The Mavs fired Nico Harrison to ‘SAVE THEIR BRAND’ – Brian Windhorst | NBA Today

The Mavs fired Nico Harrison to ‘SAVE THEIR BRAND’ – Brian Windhorst | NBA Today

That is where we begin today’s show with the news out of Dallas and we’re joined by our senior insider Sham Shirana. So Shams, how did the Mavericks decide that now was the time to let go of general manager Nico Harrison? Malik, at the start of the season, the Mavericks felt was a tail spin. A three and eight start. If it was flipped, if we were looking at 8 and three, Nico Harrison would not be fired. But he set the standards of competing for a championship. He said after making the Luca Dantis trade that time will tell about whether he was right. He said even in April after the Kyrie Irving injury that he was going to miss most of the season with that they’re going to have championship contentionability this season. It’s been neither. They’ve been one of the worst teams in the NBA. And the Mavericks and owner Patrick Dumont took the first step in personally accepting accountability of the potential mistake that they made and agreeing and admitting the mistake that they made in trading Luca Donic away 9 months ago. And as one source told me today, listening to our fans and what the fans have wanted has been an outcry. And so that process starts now. They can’t unwind it to get Luca Donic back, but the start of taking accountability has begun in Dallas. Okay. So, they’re flipping to a new page here within the Dallas Mavericks organization. And Shams, oftent times there’s videos that are circulating online that we sort of put to the side. They don’t mean much, but right now there’s a video online of Patrick Dumont and there’s a fan who’s wearing a Luca Donic jersey. And there’s a little bit more to this story. What exactly is going on there, Malikica? within this conversation with the fan and this interaction that Patrick Dumont, the Maverick’s governor, had is I’m told he told the fan that we’re going to be taking accountability. We made a mistake and we’re going to do the right thing. And that obviously ended up being Nico Harrison being fired here Tuesday morning and I’m told Patrick Dumont held meetings all day Tuesday and told staffers he’s accountable as well, admitting he’s responsible as well for what’s happened and that was giving Nico Harrison the green light. It was Nico Harrison’s trade. It was his idea. He’s the one that came up with this. But he somehow convinced Patrick Dumont got alignment internally on executing this. And Patrick Dumont took accountability that he was the one that was also liable with giving the green light. And now the unwinding process begins for the Mavericks. So this fan sort of becomes symbolic for the larger Maverick’s fan base and what Patrick Dumont is saying that he is going to do moving forward. Shams, thank you very much for that insight. Please do not go too far. You mentioned the statement that Patrick Dumont released. This is what it said in part, right? Quote, “No one associated with the Mavericks organization is happy with the start of what we all believed would be a promising season. You have high expectations for the Mavericks and I share them with you. When the results do not meet expectations, it is my responsibility to act. I understand the profound impact that these difficult last several months have had. Our goal is to return to winning basketball to Dallas and to win championships.” Now, it’s been 282 days, and every Dallas Mavericks fan has been counting since Luca was traded to Los Angeles in the middle of the night. And since then, the two teams, they’ve been at the center of this trade and have gone in two different directions, right? Dallas has played in 44 games since that deal, won just 16 of them. Meanwhile, the Lakers, they made the postseason. They’re 30 and 16 in their regular season games during that same span. And of course, hindsight is 2020, but it’s hard not to start to compare the start Luca’s gotten off to with the year Anthony Davis has had. AD, of course, has been injured. He’s averaging 20 points, 10 boards. On the surface, that’s fine until you realize Luca is putting up 38 and eight. And you mentioned the injuries. Well, this season, yes, but also last season, the injury bug bit, too. Since arriving in Dallas, Davis has missed 30 of the 44 Mavericks games. And as for Luca, he’s played in 35 since that deal. And there’s no better trio to help dive into this decision further than our senior writer Brian Winhorse, our do-it- all analyst, Chana Agum, and our reporter covering the Dallas Mavericks, Tim McMahon. Brian, I am going to start with you here. What’s been the reaction uh that you’ve been hearing from around the league and within the organization? The Mavericks had to do this deal today, not this deal, but this move today to save their brand. They were suffering deeply within their own market, and it was negatively affecting their players. The idea that this trade was controversial, we knew from the second after Shams hit that tweet last February. But the way that it’s been managed, particularly by Nico, has been terrible. The idea of trading Luca Donuch is a controversial one, but you can make a basketball case for it. I don’t think it’s a winning case. You can make a case for it. What Nico has said to sell it to the fan base has been a complete failure from the day after it happened. And that is why it got to this position. And I want to dive into what he said because Nico Harrison not only put pressure on himself by making this move, but he also induced it by what he said. He said, “I’ll be judged by wins and losses. They’re currently three and eight.” He said, “We’re going to build a culture of winning. They’re the lowerc scoring team in the NBA right now. Fortune favors the Bulls.” Well, right now, it doesn’t look like Fortune is on his side. And overall, in my experience on the court for basketball decisions, this has been the most catastrophic probably series of unfortunate events as it pertains to someone’s decision-making. And I know that there are some circumstances out of his control. Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, their availability, but still, you’re supposed to go out there and give your team a better shot by constructing a roster that works. And right now, having Cooper Flag play the point guard position, albeit knowing that they’re trying to make parallels to other stars that have grown quickly. um seeing just a number of them not doing as well as they should have been to start the year. This makes sense, like you said, to try to save the season and get the fans back and you know, bought in. But that’s that’s stunning. What you’re saying, Brian, is that public perception got so bad that the Dallas Mavericks felt that they needed to make a move. It was affecting the way their players were playing. the feeling around him the past nine months. Malikica PJ Washington steps to the free throw line in the fourth quarter last night. They are clinging to a onepossession lead and the fire Nico chance get started. They continued every Maverick’s trip to the free throw line thereafter. Those have been going strong essentially since early February when that trade was made. There are more Luca jerseys in the audience as you saw even Lakers Luca jerseys than there are Cooper flag. Nico Harrison was the focal point for Mavericks fans. That was not healthy. That was not productive. The Mavericks players felt that they were at a homec court disadvantage. These people don’t want us to win, one player said. and and and he was right because that’s how badly they wanted Nico Harrison to be fired. They wanted him and he’s it’s not bringing Luca back, but this does at least give the fans a chance to say, “Hey, Luca’s not coming back. We have Cooper flag and the franchise a p a chance to pivot into the Cooper flag era, not this 3 to fouryear championship window that Nico thought he created.” I think you will see some players in the league come out in defense of Nico Harrison. And we’ve already seen it a little bit. Draymond Green came out on his podcast yesterday before this firing and and said that because you know in a vacuum there is some unfairness to it that you’re firing a guy with his two best players on the sideline. Um but this was about relieving pressure. Like there was being difficult for the Mavericks to live in their own city. It was being difficult for Patrick Dumont. He is he is in the middle of a game. By the way, Giannis is in town. It’s in kind of an important game. the owner of the team is spending time during the game trying to explain to a fan who furious and like you said Malikica extremely symbolic. Everybody in that arena cared more about what Patrick Dumont had to say than they did about this game that involved it. He went down to the last second with one of the biggest stars in the game. And that right there because that because that’s a reality Patrick Dumont was living in. He had to do something to relieve the pressure. Typically, you would say you would not want to answer to the mob, right? In this case, I’m not sure they had a choice. In the short term, the question is ultimately what is the firing of Nico Harrison do? But this is just step one. There’s a lot of steps that the Dallas Mavericks organization needs to do to rebuild this trust with fans and this love, this deep love that they have for Dallas Mavericks basketball. There’s questions about what’s next. We’re going to get to them a little bit later in the show, but I want to turn now to a developing story in Philadelphia because Joel Embiid, he’s listed as out tonight against the Celtics with right knee soreness. He will be evaluated by doctors. Now remember, this is not the knee that Embiid has had trouble with over the last couple of seasons. He’s played in six of a possible 10 games this year. Bringing back Shams here, how concerning is this latest news for Philadelphia? It’s concerning enough for both players will be meeting, both Joel Embiid and Paul George will be meeting with their doctors and their shared surgeon Dr. Jonathan uh Glashowl tonight before the game. And it’s right knee soreness for Joel Embiid. It’s the opposite knee, like you just said, Malikica, then the one that was surgically repaired in the off season, but Joel Embiid will be examined by doctors tonight. And the Sixers will get a better understanding of what this is. He’s had that left knee issue over the last year or so, couple years. And so, could this be overcompensation? The Sixers will be finding out shortly. But Paul George has also been out for this team to start the season. My understanding is he’s getting closer and closer and it’s going to be about whether he can get his leg strength back to where they they want it to be where they need it to be for him to make a full return. Yeah, because Philadelphia has shown some bright spots with their young players this year, but they need their stars back in order to contend and even compete really in the Eastern Conference. Shams, we’re keeping you busy today, so please do not go too far. We need you for the rest of the show.

On NBA Today, Shams Charania, Tim MacMahon, Chiney Ogwumike and Brian Windhorst react to the Dallas Mavericks deciding to fire GM Nico Harrison.

0:00 Shams on Mavs firing Nico Harrison
3:53 Reaction to the news
8:09 Joel Embiid out vs. Celtics

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