Dirk Nowitzki SOUNDS OFF on the Nico Harrison Saga & Agrees with Dallas Mavericks Fans

One more thing. Dirk Novitzki finally sounds off about the Nico Harrison firing. Says it should have happened earlier. The fans got robbed and the trade made absolutely no sense. Reading our minds. We’ll talk about it more on locked on Mavs. One more thing. I’m not a doctor. So that’s it. It’s me versus the machine. I don’t know. SN to the hot man. The hot playoff. Wait, wait. One more thing. Fire up. Yeah, welcome. You’re still locked on to the Dallas Mavericks, your team every day. My name is Nick Angstead, medium member coming for 10 years. Thanks for being here every day, making lockup maps your first listen and listening every day. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. If you win, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to take advantage of it. Now, we’re going to talk about Durk Nitzky’s comments on Prime on Amazon on the pregame show because I thought it was wild to hear Derk Navitzki’s real unfiltered thoughts about the about the trade, about Nico Harrison, about all this stuff. And so, I’m going to go through some of these things that I saw and and read. And if you haven’t heard if you haven’t listened to the clip, it’s like two minutes. I’m not going to play it here, but you can go and listen to it. Um, and there’s just so many different things that I’m going to go to. The first one is that Durk Nvitzky said, “Well, there’s just too many distractions, too much going on to keep it to keep going this way, meaning keeping Nico Harrison.” He said, “This move should have probably happened this summer. Honestly, I didn’t want this negative energy and this black cloud over the Cooper flag era, but here we are now.” The fact that Dirk Nitzky said it should have happened earlier. You think of, you hear of all these different players that are coming out right now. Draymond Green, Charles Barkley, I think even Patrick Beverly, he’s got his own problems going on, but all kinds of different players. Austin Rivers that were like Nico is a scapegoat. Nico was the one that everybody just wanted to blame Nico for the for the Luca trade and all he didn’t even get to see his vision get played out because Kyrie and AD only played one half together. That Houston half, the magical one. Like this is more about so many other things to do with the trade, to do with what they got back from the trade. Trading Luca was one thing, but the fact that you only got Anthony Davis who is six years older than Luca Donic and not as good of a player and more injuryprone than Luca Dhonic. Like to you got that back and you got you let go of a player that was the bridge from the Dirk era to the next era. I’ve we rehash this all the time, but the fact that we keep having to Durk saying it probably should have happened over the summer. Yeah, because it was that bad. Because it was that bad of a deal. And for Durk to come out and say that and to say, “Yeah, it probably should have happened over the summer.” He didn’t even want to. He didn’t even think that they should have given him a chance to see this season out. It wasn’t about what was happening or what could happen with this team going forward. It was already done for Durk. Durk already looked at it and said, “Yeah, that trade was bad enough.” And moving on from from Luca was such a slap in the face and such a spit in the face of the fans that it didn’t matter what the Mavs did with this team right now. And I think a lot of fans, like I think a lot of you have have talked to me. I’ve talked to so many Mavs fans about this. And there’s so many of you that say even if they win a title, like it won’t even matter that much to me because of this. Like I’ll still like I’ll probably still celebrate it. Maybe whatever. Maybe I’ll buy one championship thing, but it won’t be the same as when Durk won his title in 2011. like Luca was on that path to to like make it in 2022 before anybody thought that they were to get beat by that Warriors team really bad and then to miss the postseason again and then to make the NBA finals and get beat really bad by the Celtics and then the rest of his hero journey was supposed to be able to like to play out. It was supposed to to play out with him figuring out a way to level up like Durk did. figuring out a way to to get his best basketball and his best foot forward and to then go and win that championship for the MA Dallas Mavericks fans and to get a statue out there right where Dirks is. Like that was supposed to be the rest of this thing and Durk says it later in in this this whole quote. So skipping ahead, it was very sad, very sad to see how it ended and felt like the fans they got robbed of actually seeing the end, seeing this through, seeing Luca develop into hopefully a champion one day. It kind of doesn’t matter if like Anthony Navas came and like if he was better than Luca and if Nico knew something like Luca’s injuries were so bad that all of a sudden it was going to be such an issue that he couldn’t have even gone forward and like couldn’t even had a good career. The the example we talked about a bunch after the trade happened was all right if he’s if he’s Joel Embiid or if he’s Andrew Luck where Andrew Luck went through so many injuries that he’s like screw it I I don’t want to play anymore and quit at like 29 or something like that. If