two decades with Nike before being hired by the Mavericks in June 2021. The team made it to the Western Conference finals the following season and to the NBA Finals in 2024, with Doncic as its undisputed star.
Then came Feb. 1, when the Mavericks traded Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round draft pick. Harrison reportedly approached Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka about the possibility of the trade, and Dumont is said to have approved the deal before it was finalized.
The move shocked most people involved with the NBA, and Dallas fans felt blindsided. That's when "Fire Nico" started. The words appeared on signs and T-shirts in addition to being yelled during home games, including the Mavericks' 116-114 loss Monday to the Milwaukee Bucks.
During that game, Dumont was seen sitting courtside having a lengthy conversation with a fan in a Lakers jersey featuring Doncic's name and number. That person, 18-year-old Mavericks fan Nicholas Dickason, told The Athletic that he had initiated the conversation to apologize to the team governor for yelling curse words at him and giving him the finger at a game earlier this season.
According to Dickason, Dumont accepted his apology and added an admission of his own.
“Basically Patrick was like, he feels horrible for the trade. And wants to make it up to us,” Dickason said. “That’s basically what he said. He accepted my apology for it as well.”
The next day, Dumont explained his decision to fire Harrison in an open letter to Mavericks fans. He did not specifically mention the Doncic trade but acknowledged "the profound impact these difficult last several months have had" on the team's supporters.
"You have every right to demand a commitment to success from us," Dumont wrote. "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."
In April, after the Mavericks finished the 2024-25 season with a 39-43 record and missed the playoffs, Harrison admitted he underestimated the level of outrage the trade would cause.
“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”
He added: “When you have 20,000 people in the stadium chanting ‘Fire Nico,’ you really feel it. ... But my job is to make decisions I feel are in the best interest of this organization, and I gotta stand by the decisions, and some of them are going to be unpopular. This was clearly one that’s unpopular.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Kurt Helin
Raphielle Johnson
