Nico Harrison Is an All-Time NBA Embarrassment

And just like that, the man behind the dumbest trade in the history of the NBA is out of a job. Who could’ve seen this coming? Nine months after Nico Harrison decided it was time to get out of the Luka Doncic business—still such a comically unfathomable, shortsighted move—Dallas Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont finally came to the conclusion that enough was enough on Tuesday. 

Before we get to what happens next, let’s recount just how disastrous Harrison’s tenure was. After making a couple of key trades that sprung Dallas to a surprising NBA Finals run in 2024, Harrison got high on his own supply and exchanged a 25-year-old with limitless ability for Anthony Davis, an injury-prone 31-year-old who got hurt immediately after the trade and has already missed half of this season with a sore calf. (Remembering all the details just made brain fluid leak from my nose: Only one first-round pick—a Los Angeles Lakers first in 2029—was in the package, and probable 2026 All-Star Austin Reaves was not included.)

In doing this deal, Harrison short-circuited his franchise’s lengthy runway by swapping it for what he claimed to be a three- or four-year championship window. A debatable assertion, at best. Defense matters. So does having a top-three player on your roster. Again, this was one year after the Mavericks made the Finals because Doncic was on the team. It still makes no sense, and it was understandably received with anger and disgust by a traumatized fan base that subsequently refused to give Harrison a moment of peace. “Fire Nico” chants have serenaded American Airlines Center on a nightly basis, as pretty much every decision he’s made since that fateful trade (hello, Quentin Grimes!) has also gone wrong.   

Now, on the heels of several reports about Dumont’s waning trust in Harrison as a general manager, the timing here is interesting. We’re not even a dozen games into the 2025-26 season, but the Mavericks have the second-worst offense in the league and, at 3-8, currently sit in 14th place. “Though the majority of the 2025-26 season remains to be played,” Dumont wrote in an open letter to Mavs fans, “this decision was critical to moving our franchise forward in a positive direction.”

Last night, Dallas lost a very winnable game to Milwaukee that, even in defeat, highlighted the immense promise of new franchise player Cooper Flagg. In the final minute of a one-possession game, head coach Jason Kidd put the ball in his star rookie’s hands and watched him get into the paint to draw a shooting foul on Kyle Kuzma. One play later, Flagg converted a gorgeous go-ahead layup through Giannis Antetokounmpo’s vertical contest. It was a level of craft no other 18-year-old on planet earth can match:

There are many reasons to fire Harrison, but the most meaningful one right now is that he’s the last person anyone should want in charge of a team that must now build around Flagg, whose development and future are far too precious to be undermined by someone so pot committed to the present. Harrison was the absolute worst man for this job, and getting rid of him is a notable step in the right direction for the organization, which would be lost beyond measure had the no. 1 pick not fallen into its lap. 

As of this writing, we don’t yet know how involved Dumont will be in his team’s personnel decisions or who will ultimately get appointed to shepherd Dallas’s basketball operations going forward; Mavericks executives Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi will reportedly be running the team on an interim basis. But whoever it is will not be beholden to Davis and Kyrie Irving like Harrison clearly was. 

This, obviously, is meaningful. Trading Davis before this year’s deadline is a no-brainer. After next summer’s draft, the Mavericks do not have control of their own first-round pick until 2031. They should do whatever they can to bottom out and pair Flagg and Dereck Lively II with another blue-chip prospect. What they can get for AD is a subject for another day, but the longer Dallas holds on to him, the more his trade value will diminish. Davis is extension eligible this summer and under contract for another two seasons before he can opt in or out of a $62.8 million player option in 2027-28. 

Dumont should not be let off the hook for twiddling his thumbs as Harrison took a wrecking ball to a franchise that had genuine momentum and a generational talent heading into his prime. But today’s move was definitely the right one, and it is a promising indication that he finally understands what’s going on. The Mavericks are now, officially, Cooper Flagg’s team.