that’s what would happen to Luca then it could make sense. But now we’re seeing this version of Luka where he’s scoring 40 points a game doing what Luca does. And yeah, there’s, you know, the ups and downs of of playing, but man, to to move on from that, to move on from the guy that was the bridge between the Durk era and this next era, the guy that had already got you to an NBA Finals was just such a slap in the face to every fan like Durk says, like Durk says they got robbed of actually seeing the end of this journey. And that to me is one of the things that people haven’t talked about as much. just like Mavericks fans, you know, you you listening, you know, going through Dirk’s saga and seeing him go through what he did in 2006 when they or the beginning of his career when he didn’t know if he was good enough for the NBA. Like he said that multiple times like I didn’t know if I was good enough my my rookie year to play in this league. Then he levels up to become an all-star. Then he uh they make the Western Conference Finals one year and then they lose. And then they uh make the NBA finals in 2006. And then they lose to the the Heat in a really tough fashion that was maybe a little bit rigged. And then in 2007, they’re the best team in the NBA. 67 wins only done like like once before that, right? Or two times before that. And then they lose in the first round like in a terrible awful fashion. And Durk then gets to redeem himself by coming back like like finding this this this like veteran laden team in 2011 and making this hero’s run that was absolutely incredible and can not be matched in any way, but Luca was like on that very same path. We saw the ups and downs. We saw the the drawbacks of his game. Sure, there were drawbacks to Durk’s game, too. Oh, he’s a soft euro. Oh, a shooting big will never make it in the NBA. You got to be able to play down in the post. Oh, you got to be able to defend the Oh, you got to play tough defense. You got to rebound. There’s so many things that were said about Durk and a lot of the a lot of the drawbacks about Luca were kind of in the same vein. Oh, he’s too ISO heavy. Oh, he’s he’s he’s going to be, you know, he’s got to play defense. Oh, he’s got all the all those things that were said about Luca. He still could win at the highest level. Man, you got me going on. You got me going on this tra on this trade again. But it was a slap in the face to the fans to not let them see out that moment. And I think that’s a very important point that Dirk made that fans deserve to see the end of that and to see how it went cuz they had been so invested and for Nico to come in and be like, “Yeah, you know what? That part doesn’t matter. The whole the whole human part of it doesn’t matter. I’m smarter than everybody.” And Dumont signing off on it too. Like for Dumont to not even even maybe realize that whole journey that that they had gone that the fans had gone through and that Luke had gone through because he just joined in when they went to the NBA finals. So, he only saw that mountaintop moment where they failed and saying, “Ah, well, we failed. Maybe this Nico guy is right. Maybe I should listen to him and maybe I we should move on and maybe we should try a different approach.” He missed the entire hero’s journey to begin this. And fans got robbed of that. And I think that’s an an incredible thing that was just a wild thing. Durk said one more thing that I want to talk about in this one more thing about the trade and this whole thing to me, I’m just so fascinated that I we got to hear Dirk’s unfiltered comments like this. We’ll talk about that more coming up. Today’s episode of Lockown Maps brought to you by our friends over at Door Dash. They’ve got a deal right now that you can go check out. 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So, you can use it on that Cowboys thing. There’s also what? There’s a Stars one on here. Stars, their next game against the Flyers. They’re a one and a half point favorite at home. So, that one’s an interesting one. So, you go check it out. You can see they’re almost done setting up the ice right now behind me. Go check it out on FanDuel, official sports betting partner of the NBA. Shut it down. Let’s go home. Thanks for hanging out with us on lockdown maps. One more thing, it’s a bonus episode of lockown maps. You missed the postgame with me and slightly. We talked all about the maps lost to the Clippers and talked a lot about like existential Mavericks things where we talked about the state of the team. Should they be tanking? Should they not? All that kind of stuff. So, go listen to the bonus show. Isaac also did another one more thing yesterday where he talked all about the the new GM and what the Mavericks should do. He’s got a theory about Jason Kid that you’re going to want to hear. So, go listen to that one. Um Durk Nitzky made this statement on Prime about how um the Luca trade and just the the whole Nico Harrison firing was just and that it should have happened earlier. He said it should have happened earlier all that. He said, “I just knew I figured this fan base is a f a passionate and loyal fan base. I was lucky enough to experience it for 21 years and I knew they weren’t going to get over it.” As people say or forget about, they’re extremely passionate. This is the part that I think is interesting. And this trade