Rich Eisen Weighs In on the Dallas Mavericks Firing GM Nico Harrison | The Rich Eisen Show

Coming into this National Basketball Association season of 2025 through 2026, you could guess, right? Is anybody’s guess west is better than the East. That that’s kind of a given, right? Kind of a given that way. Um Victor Wanyama must see. Got to see him coming in. He’s an alien. Right. Right. Right. Right. But I think if I had told you coming into the season, the least surprising headline would be the Mavericks fire. Nico Harrison is their general manager. Yeah. What took so long? Well, what took so long? He was the fall guy. Is they needed to see, I guess, a little bit of what this season would look like. And then it didn’t help that Anthony Davis, his best availab his best ability still isn’t. And we knew Kyrie wasn’t coming back and till later in the season. The fact that Klay Thompson has just been falling off a cliff. He’s in love right now. And then you just knew when Lucas showed up like somebody who’s twice his age in Los Angeles with a new lease on life. New lease on life. Lisa on life. Showing up all skinny, you know, dating someone younger. Is he? I I I’m just saying the Lakers are someone new and younger for him than the Mavericks are. And he has just been absolutely balling out. And it appears anybody who knows and watches Mavericks basketball and the early throws and has been at these games, it’s a constant drum beat from the fan base. And apparently the owner has been constantly battling with fans who come up to him and basically say, “What the hell did you do?” And the fans wanted a scalp. And as you know, Jed York once famously said in charge of the 49ers, “I’m the owner. Can’t fire me.” Sounds like Jerry Jones. You know, honestly, you can’t fire the owner. And the owner had to basically, I imagine Nico Harrison did not go rogue and just trade Luca out from under the ownership’s nose. The owner basically had to say, “We’re not paying Luca the Supermax. We don’t believe in his long-term viability here, whether it’s his training or his opinion of the roster or it’s his work ethic or blah blah blah. Get him out of here. And it’s going to be the ultimate pocket listing, you know, selling sunset. Speaking of people who live here in Los Angeles and might look younger than they really are. Listen. Hey, so Rich, you’re saying that the owner didn’t just wake up in the middle of the night like most people like me and O’Shea and them find out that Luca was traded? That’s right. That’s right. And then you you have Dirk Nitzky in his new lease on life as a pundit for Amazon just telling it like it is. Yeah. Not for long. He’s about to be the GM. You think so? I’ve seen that name thrown out already. You really think so? Could be the coach. Could that be be a way what? To tell Mavericks fans there’s a guy from that would be a way to cool the temperature. Would it? Cuz it sure would. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz you trust in his ability to build a team. Uh the most beloved player in franchise history. A statue outside. Yeah. That’s a way to calm things down a little bit. Uh a little because the season’s off to a not a great start. Although Cooper Flag looks really good. You’re just kind of waiting to get healthy and maybe see what this team can do. Well, I mean, bring back your beloved son. Somebody had to order the code red on Luca. That’s why I call him the fall guy. He didn’t make that call. Well, N here. He He may not have made the call. Okay. Patrick Dumont had to say, “Go ahead and trade him.” Yeah. But the way someone had to start the conversation, but how I I understand that it it’s not as much the fact that he was traded that needs to land on Nico’s lap. It’s the matter. It’s the matter in which the conversation was was endeavored. I know you want to keep it under wraps, but how do you not basically flat out say if if it’s time to trade Luca Donuch? Why are you keeping it a secret to everybody, right? because you know it’s going to create such a massive seismic event in your fan base and in your town that you might as well just open it up to everybody and deal with the the lengthy what week long period that it would take to trade him. Two week long period it would take to trade him. Three-week long period if you want to even go that way. survive that drum beat from the fan base going, “What are you doing?” and open it up and get a massive, massive hall for him, massive more than what you got. That’s the problem. You didn’t get that much in return because you decided to keep it quiet. Cuz if you’re not going to pay him, if you’ve made the decision he’s no longer our guy, then you just go for it. Mhm. But instead, no, it’s just like we’ve decided he’s no longer our guy. We’re just going to call the Lakers of all people and we’re going to send him to the Lakers of all teams, man. Rich, they do that every generation for way less than what what Desmond Bane would get. Oh my gosh. What did Bane get? Like four first round. I’m just saying way less than what you know what Bridges would get. You know what I mean? Like that’s the problem. Mhm. Of course, it didn’t help that Davis got hurt and then Kyrie blew his knee out. But even Cooper flag landing in the lap, that doesn’t get ascribed to the general manager just for being lucky. But it’s unlucky the other stuff that happened. And part of that comes from the residue of his design and how to trade Luca. Like I think that’s the ultimate that gets laid at his feet. Did the owner tell him this is the manner in which you’re going to do it? Okay, we’ve decided to trade Luca. You must keep it quiet and you must only involve one team and that team must be the Lakers. Really, that’s the weird part about it from the beginning. But it doesn’t help that Luca keeps balling out and he’s winning without LeBron. Luca’s averaging 379 and N. Is that good? Yeah, it’s not bad. 379 and9. When he showed up like that on the cover of Men’s Health, you knew it was coming and then you knew that this would eventually be a headline this year. Nico Harrison no longer in the employee of the Dallas Mavericks because at the end of the day, it’s it’s on him. And in terms of the analogy about whether you can fire the owner or not in that very town, your fans were upset that Micah got traded, young guy, to a different spot, also to a spotlight of all teams, the Green Bay Packers. Right, Ma? The problem is is the general manager is not going to get fired there. Yeah, because he’s also the owner. That part. Hey, you made it all the way to the end. Thanks for that. Check us out every single day streaming live on Disney Plus and the ESPN app 12 to 3 Eastern.

