Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison has already held more controversial press conferences than a typical NBA exec would in a lifetime.
But on Monday afternoon, Harrison made one more notorious appearance during the Mavs' end-of-season presser, where he ended Dallas' rollercoaster of a 2024–25 campaign with a strong statement on... his job safety.
Harrison was asked by a reporter point-blank why he shouldn't be fired after trading former franchise star Luka Doncic, as the Mavs' demoralizing season finally came to an end last Friday in a play-in tournament loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Harrison, ever the media-trained professional, had a prepared answer that won't make many Mavs fans very happy:
"One, I think I've done a really good job here," Harrison said. "And I don't think I can be judged by injuries this year, you have to judge from totality, from beginning to end. I think I have a really good working relationship with Patrick [Dumont], the leadership that we have is really elite. And you'll see next year when our team comes back, we're going to be competing for a championship."
It was perhaps too fitting that the Mavericks' season ended exactly 77 days after the Doncic trade (Doncic wore No. 77 during his seven years in Dallas), a tragically poetic twist of fate for a franchise that has entered a new solemn era centered around stars Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.
The Mavericks, coming off a 2024 NBA Finals appearance, were 26–23 before trading Doncic and then lost 20 of their final 33 games to finish 39–43, good for 10th place. An alarming number of injuries arguably derailed Dallas's season, but so, too, did the Doncic trade.
We'll see if Harrison and the Mavs can pick up the pieces and move on from a catastrophic end to the 2024–25 season; for his sake, he had better hope that defense does, indeed, win championships.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mavs GM Nico Harrison Had Brutal Answer When Asked Why He Shouldn’t Be Fired.