just made no sense. It made no sense to the fans and really there was no explanation for it either. You go to the NBA finals the year before. You give up all these assets to build really the team around Luca with some 69 wings that can switch and guard. You had two lob threats with Gaffford and Lively. The team was built around him. You added Clay. The shooting was kind of a bit of an issue in the finals against Boston. So you did all this going into the Christmas Day game. They were 14 and three out of the last 17 games. So they’re just starting to hit their stride. And then Luca gets hurt. Unfortunately, that’s the last game he ever played in a Dallas Maverick uniform. And that’s when he says it was sad. The fans got robbed. All that. Durk Nozzky saying this trade made absolutely no sense is incredible to me. Like that is just fuel to Dallas Mavericks fans. Hey, we’re not going to get gas lit by anybody saying, “Hey, you know what? Actually, the trade you should think about Nico Harrison side of this. You should think about what the Mavericks were doing with it with this trade.” No. Didn’t make any sense. It didn’t make any sense at all for this trade in any way, shape, or form. And for Dirk to come out and say that, I think is just so validating to Mavericks fans. If you’re somebody that’s like, I have been firm on this trade. I have been staunch that it was a terrible deal. But every once in a while, you start hearing some people and if you hear enough people say, you know what, I I can see Nico Harrison side. If you hear enough people like contrarians or whoever, you start to doubt yourself. This is a reason for you to not doubt yourself about this. It was that bad. You’re not Don’t be gaslit into thinking that this was a good trade or that this was a trade that even made sense at all and that there was really no explanation for it. We’re starting to see it right now because Anthony Davis came into this season out of shape. That has been a thing that that’s happened a couple times with with the Lakers apparently and he was dealing he’s now dealing with a calf injury. He has dealt with three different injuries since he’s joined the Mavericks. played like what was this what was a stat that was posted the other day where uh what was the stat that was posted of him and it was him versus Lamar Odum like of all people and Lamar had his his own issues and whatever but Lamar Odum played like Lamar ODM is known as one of the biggest like mistakes and biggest failures of Dallas Mavericks history to bring him in and he had his own offthe-court issues that he was dealing with that were not necessarily injuries that were uh mental and other kinds of things. He played 50 games for the Mavericks. He played 50 games over a thousand minutes and scored 300 points, which is not a lot, but Anthony Davis has played 14 games for the Mavericks so far. 4 in 15 minutes, scored 280 points, and like to compare those two, Anthony Davis has now dealt with an adductor injury that he was dealing with when the Mavericks traded for him. So, he’s dealt with like a waist like midsection issue. He’s dealt with a an eye, the retina injury that that kept him out for the whole offseason and from people that I’ve talked to said he couldn’t work out at all. It’s still hard for me to believe. I have to talk to an eye doctor, but it’s really hard for me to believe he couldn’t work out at all during the offseason, which is why he came into camp out of shape. Then he said at camp he’s going to play himself into shape. And now he’s dealing with now he’s dealing with this uh what is he even out with right now? Like remind myself what he’s even out with. He’s dealt with all kinds of different injuries already. And that’s just the state of what you deal with with Anthony Davis. And so it made no sense for the Mavericks to make that trade for him, for Nico Harrison to specifically like target Anthony Davis to not put the trade out there and all that. I’ve said many times this is the last time going over this trade. It probably won’t be. I’m not going to lie to you that it just keeps coming up. More things keep coming up. And for Durk to say his comments, I think it was worth talking through and going through and just validating all Mavs fans feelings about this trade and validating, hey, like the guy that’s if Durk, if anybody was going to know something with Luca, it would be Durk, right? Wouldn’t Durk have known something? Maybe he wouldn’t share that on TV, but maybe he would have defended the trade in some way like, hey, you know what? It didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to people, but there are some things behind the sc like maybe he’s not going to talk bad about Luca probably. And maybe that’s the only way. But is Dirk just like lying to us? I don’t think so. I think Durk’s the most truthful person in the world. No, I’m just kidding. There you go. There’s Dirk’s comments. I thought it was interesting. Thought it was worth going through. Guys, thanks so much for listening to this show. Go listen to all the other shows with Locked on Maps. We’re doing extra stuff all the time because this is the time that you maps fans are getting in on it. Guys, go check out links in the description for different ways to follow the show, the text line, and all that. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Maps. Peace out. Boom.

