It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the moment Nico Harrison convinced the Mavericks front office to trade Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, his time was up. Fans were up in arms over sending the Slovenian star to the LA Lakers. And just a year ago, Doncic had taken the team to the NBA Finals. Yet, the Mavs front office persisted with Harrison, placing firm belief in his vision to bring an NBA championship to Dallas in the post-Doncic era. Well, that never happened.
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Harrison probably lucked out when the Mavs got the opportunity for a first-round draft pick and landed Duke graduate Cooper Flagg in June. The idea was simple with that selection. Flagg was not going to be a star right away, but he would be groomed to take the team forward in the years to come. Instead, Harrison ended up fielding the rookie with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
With Kyrie Irving still out injured and Davis, Doncic’s replacement, barely featuring in a Mavs jersey, the team has now found itself 14th in the Western Conference with 3 wins and 11 losses. This collapse is ultimately why Mavs legend Dirk Nowitzki believes Harrison should have been let go in the summer.
“This move should have probably happened this summer, honestly. I didn’t want this negative energy and this black cloud over the Cooper Flagg era, but here we are now,” he said earlier today (via NBA on Prime).
“I figured this fan base is a passionate and loyal fan base. I was lucky enough to experience it for 21 years. And I knew they weren’t [going to] just get over it, as people say, or forget about it. They’re extremely passionate,” Nowitzki added, referring to the fans never forgiving Harrison for shipping away their biggest star.
Nowitzki went on to argue that the Doncic trade never made any sense to begin with, asserting that there really isn’t an explanation for selling Doncic when the team was built around him. The analyst placed the blame squarely on Harrison, explaining that he had given up the assets needed to build the team with some 6-foot-9 wings who could switch and guard.
“You had two lob threats with [Daniel] Gafford and [Dereck] Lively, and the team was built around him. You added Klay [Thompson when] the shooting was a little bit of an issue in the Finals against Boston. So you did all this,” the Mavericks legend poignantly noted.
“Going into Christmas Day game, they were 14-3 out of the last 17 games, so they’re just starting to hit their stride, and then Luka gets hurt. And unfortunately, that’s the last game he’s ever played in a Mavs uniform,” Nowitzki recalled, further noting that all of this has been an extremely sad situation, especially given the potential this squad had.
Nowitzki is particularly grieving for the fans, who he feels were robbed of seeing the end of his process, where they could have witnessed Doncic become a champion with the Mavs someday. “It feels like they never got to see the end to this. So this was very heartbreaking,” he added.
To make matters worse for the Mavericks fans, Doncic lost a ton of weight ahead of the season and went on to have an iconic EuroBasket. It wasn’t a fluke either.
He’s already had an MVP-esque start to the NBA season, despite missing a few games due to a minor injury. The now Lakers star currently averages 33.7 points, 9.2 assists, and 8.9 rebounds in 9 games this season.
