Nine months after the trade that rocked the sports world. Nico Harrison is out of a job.
The Mavericks fired the general manager on Tuesday as the franchise never recovered from the seismic deal that sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis.
Assistant GMs Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi will be leading the team’s basketball operations on an interim basis.
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While getting the No. 1 pick and selecting Cooper Flagg provided a jolt after Dallas was eliminated in the play-in tournament, the Mavericks are 3-8 and in second-to-last place in the Western Conference this season.
The last straw was the Mavericks blowing a 13-point lead Monday night in a home loss to the Bucks, during which fans chanted “Fire Nico!”
Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont attended Monday’s game for the first time since the team’s season-opening loss to the Spurs and talked with an 18-year-old fan in a Doncic Lakers jersey, according to ESPN.
Harrison, 52, took over as Dallas’ GM and president of basketball operations in June 2021 after previously working as an executive for Nike.
The Mavericks lost in the conference finals during his first year at the helm and in 2024 lost in the NBA Finals.
Reports in the aftermath of the blockbuster trade suggested some within the Mavericks organisation weren’t pleased with Doncic’s habits and felt he didn’t keep himself in the best of shape; Doncic was the subject of a July Men’s Health cover story in which he appeared to have slimmed down.
Harrison’s public explanation for trading Doncic was believing Davis would help shore up the team’s defence and get them over the hump for a championship. Davis got hurt in his first game as a Maverick last season and missed his sixth straight game Monday with a calf injury.
Kyrie Irving is also still recovering from a torn ACL suffered last season and it’s unclear when he’ll return.
That has left the spotlight on the 18-year-old Flagg, who scored a season-high 26 points on Monday along with nine rebounds and four assists as the team collapsed, enraging a fan base that has wanted Harrison gone since February.
On Tuesday, they got their wish.
This article was originally posted by the New York Post and republished with permission.
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