Mavs FIRE GM Nico Harrison 9 months after Luka trade! Shams Charania breaks it down

Mavs FIRE GM Nico Harrison 9 months after Luka trade! Shams Charania breaks it down

unfiltered. I’m not sold. I’m sorry. Unapologetic. I’m not trying to talk about them. Unlike anyone else, but knowing y’all, y’all will probably make me. This is the Stephen A. Smith Show. What’s up, everybody? Welcome to the latest edition of the Stephen A. Smith Show. Coming at you, as I love to do every weekday from 1 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time over the airwaves of SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio. Number to call up as always is 8 Mad Dog 6. That’s 888-623-3646. And of course, if you wanted to send in your voicemail messages, go to sirusxm.com/getserious. That’s sirxm.com/getserious. Usually, I’ve got an opening monologue, but instead, I’ve got breaking news. The Dallas Mavericks have relieved GM Nico Harrison of his duties as general manager. According to team owner and Governor Patrick Dumont, they announced it a few hours ago. Nico Harrison, the man responsible, largely held responsible for trading Luca Donuch to the Los Angeles Lakers essentially for Anthony Davis. He is now gone as general manager for the Dallas Mavericks. To get to it right now, I’ve got the ultimate insider, the best in the business, the one and only Sham Shirania for ESPN right here, right here with yours truly. Seams, thank you for time out of your busy schedule. Always appreciate you, my brother. Break it down. Nico Harrison is gone. Why did this happen? Why did this happen right now? So, this happened now because the Mavericks are in a tail spin, Stephen A. And when you trade away Luca Dantage, a player in his prime, 25 years old, five straight all NBA first teams, and you go and go get Anthony Davis, and you’ve set a two to three, fouryear window for you to win a championship. You say, “Only time will tell if I’m right.” You know, the city is coming down on the Mavericks in February and beyond after that for their decision to trade Luca Donuch. you have championship expectations. And even in April after the Mavericks lost Kyrie Irving with a torn ACL, Nico Harrison said, “We’ll be back next season and we’ll be competing for a championship.” And when you have these championship aspirations for for the Dallas Mavericks, that’s going to be, you know, you you have to win a championship and you have to be competing for a championship. That’s the expectation. and the start that they’re off to right now. Three and eight. They’re one of the worst teams in the NBA. Worst team, one of the worst teams in the West. And that isn’t what they signed up for. That’s not what the Mavericks, what ownership Patrick Dumont signed up for. And they pulled a plug. And what we saw Patrick Dumont essentially admit, he admitted to a kid courtside on Monday night uh during that loss against against Milwaukee. My understanding he he he told this fan that interacted with him that uh the Mavericks are going to be taking accountability and that they made a mistake with the Luca Dantes trade. So when an owner admits that the first order of business is firing the man that came up with the plan, the pitch and that’s now the process the Mavericks Mavericks will will undergo is the changing of the guard in that organization. Shams, is this one of those situations where it’s truly accountability that’s being embraced or is Nico Harrison being used as a scapegoat for a decision ownership compelled him to make because they made it clear that they weren’t interested in giving Luca Donic the super max that would have been for over 300 million at the time. Which one is it? Shamps, this was Nico Harrison’s decision 100% all the way. This was his concept, his idea, his plan, his pitch. Now, anytime a general manager makes a trade, you’re not just making in a vacuum. There’s going to be support you’re going to need internally with your front office lieutenants, which the foremost front office lieutenants in that Maverick’s organization. They were supportive of the decision. You need your head coach align, Jason Kidd. There was support there. And then you need ownership to support it. And ownership was supportive and green lit that move. And so the buck stops with Nico Harrison because Nico Harrison’s the one that pushed this. And the telltale moment within the Mavericks organization was when they made it to the NBA finals in 2024. It was months after Mark Cuban sold his ownership stake, majority ownership stake, and Nico Harrison, his voice and his relationship with Patrick Dumont grew very close. Mark Cuban hired Nico Harrison. I think there was an expectation that there was going to continue to be Mark Cuban’s involvement. Mark Cuban ultimately was cut out. It was Patrick Dumont and Nico Harrison. And after they made it to the finals, Patrick Dumont really thought Nico Harrison was a basketball savant. He thought Nico Harrison was basketball gospel. And when you have that type of influence on your owner and you come up with this idea to an extent, Patrick Dont was surprised about the about all the reaction that people were having. That’s how naive from an ownership level and how naive the Mavericks were as an organization to not know the impact