Nico Harrison just received the chance to redeem himself in the city of Dallas. The chances that he actually chooses to do so are less than the 1.8% odds that the Dallas Mavericks had in grabbing the first overall pick in the upcoming NBA draft, which they just secured. That the team would magically land that pick after such a tumultuous period in their franchise – which followed the wildly uncelebrated trade that sent Luka Doncic to LA, placing Harrison very much in disfavor within the city – feels almost just a little fishy. But, hey, the Mavs have never lucked into the top pick in the draft lottery before, 1.8% odds-be-damned, so we’ll suspend our disbelief for now.
So, what now? Obviously, Dallas selects Duke freshman Cooper Flagg with the first pick, and then Harrison, Patrick Dumont, the Dallas franchise, et al, are all off the hook for their bumbling, white-collar mischief and can turn their get-out-of-jail-free pass into the unbelievably fortunate opportunity for the franchise to avoid being obsolete as soon as Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving are officially past their prime, which won’t be a long time from now. Some have joked that Dumont should fire Nico before he has the chance to trade the pick for Kevin Durant, another aging star with a penchant for attracting oversized media attention, who, like Davis, would keep Dallas relevant for another couple of years but put an even firmer limit on the team’s shelf life.
Just maybe, though, an even more intriguing idea is one that could buy Harrison a full pardon from the city of Dallas, while also making the Mavericks immediate championship contenders AND ensuring their continued relevance for the next decade. It would take an act of modesty perhaps far beyond the reach of his emotional maturity, though, which would entail an admission that he’d made an error in the Doncic-Davis trade (unless he somehow knew that Dallas was going to win the draft lottery…) But since the time of that trade, and the subsequent rage that was sparked in its aftermath, Harrison has shown nothing but childish arrogance, making the odds that he’d start acting with class quite a bit lower than 1.8%.
If he was ever wondering if there was a way to redeem himself and be forgiven for the suffering he’s caused in Dallas, perhaps it’s this: package the first overall draft pick in a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers for Luka Doncic, doing whatever is necessary to retain Davis, Lively, Gafford, and Washington, and then step down as GM.
Alternately, Dumont can make this way easier on everyone by firing Nico and executing the above trade of his own accord. That would make him an immediate hero of epic proportions, achieving a complete reversal in local reputation.