The Dallas Mavericks Are Worse Than We Thought

The Dallas Mavericks Are Worse Than We Thought

And you know, Cuban famously blurted out to everybody who would listen that he was still going to be in charge of basketball operations. Breaking news, just because Mark Cuban says something does not make it true. Didn’t work. And then Nico Harrison took advantage of what was a power vacuum. So, I think we’ve discussed the Luca Donuch trade a decent amount on this YouTube channel. I mean, hell, over the past week, we’ve made like five videos on the Anthony Davis situation. What we didn’t know until this week was just how deep this rabbit hole goes. And every time I think we’re about to close the chapter on this saga, a brand new piece of information comes out that completely turns the entire story upside its head. And I do have like a side story I want to cover, but I also wanted to know how interested you guys would be in me potentially covering the downfall of D’Angelo Russell because that needs its own separate video and that also pertains to the Mavericks. So, that aside, Tim McMahon over at ESPN just dropped an absolute bomb of an investigative piece that reveals that the Mavericks weren’t just making bad basketball decisions. They were in the middle of a full-scale Game of Thrones style power struggle that would ultimately cost them everything. And when I say everything, I mean a 26-year-old perennial MVP candidate, a shot at sustained contention, and the trust of an entire fan base. The story has palace intrigue, secret meetings, a GM who nicknamed himself the silent assassin. Are you serious? Death threats, and one of the most stunning lines I’ve ever read about an NBA franchise. A team source told McMahon, and I quote, “Mark’s been trying a Palace coup for months.” So, buckle up because what we’re about to go through is absolutely wild. and stick around because the moment that sealed Nico Harrison’s fate, it happened on a tarmac at 3:00 in the morning and it had nothing to do with basketball talent evaluation. So, let’s get into it. Before we get to the content, we have been running jersey giveaways on this YouTube channel and on my Instagram page. All you have to do to enter is either subscribe and turn on your notifications on this channel. Just comment what jersey you want in either my Instagram page or in the comment section down below. And now that we got all that out of the way, do the intro. We’ve been dominating in my brand new Discord server on a monthly basis in a variety of sports in the NBA, the NFL, and college sports as well. If you want to join that, click in the W link in the description down below. But it’s my birthday on Sunday and I have a very special play for you guys that I feel very confident in on prize pics. So, real quick to sign up for prize pics, make sure you use my promo code microphone. So, you have $50 when you make a play of $5 or more and use that $50 to make this play for a chance to win $300. I think Trevor Lawrence is going to go over 213.5 passing yards. I think Shador Sanders gets to 200 passing yards. His line set at 160. I wanted to juice my slip a little bit more. So, I said he’s going to get over 174.5 passing yards. And Jacobe Brassette’s been on a heater. Jacksonville’s defense isn’t that good. I think he easily clears 250.5 pass yards. I give additional plays on my Instagram story and in my Discord community in the W link in the description down below. And thank you prize pickics for sponsoring today’s upload. Mic check 1212. What’s going on everybody? The scene is Dole’s International Airport outside of Washington DC. It’s late, like really late. The Mavericks had just gotten blown out in Memphis, extending their losing streak to four games in what had already been a catastrophic start to the season. They’re sitting on the tarmac, exhausted, frustrated, waiting for buses that are delayed by red tape. When they finally get to the Four Seasons in Georgetown, it’s after 3:00 a.m. Eastern time. But there was supposed to be good news coming. Anthony Davis and his personal medical team along with GM Nico Harrison had targeted the next day as his return from a low-grade calf strain. After all the criticism, after all the questions about the Luca trade, having AD back was supposed to help quiet some of the noise, except hours before tip off against the Wizards, everything had changed. Governor Patrick Dumont stepped in for the first time since buying the team and put Davis’s return on hold. Not because of Harrison’s recommendation, not because of Davis’s medical team, but because the Mavs director of health and performance, Joan Bilsboro, threw up a late caution foo Mike. Okay, threw up a late caution flag about the risk of a catastrophic injury. McMahon writes that Davis’s availability was considered day-to-day at that point, but here’s the kicker. So was Harrison’s job security. 3 days later, Nico Harrison was fired. And what McMahon’s reporting reveals is that this wasn’t just about the Anthony Davis situation or even just about the Luca Donuch trade. This was the culmination of a power struggle that had been brewing since the moment Patrick Dumont bought the team from Mark Cuban. To understand how we got here, we need to go all the way back to December 27, 2023, the day the sale was officially approved. So, imagine this. Mark Cuban’s dripping with sweat and shorts and a teamissued sleeveless shirt. He’s surrounded by a horde of reporters and camera crews at the American Airlines Center. He just finished his three-game three-point shooting routine, one of the perks of being the owner, and he’s about to tell everyone exactly what this $3.5 billion sale means for the Mavericks. Cuban would famously say that nothing’s really changed except my bank account. He explained that the new owners, the Aden and Dant families, would focus on business stuff, building a new arena, creating Dallas’s version of a Venetian resort, but basketball, that was still his domain. Cuban claimed he’d continue to control the Maverick’s basketball operations even though he now only owned 27% of the team. Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Cuban admitted to the media that there wasn’t any specific language in the purchase agreement about his authority. But he was adamant that the plan was for him to remain the boss of basketball decisions. One team source told Tim McMahon that Cuban was overselling himself because he always had a microphone in front of him. But Cuban wasn’t done. Minutes later, he gathered the players, coaches, and front office staff in the locker room to deliver the same message. Nothing’s going to change, he told them. I’m still running basketball. Think about how that must have landed for Nico Harrison, who is in his third season as the team’s president of basketball operations and general manager. Multiple sources found Cuban’s comments disrespectful, dismissively minimizing the power of the general manager he had hired. But more than that, people in the room were confused. One source would say everything that we were all thinking. Why would someone pay billions of dollars to purchase the franchise but leave the former owner as the man in charge of basketball decisions? It just didn’t make any sense. Days later, they got their answer. Patrick Dumont made his first visit to Dallas and held separate meetings with the business staff, the basketball operations department, and the players. In those last two meetings, he was asked directly about Cuban’s claims. And Dumont’s answer contradicted his business partner completely, saying, “Mark is a friend. I will consult him from time to time, but make no mistake about this. I’m the governor of the team and I am making decisions. That directive was a relief to many in the organization, including Nico Harrison and Jason Kid, who are often frustrated by what they saw as Cubans meddling, but it also created a power vacuum and Harrison pounced to fill it. Here’s where Nico Harrison’s Nike background becomes crucial. Nico had spent two decades at Nike, rising from field rep to VP of North American basketball operations. And he had a reputation. He once told Cuban that he was nicknamed the silent assassin at Nike because of his ability to quietly maneuver to get his way in business matters. Now, Cuban believed that he was directly in Nico Harrison’s crosshairs. Harrison connected with Dumont by speaking his language. Corporate talk about clear chains of command, reporting structures, and organizational efficiency. He basically told Dumont, “Dude, I do not want to deal with Mark Cuban anymore. This guy’s way too much.” and he convinced his new boss that the basketball operations would function much better without Cuban’s constant interference. One source told McMahon, “Immediately after the sale, Nico started really playing Dumont. He honed in. Then we went to the finals and Nico could do no wrong. And that finals run was Nico Harrison’s ammunition. The trade deadline deals for Daniel Gaford and PJ Washington, which only happened after the Wizards led Kyle Kosma veto a trade that would have cost Dallas two firstrounders paid immediate dividends. The Mavs had the league’s best record in the final 20 games, the topranked defense, and suddenly they were in the NBA finals. Cuban blamed Harrison, not Dumont, for his basketball exile. He even claimed the league office required removing claws from the purchase agreement that would have ensured him the right to attend all basketball operations meetings. But here’s the thing, that clause never gave Cuban any authority. In his mind, according to sources, he would have maintained control simply because he’d be the smartest, most experienced person in the room. Meanwhile, Nico Harrison was building a fortress around himself and Patrick Dumont. He increasingly isolated himself, using his direct line to the governor as his source of power. Dumont would occasionally ask Harrison to keep Mark Cuban in the fold regarding decisions, and Harrison would agree. Then he would blow it off. Cuban and Harrison rarely spoke. Here’s what was really happening. Sources throughout the franchise believed Harrison would tell Dumont what he wanted his boss to know. not necessarily everything that Duant needed to know, especially as an NBA newcomer. The one guy in basketball operations who had a pipeline to Dumont wasn’t giving him the straight scoop. That’s how Harrison positioned himself to pull off the unthinkable, convincing Dumont to trade Luca Donuch. The way he did it reveals everything about this power struggle. Harrison built his case from a business perspective, speaking Dumont’s language. Luca would be eligible for a 5-year, $345 million supermax contract extension that summer. And Harrison told Dumont that that would be a terrible investment, pointing to Luca’s conditioning concerns, poor off the court habits, and recurring calf strains. He predicted the body would break down. At this point, you guys have seen the viral clip of the Dallas Mavericks winning the 2024 Western Conference Finals, Lucas celebrating and having a beer, and Nico Harrison’s taking the beer out of his hands. Harrison also blamed the finals loss to Boston on Luca’s defensive struggles and pitched his vision of building the league’s best defense around Anthony Davis, who Harrison had been close with since AD was a teenager on the AAOU circuit, saying famously, you know, we think defense wins championships. But here’s