Nico Harrison was not aware how important Luka Doncic was to the Mavericks’ fanbase

Nico Harrison was not aware how important Luka Doncic was to the Mavericks’ fanbase

It’s obviously been a long season for the Dallas Mavericks, who traded away Luka Doncic and completely altered the course of their franchise. The man in charge, Nico Harrison, is obviously tired of having to address it every single time he steps in front of the mic.

But when you inexplicably trade one of the greatest players in franchise history for an insanely underwhelming package, those are the consequences you will have to pay.

During Harrison’s end-of-season press conference this week, he answered a number of questions related to the trade, but revealed one shocking detail about Doncic’s importance to the fanbase that certainly raised eyebrows.

“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base. I didn’t quite know it to what level,” he said. “But really, the way we looked at it, is if you’re putting a team on the floor that’s [Kyrie Irving], [Klay Thompson], [P.J. Washington], Anthony Davis and [Dereck Lively], we feel that’s a championship caliber team, and we would’ve been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage.

“And, so, unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”

"I did know that Luka was important to the fan base. I didn't quite know it to what level."

—Mavericks GM Nico Harrison on the Luka Doncic trade pic.twitter.com/AIpzFygBb3

— ESPN (@espn) April 21, 2025

Um, you didn’t know how important Doncic, the individual who topped the NBA in scoring last year and led your franchise to their first NBA Finals in over a decade, was to a fanbase that was hungry for success? Talk about someone who’s completely lost touch with reality and the pulse of his own fanbase. We already knew that when he traded Doncic, but his comment makes it look 10x worse now.

Kyrie Irving’s unfortunate injury underscores latest flaw in Mavericks’ deadline disaster

Harrison signed a multi-year extension with Dallas last summer after putting a championship team around Doncic, adding Washington and Daniel Gafford at the deadline. His job still appears safe after his deadline disasterclass.

We will see how he attempts to put the band-aid on this sinking ship. We know Dallas is going to get crushed in the revenue department because of how much money the franchise will lose in ticket sales and merchandise.

Kyrie Irving will likely miss the entirety of next season; they have 100 bigs and they don’t have any money coming off the books outside of Spencer Dinwiddie and Dante Exum, accounting for roughly $5 million.

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