of trading a player like Luca Donuch who was supposed to be the next Dirk Nitzky spend his whole career there have a statue there uh you know be have his jersey retired there at one point so the Buck stops with Nico Harrison but that trade’s not happening unless that trade is green lit. I totally understand that and it does show the ignorance of ownership. If they’re going to act like they were shocked at the reaction to trading a Luca Donic, how can you not know that? But here’s what I want to ask you, Shams. I totally get where you’re coming from where it’s Nico Harrison’s concept. It’s his idea. But what I’m really asking in terms from a specific standpoint was that after or could that have been after an owner, a new owner comes in and says, “3 $350 million. I don’t want to pay this guy $300 million. don’t come up with a plan. I mean, I’m just asking, is it possible that they came to It’s a fair question. Yes. Yeah. And I’ve seen the conspiracies. It’s It’s a fair question because it’s such a monumental decision. But it’s Nico Harrison who is who is, you know, informing of breaking down the supermax, what that looks like, the the with the the the drawbacks of the Mavericks paying Luca Don that much when it comes to team building. It’s Nico Harrison who’s informing and educating Patrick Dumont and talking Patrick Dumont into why it makes sense for the organization, not the other way around. But listen, at the end of the day, when you’re ownership and you greenlight that move, you’re just as in it. Uh if you know, if you have these strong feelings now, you know, there there’s other feedback that I’ve gotten around the league. Like if if a GM is coming you with this proposition, you’re firing that GM on the spot. That wasn’t done. There was support for that. But Nico Harrison has said it publicly. He said it privately. This was his decision, his call. And at the end of day, it was him informing the owner what that looks like from a numerical number. You know, this is what the supermax is. We can’t afford to pay that. It makes more sense to go this direction, etc. At this juncture, how does Firing Nico Harrison square with fans other than giving them a pound of flesh? It It’s just the start of accountability. It’s the start of, like you said, Stephen A. It’s It’s listening to your fans. It’s understanding. That’s one thing I have heard around ownership in the last several days. It’s like we have to start listening to our fans now. And the fans were were were raid after the after the Luca Donic trade. They were rabid when Luca Donic came back to Dallas for the first time. Obviously, even last night, Monday night, they were chanting fire Nico while PJ Washington was shooting clutch free throws. Think about that. You’re in the middle of a clutch moment down the end stretch of a game and the fans are chanting fire Nico. And the Mavericks, they they decided this is step one, but there’s, you know, there’s a long list of things now the Mavericks have to do. Um, they have appointed Michael Finley, Matt Ricardi as interim coach, general managers, but Stephen A, they’re going to go through a full search. Dennis Lindseay who was actually in Dallas. He worked under Nico Harrison for a couple years and was part of that group that that you know allowed this team to get to the finals and made the moves necessary for them to get to the finals. He’s wellliked by people in that organization. He’s going to be a candidate for that job. But then the bigger question, Stephen A, is what do you do with this roster? What do you do with this team? They have their first round pick this year. They don’t own their first round pick again till 2031. What does that mean? That means they have to look into the into the future now. And so they might have to start making some hard decisions now on this team. Nico Harrison, his firing, I mean, I’m thinking about ticket sales. I’m thinking about sponsorships. I’m thinking about local ratings. How are all of those things affected in Dallas since Luca Dona got traded? Shs, would you know anything about that fan reaction? you you you lose a sellout streak at home last week um for the first time in in I think since 2001 that there wasn’t a sellout in Dallas. These are big numbers. These are these are things that get ownership reaction and so we saw it start to go but listen this is a results business at the end of the day. If this is a team that’s eight and three not three and eight we’re talking about something completely different. We’re not talking about Nico Harrison getting fired on November 11th if this team is eight and three. There’s a results business. They wanted wins. They wanted production. They wanted a team that was competing for a championship. This team is not doing that. When you make it the trade for Luca Donuch, you’ve put everything on the line. Like Nico Harrison put whatever you want to call it. Um his his his body on the line, his his nuts on the line. Like he put himself out there. And when you do that, you have to live with the results. What about behind the scenes? And I’m thinking about Jason Kid. I love Jason Kid. I think he’s a fantastic coach, but we all know that there have been power moves that has been attempted to be made in the past when he was at a different