the crucial part. Harrison convinced Dumont that the trade discussions had to be contained. Looping in Cuban would have likely led to a leak, which could have resulted in Luca’s agent, Bill Duffy, killing the deal. No one else knew. No one else had to know and Dumont bought it. As Cuban saw it, Nico Harrison wasn’t qualified to be the primary decision maker. Even though he hired him in 2021, sources say that Cuban privately insisted he never intended to give Harrison autonomy. He hired him hoping his relationships with players and agents would help in free agency. That’s why Cuban brought in Dennis Lindseay as a senior adviser in 2023 to help mask what he saw as Harrison’s shortcomings. and Harrison. He blamed Cuban for the Mav’s biggest mistakes, losing Jaylen Brunson in free agency and trading for Christian Wood, a player that Jason Kidd didn’t want to coach. Several members of the coaching staff and front office agreed. Maui fast forward to the breaking point a few months after the Luca Donic trade. Dallas lucked into the number one overall pick in Cooper Flag. Surely there was nothing sketchy about this going on, but that’s a different video and a different topic for a different day. This was when Mark Cuban’s push to fire Nico Harrison accelerated. Nico made things worse at Flag’s introductory press conference, saying fortune favors the bold, which was a slight out of fan base that was absolutely not ready to receive it. Days later, he said he hoped fans were starting to see his vision, which only enraged people more. Dumont had urged Harrison to get media training. The lessons apparently didn’t land. But the real turning point was Cuban was proven right about the roster. He’d warned Dumont over the summer that Dallas would have a dreadful offense due to the lack of shot creation and shooting. Harrison downplayed those concerns. The Mavs now ranked second to last in offensive efficiency. A Mavs official would tell Tim McMahon that Nico did a hell of a sales job. He took credit for everything that was done. When Patrick asked questions, asked how we got Kyrie, how the draft happened, Nico said he was the guy. We got on a roll and went to the finals. It was fool’s gold. Now, here’s the moment that crystallizes everything. November 10th, halftime of the Bucks game. A fan wearing a Luca Lakers jersey sits with Dumont and apologizes for flipping him off at the season opener. Dumont expresses remorse for the Luca deal. According to the fans account to The Athletic, after the game, a surreal home loss where they blew a 13point fourth quarter lead to deafening fire Nico chance. Cuban would make a beline from his usual seat to meet Dumont. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the court, Harrison stepped into the tunnel. The power struggle was shifting in real time. Harrison never returned to his previous seat after the Luca trade. He’d been receiving death threats. He stood in the tunnel during games with security. This season, he had portable stairs rolled in so he could access his new seat behind the broadcast table without crossing paths with fans. 3 days after the Davis situation on the tarmac, Harrison was gone. And Cuban, he’s back at the table. Not as the decision maker. He sold that right for $3 billion. But he’s part of the small group that Dumont is relying on to navigate this mess. One source said, “Bubin is walking around on air right now and floating in his sketchers. He’s a consultant, not a shot caller, but he’s at the table, and nobody knows how long he’ll stay there or how far his influence will reach.” McMahon reports that the Mavs are exploring trades for Anthony Davis before the deadline as part of their pivot to building around Cooper Flag. They’re running a GM by committee approach with assistant GMs Michael Finley and Matt Ricardi, Jason Kidd, and yes, Mark Cuban all in the room with Dumont. So, what’s the lesson here? Because it’s not just about basketball decisions going wrong. This is about organizational structure, about trust, and about what happens when you have competing power centers and unclear authority. Harrison told Dant what he wanted to hear. He isolated him from other voices. He used the finals run as a proof of concept when in reality they’d only made those deadline deals after their first choice fell through. And he convinced a firsttime NBA governor to trade a 26-year-old perennial MVP candidate on the argument that his body would break down. That immediately gave a 32-year-old with a worse injury history the keys to the franchise. Cuban tried to maintain control he’d sold away, claimed authority that he didn’t have, and ultimately watched his franchise make the worst trade in modern NBA history from the outside looking in. And Dumont, he’s a smart businessman who got played by a guy nicknamed the silent assassin because he trusted his GM without building the infrastructure to verify what he was being told. The Mavs went from finals contenders with a generational talent to lotterybound with questions about everything in 9 months. Not because they got unlucky, not because of injuries or bad breaks, but because of a power struggle between three men who all thought they knew best. Hopefully, this new structure will actually turn things around for the Dallas Mavericks. But they definitely set their franchise back for years. But you know what’s a team that completely sabotaged the entire NBA? The Los Angeles Clippers. Their one decisions about to obliterate NBA competition for the next decade. I’m going to tell you how. I’m going to leave a video in the end screen. I’ll meet you guys there. I’m your boy Mike and I’m dropping our mic until our next upload.

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