Dirk Nowitzki finally breaks his silence on the Dallas Mavericks firing of Nico Harrison and the shocking trade of Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis. Mavs fans were left stunned as the Cooper Flagg era begins, raising questions about the NBA team’s direction, the impact on Kyrie Irving, and the future of the franchise.

Nick Angstadt breaks down Dirk Nowitzki’s comments, reacts to the latest on the Mavs front office drama, and explains why the Anthony Davis trade made no sense for Dallas. Also discussed: Klay Thompson’s fit, Dereck Lively II’s development, Daniel Gafford’s role with the Mavs, and the decisions by Jason Kidd, Nico Harrison, and Patrick Dumont. Hear matter-of-fact analysis on the state of the Dallas Mavericks, how the fanbase feels after losing Luka Doncic, and what it means for stars like Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis moving forward.

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46 comments

  3. You sound unprofessional casting doubt at the fact that AD couldn’t work out after the eye surgery, especially since you admit you really don’t know, it only takes a google search bro

  4. Imagine a world where Nico Harrison got fired for suggesting the trade instead of them trading Luka. The basketball world would be at peace. I wish we lived in that timeline

  5. The LA gm outsmarted the Dallas Gm easy. nico hatrison is dumb an made a ego or race based decision. unless he,is corrupt and La played a future career or money card on him. it make no sense

  6. Charles Barkley is friends with Nico. Charles will not allow Nico to be criticized on Inside the NBA. Same with Barkley’s other friends (MJ & Westbrook). Charles also has a favorite team he calls “my Suns” and he dislikes the Lakers who he often says “stink”.
    As for the Luka trade, it comes down to this. Dumont knows almost nothing about basketball. Dumont got his information from Nico. Also, Nico negotiated the trade to get AD, who has a history of being injured, so much so Barkley called AD “street clothes”. It was a bad trade.

  7. i am from Israel havnt followed NBA since the 90's untill luka came to dallas. he reminded me off larry bird or drazan petrovirch. this is a mad trade. this was the carziest thing ever.

  12. my god… I want to know how long Dallas fans will be crying about this?? lol its like the girl that got away y'all wanted to marry…. its gonna be a year here soon and y'all will STILL be crying about it lol…. its BEEN OVER … move on… COOP has potential and y'all gonna chase him out cause you all are gonna say he's not Luka…. god fire Nico (even after he's been fired lol), 12 games in and people saying COOP is a bust and trade AD, start over ….. TWELVE GAMES IN!!!!!

  13. You can’t tell me Nico is not atleast a little racist.. dude dint wanna hire Luka medical staff but hired Ads medical staff… then the report about him putting Jokic and Jrue holiday on the same talent level lol.. this dude hates Europeans

  15. Barkley is Nico’s friend and that’s why he defended him. Nico came up with this plan to get rid of Luka for ego and power issues. The new owner knows nothing about basketball and hired a guy who supposedly knew it and the plan backfired. Simple as that.

  17. What didn't make sense and made it apparent that Nico just disliked Luka as a person and not basketball his skill and fit, is if you wanted AD on this team to make defense better for the team why was Luka the one traded and not Kyrie??? If you were gonna keep one of the guards, it should have been Luka instead of Kyrie

  18. A.D. means Always Disabled.🫨
    Nico & DALLAS management ripped out the hearts of its die-hard fans with the worst trade imaginable. Winning isn't everything. Luka was a good role model, gave you a chance in the NBA FINALS, and was loved by everyone like Dirk. LA LAKERS' fans are so thankful for the surprise gift and getting AD out of their team. When Lebron retires, their team chemistry will be better without the drama and Nepotism.

  19. They should have fired him at the end of last season so they'd have a whole off season to hire someone and make moves.

    Waiting until now just means that this season is a wash and the returns on these trades will be 1 season worse in value.