location. You know, you talk about Brooklyn. You’re talking about other situations. Even in Milwaukee, things were looking at differently. You got some people in NBA circles now asking about what role, if any, Jason Kid has played because Nico Harrison is gone. Him and Jason Kidd were hired on the same day a few years ago. What’s the status of Jason Kidd now as we speak? Jason Kidd’s still the head coach. He’s still under contract for multiple more years. He just signed a contract extension. And so Jason Kidd got an extension after getting some Knicks interest in the offseason and he didn’t get an extension with Nico Harrison. It was only Jason Kidd that got the extension. So it buys him some time. Of course, when there’s change like this, Nico Harrison was brought in together with Jason Kidd by Mark Cuban. Now you have all these years later, Nico Harrison’s out and we don’t know who’s going to run that team moving forward. Um, listen what I’ve felt in the last how many ever months, four or five months, is you’ve seen a splintering. Like you’ve seen people separate themselves from the Luca Dantes trade. You Nico Harrison is the only one that’s that’s put his stamp on it because it was his decision. Um, but there were other members in that organization that also supported that decision too. They weren’t running the team though, but they supported that decision. Luca Donic hasn’t acknowledged Jason Kidd since he’s been back uh since they’ve played against each other uh in those in those games, Lakers Mavs games. Um you know, I my understand I I think there’s an understanding there that Jason Kidd also wasn’t one of the ones that was thrilled with Luca Donic’s conditioning different things near his his exit. And so now you have a situation where Jason Kid is still the coach. We’ll see who the new GM is and eventually that new GM will make decisions on everything. I guess what I’m asking Sean is because nobody would know better than you. You’re the best in the business. Is I’m asking is this a situation where we could ultimately witness Jason Kid actually gaining more power and influence within the organization? Possibly in the interim, but my understanding is is they’re looking for a lead basketball executive as their as their new head of basketball. I have not heard uh any realness to Jason like a Jason kid stepping in as a president like we’ve seen in past situations um you know whenever a coach you know might step in into that role. I I haven’t heard that in this Anthony Davis I’ve often said this and you need to hear me reiterate it to you right in front of our audience as we speak. I said this trade is about Anthony Davis because it’s not like they put him Luca Donic on the market and tried to get the best available offer. They only made a call of the Lakers. You know, Rob Pelink and Nico Harrison who have a history with one another and they made this swap. One could argue you could have gotten a lot more than Anthony Davis, Max Christie in the 2029 first round pick for the services of Luca Donic and and you didn’t do that. And so for me to for Anthony Davis to have missed six straight games, for him to get hurt the very first game he arrived as a Maverick after having a spectacular first half and getting injured in the second half of that game and having last season compromised. I think that ultimately the indictment against Nico Harrison is that you traded a 25year-old superstar at the time for a dude who is a champion and is a star in this league when healthy but is almost never available. And that’s what ultimately hurt Nico Harrison. To that you say what? I I I I I think a lot of people would agree with you, Stephen. I think a lot of people look around the league look at the roster that Nico Harrison put together and on paper it looked good. But you have to account for the fact that when you’re trading a 25-year-old Luca Don, you’re doing it for a guy I believe AD was how well 31 32 is over 30 for sure. You’re doing a guy that Yep. approaching 32. you’re doing that for a player six to seven years older. And so I I I think I think you ha like that’s just a fact. And so when you do that trade, you shorten your window, you shorten the expectations. Um it has to be championship rob or bust every year. They already made it to the finals of Luka to 2024. There’s only one other thing you can do if you move Luca. That’s getting to the finals. That’s winning a championship. Last year they lost in the playin game. We saw AD come back in game one. Looked like an absolute beast. messes up his adductor. He’s out six weeks after that. He comes back for the playin game. He looked like a shell of himself. Then this off season, he has uh surgery for detached retina in the offseason. He’s not able to do any activities for a period of six to eight weeks. Any player that has his off seasonason ruined for two months, not able to do any activities. You’re going to lose cardio. You’re going to lose basketball shape. We saw Anthony Davis come in wasn’t his pristine basketball shape. So, you’re already playing from behind. And the irony of all this is Luca Donatic was traded in February off a calf strain and internal issues with his rehab, with the way he his basketball conditioning was. Now you fast forward nine months