Rich Eisen weighs in on the Dallas Mavericks firing GM Nico Harrison less than a year after trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.

Tune in to the Emmy-nominated Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from Noon to 3PM ET on Disney+, ESPN+, ESPN Radio, and streaming on SiriusXM channel 80.

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38 comments

  2. Dude had one of the top young players in the league who got the team to the Finals with an okay roster. The following season, he got rid of him and now the team sucks. Now why on Earth would this guy get fired? Read head-scratcher.

  4. I don’t even watch basketball that much but I watched because of Luka. It was so exciting having a legit superstar in town. That trade will go down as one of the worst moves in sports right next to the Red Sox getting rid of Ruth. Nothing but Ill will towards Nico. Rot in hell, sir.

  7. Now please sell the team. I cannot watch my mavs knowing it's owned by a war criminal family that funds illegal settlements and arms the violent settlers who terrorizes the Palestinians on thier own land.

  8. Listen Luca was out of shape. Doesn't play defense. Why would you play max at the time. Trading him wasn't the issue. Opening to other teams and see what the could get. Is the issue. It's going to take 7 to 10 years. To even thinking about playoffs.

  10. The least surprising headline, is Espn simps…simply to simp for Nico. The sports world is better off without him in it. Now we need the owners to get tossed

  16. This sounds like someone who isn’t familiar with the situation. It was 100% Nico’s move. Ownership knows nothing about basketball and was talked into it. They bought this team to build a resort casino / arena. Not cause they were basketball fans.

  24. NBA Conspiracy Theorist would say that the Mavs Ownership (The Dumont's) are /were trying to tank the team on purpose so they can say. We tried to make it work in Dallas, now will move the team to Las Vegas by 2028? With the Dumont's having Businesses in Vegas.

  26. I wouldn't mind seeing J.Kidd come back to the Bay Area and be the New Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors in a couple years/seasons from now. When Steph Curry , Draymond Green , Jimmy Butler and Steve Kerr all retire at the end of the 2026 – 2027 Season or so.

  31. Wild take. But I've heard rumblings that the Mavericks would like to move to Las Vegas if a team was ever to be put there. The owner owns a bunch of casinos and would love to build a new stadium with a bunch of casinos attached to it in Vegas. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a back room deal with the league and the Mavericks basically saying trade Luca to the Lakers for the ratings and the headlines. Then when we do expand Vegas will get a team and you guys will be able to go.

  34. We’ve seen this happen before but in another sport where the Red Sox fired Chaim Bloom after they made him trade Betts. Crazy that owners can scapegoat GMs

  35. It wasn't opened up to the rest of the league because it was orchestrated by the league lol. There's no even slightly rational explanation for the way this trade was handled other than "trade Luka to the Lakers and we'll give you the draft lottery."

  36. You do realize they are spending the same money on AD they would be on Luka annually right? The Mavs up to 2nd apron and hardcapped.

    This was not about cheaping out

  38. These fools! Look the nba wanted the Lakers to be a viable team again, so they force Luka to them. Hoping it will bring up the ratings! The NBA is fixed! Mavs never moved up In the draft until they make that trade. Then they hit a 2% chance? Bullshit! It’s all a fix. I will never believe otherwise.

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