  22. For the first time Barkley wasn't honest about the trade im actually surprised he stuck up for his friend same with all the other players saying we didnt see the vision well he traded for a injury prone player while already having a injury prone Irving what vision he was arrogant about the trade and the vision of 2 injury prone players is ridiculous, not to mention this idoit let Brunson walk then traded for a space cadet in Irving

  24. If they have plan in moving to Las Vegas then they have to do it this year or next year instead of ruining this team just to annoy the fans. I feel sorry for Cooper though.

  29. What Dumont and the ownership group don’t understand is that they have broken the trust of the fan base. Why should we invest our money and more importantly our time in an organization whose owners are grossly incompetent or worse uninterested in the game and culture that took years to develop. Dumont needs to understand that he must do everything within his power to earn that trust back and I doubt he has the interest in the effort required. This is the perception that has led many fans to stop supporting the franchise.

  30. Inside News – Nico

    Nico was in Fayetteville Ark last night. He has a good friend in this area was invited to play some golf. Came up to golf with his buddy and wound up at the University of Arkansas basketball game.

    Courtside seats.

    There are a lot of Mav’’ fans here as a lot of kids from various Texas towns come to school here.

    You got it.

    Chants broke out Fire Nico……

    Karma is a bitch…

  32. Nico Harrison doesn’t understand basketball; or at the very least, his ego leaves him no better than the casual fan. Seriously—who trades away a superstar who just led you to the NBA Finals? And Luka is easily a top-five player in the league. Make it make sense, because this might be the worst trade in professional sports history. I genuinely feel for Mavericks fans, and this is coming from someone who supports the Raptors. Best course of action is blow it up and run the ownership out of town!

  33. This is one of the best episodes I have seen. Love your passion bro. I'll be a MFFL, but man that trade hurt me bad. And like Dirk said, us fans got robbed…sad.

  35. Dirk is the Mavs goat. Luka was the European who was taking the torch from Dirk and a future MVP. Fuck Nico. Fuck Dumont. Worst trade in sports history. Shit show of a franchise. Trade AD to the thunder for 6 first rounders and rebuild

  36. Agree. Firing Nico wasn’t JUST about this trade. It was everything during his tenure. I want to be clear the following isn’t shade on any player just a reviewing of Nico’s blunders.

    1. Letting Brunson walk. You HAD to go out and get a second ball handler to play next to Luka after not re-signing Brunson. What was the cost a Dorian Finney-Smith, Dinwiddie, 2029 first round pick, and two future second rounders for Kyrie. I think Kyrie is a better player than Brunson. But you gave up a lot to get him.

    2. From trading DFS, you had to go out and get a 3 and D wing to replace him. So you trade Grant Williams, Seth Curry, and a 2027 first round pick to acquire PJ Washington. I think PJ is the better player and he’s younger than DSF.

    3. You fire Casey Smith. Now you have dysfunction in your training staff, and you try to rush Lively, Luka, and—most recently—AD back too soon.

    4. You trade Luka. The team already had a ton of talent in the front court: PJ, Naji, Gaff, D-Liv. And so you get…another forward/center in AD as the big return piece. And now where are the Mavs short? Ballhandling and shot creation. As talented as Kai is—and he is extremely talented—he’ll need breaks when he comes back from injury. But we’re seeing they are thin at guard again.

    5. You were already deeper in the front court after the AD trade. Now you go and trade Grimes for Martin AND have to give up a second round pick in the process. Not a knock on Martin but we needed depth and shot creation that Grimes provided.

    The point is: Nico was inexperienced. He created gaps on the roster, and had to course correct as a result. He gave up a ton of draft capital to do it. So it limits how the next GM can balance the current roster without moving a fan favorite to do so.

  40. Hey man! Why are you guys dragging this out? He’s gone, so there’s nothing to discuss except to focus on the team and what they need to do moving forward. Instead, you’re back talking about the same thing you’ve been talking about already. You could never move forward if you keep living in the past.

  41. This captures the element of the trade discussion that I think has been missing.

    Mavs fans wanted to win a championship with THEIR GUY! That’s who Mavs fans are. The Mavs fanbase is a loyal one that wants to win a championship with THEIR homegrown superstar! The objective for the GM and Owner should be not just to win a championship but to do it with their homegrown talent! That’s the objective. Nico NEVER understood that and Dumont didn’t understand that when he took ownership (maybe still doesn’t we will see).

  46. The numerous former (and some current) NBA players saying Nico had nothing to with this… What… Give me a break. Love that Dirk is saying this. Stop the gaslighting.

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