later, Anthony Davis calf strain, concerned about his basketball conditioning and concerned about how his rehab is going. He’s missed the last six games. On Saturday, he wanted to play. He’d been doing five on five, but the organization shut it down. They had fears from my understanding that this could be a Tyresese Hallebertton part two. They didn’t want that. The medical staff didn’t want that. So, they made the decision, shut AD down. He didn’t play Saturday. He didn’t play Monday. We’ll see if he plays Wednesday against Phoenix. But all of that plays into it. They didn’t get the results on the court that they needed, not only from Anthony Davis, but the entire team ever since making that crazy jarring trade. I show I I I shared this with my audience because, you know, not not only are you the ultimate NBA insider, you’re the best in the business, but you know what? It ain’t just about the information. You know your basketball, which is why it’s tricky because when I bring you on first take and I bring you on the show here, I’m like this. You know, I don’t want to compromise my brother right here because he got his information. Got a source. But you know what? The man knows his basketball and stuff like that. But damn, I don’t want to be asking him these questions. But I got to ask you this though, and I don’t know if anybody has asked you this, Sean. If Nico had stepped back and said, “You know what? I’m not gonna call the Lakers and I’m just going to wait and I’m going to call around and see what we can get for Luca.” What kind of deal was out there for the Dallas Mavericks other than the Anthony Davis deal that he settled for? Could you tell us what the what they could have gotten for Luca Donuch last February? A ton of draft picks. I mean, you think about if you’re trying to make a deal just for draft picks, you can get I mean, Mikuel Bridges ended up with what, four, five first. Desmond Bane just got four first. If you just want draft picks, you could have traded Luca Don for six, seven, eight first. I mean, that’s the If Desmond Bane is going for four, Mikuel Bridges four, five, whatever that ended up being, I think five. Rudy Bridges was five. Muel Bridges was five. Bane was four. Yes. Few years ago, Rudy Goar, we know he went for a massive hall. I think it was four first, few swaps. Um, you just look, if you want picks, you could have gotten that level of picks, if not more. If you wanted another player, that might be a little bit more difficult. You you don’t know what’s out there. You you kind of have to see a a player become available. You know, who could that be? You know, I look at this summer if they held on to Luca Duchen, if you got wind that Giannis could be available, could there be something there where you swap Luca for Giannis? Is there something that you could have done with Luca with a You kind of just have to wait to see. Is there another situation that comes up on the forefront with another player or another star player becomes available? It’s kind of a wait and see. Um but you probably, you know, hindsight 2020. Patrick Dumont literally said it to the fan. We made a mistake, right? And so they they feel like they made a mistake trading for, you know, Luca Don for Anthony Davis. That’s the that’s the reality of the situation. Last question to you because I know you got to go because this story is obviously percolating. Everybody’s talk about it. You got other responsibilities. Appreciate you making time for me, my man. I’ll ask you this last question. Switching to the Lakers because of Luca Donic, which right now to me legitimate argument. He’s number one in line for the MVP. He’s averaging 379 and N. I’m keeping my eyes on Wimby because he’s just on another level himself. But Luca Donic right now is playing out of his mind. And I’m looking at the Los Angeles Lakers, a fourth seed at 8 and3 in the Western Conference right now. All without LeBron James. And I’m saying the most interesting story percolating right now is LeBron James in the NBA because when he comes back, it’s clearly Luca’s show. Is how is LeBron James going to adjust not just with playing with Luca on this level, but also not affecting Austin Reeves who’s been balling as well. The Lakers and LeBron James to me might be the most compelling story in the NBA. And I think this firing of Nico Harrison, which ultimately brings even more attention to Luca, brings more attention to the storyline I just brought up. To that, you say what? I say that LeBron James is 40, about to be 41 in year 23. But if there’s a player that I know will will not have a problem figuring out from a basketball smarts perspective how he fits in, I think it’ll be him. I think the bigger question is what is he going to look like? Like what kind of LeBron James are we going to see back on the floor? He hasn’t played in in such a long time. He dealt with a knee injury. Now he’s dealing with this sciatica, which is is, you know, an injury that happens as you get older. And so I’m curious to see how he looks, what kind of LeBron James we’re gonna get when he’s on the floor. But from a basketball smarts perspective, this is the first time we’re seeing LeBron James in a position where he’s on the floor and he’s not the only number one alpha. Luca, this is Luka Donic’s team. The moment they went and traded for Luca Donuch, the Lakers did in February, this became his team. Now whether they wanted to just admit it publicly, he’s the face of this franchise with or without LeBron James on the roster. He’s going to remain the face of the franchise. Everything they do is him, his stamp of approval. It’s no longer with the LeBron James input and and all of that. But listen, LeBron is a legend. He’s a guy. We don’t know how how much longer he’s he’s going to play. If there’s a player that’s going to figure this out though and figure out his role, I think it’s going to be it’s he’s a legend. He’s He’s a legend. He’s one of the greatest Mount Rushmore basketball. We will never take that away from him. I’m just interested. And I’m not even thinking about Luca because Luca’s gonna have the ball in his hands. So, I’m not worried about Luca. I’m thinking about LeBron with an Austin Reeves and others because of the way they’ve been playing with Reeves. Exactly. And and what Reeves is doing, he’s looking like an all-star and all NBA player right now. Luca Dantic already we know what he’s capable of. He’s an MVP candidate. Like I think LeBron sitting back probably saying if there were any questions about this team, you’re getting a lot of answers. This team is clearly a contender. This is clearly a team that’s competing at a really high level. And then you insert a guy that was a top 15 player a year ago. I think the sky’s is the limit for this team. But yeah, I mean you have to let AR be who is and you have to let Luca play like how Luca is. I’m thinking if I I’m thinking if LeBron do that I’m thinking if LeBron doesn’t have an effect a negative effect on Austin Reeves and I’m not saying he will cuz I don’t think he will because he is a basketball Savant. So I’m thinking about him. I’m thinking about Luca. If LeBron James comes back and he figures out, which we know he’s fully capable of doing to be just as effective, albeit in a different kind of manner, being that wide receiver, per se, playing in the post a little bit more, per se. If LeBron figures that out, Lakers can go to the finals. Lakers go to finals, man. They got a chance. Last comment from you. I I th this whole this whole trade and like what we’re going to see from the fallout of it and you know if Luca Donic isn’t playing at this level that we’re seeing right now, if the Lakers aren’t winning at this level, if the if the situations are reversed, Nico Harrison is still employed. This is the biggest what have you done for me? The biggest resultsbased business move that we’ve seen. Nico put it all on out on the line for this trade. And I just can’t I I I can’t uh fathom how how ironic it is that a you know February nine months ago Luca Dono was traded with a calf strain and now Nico Harrison is fired while while Anthony Davis is out with a calf strain and that’s it. And Anthony Davis like you said is six years older and that’s ultimately what doomed your faith is. It ain’t even about Anthony Davis’s game because we know when he’s healthy he’s good for 28 and 12 a night. It’s really about the fact that he’s unavailable and that’s what you traded a superstar six years his junior for. That’s really what it comes down to. Sean Shiran, you are the best. One more final word. Basketball gods. Go ahead. The basketball gods, whatever was with the Luca Dante, the basketball gods were not on the Maverick side at all. At all at all. The one and only Sham Serania, the best in the business, the ultimate NBA insider right here on the Steen AM show SiriusXM Mad Sports Radio. Shams, appreciate you, my man. Go do your thing, man. We’ll talk later. Take care. Thanks. Appreciate you. He’s the best in the business. Make no mistake about it. Proud to have him as a teammate at ESPN. There is nobody better in the world when it comes to basketball insider information than Sean Shirania. Take it from me. TripleA Mad Dog 6 is the number to call up. It’s 8886233646. You’re listening live to the Stephen A. Smith Show Mad Dog Sports Radio. Lots to get into about some NFL action, particularly with the Eagles beating the Green Bay Packers last night 10 to seven. What does that mean for the whole NFC and the NFL picture, the championship picture? We got a lot to get into about that. You just heard me talking to Shan Chirania about the Dallas Mavericks firing GM Nico Harrison because the trade for Luca Donic to LA for Anthony Davis clearly has not worked out for the Dallas Mavericks who are three and eight on the year and is ranked 14th out of 15 different teams in the Western Conference of the NBA. And obviously, by the way, with the way Luca Donic is playing, looking like a potential MVP candidate right now, I think it’s a two- horse race between him and Victor Wana and San Antonio’s 8-2 in the number two seed in the Western Conference. It’s getting very, very interesting because ultimately with the way the Lakers are looking without LeBron James, imagine how they could look once LeBron James returns, which means all eyes are going to be on LeBron James when he gets back. It’s a whole bunch of stuff to get into and I’m here for it. AAA Mad Dog 66 that’s 888623 3646 more of the Stephen A.

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