The guys at Inside the NBA are already in midseason form.
Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and the rest of the gang at ESPN are on duty for Wednesday night tipoff in the NBA, and of course they were going to discuss the biggest story in the NBA this week: The Dallas Mavericks’ dismissal of general manager Nico Harrison.
Barkley and Shaq seemed to take up for Harrison after his Tuesday firing during the segment in which they discussed the topic, calling the former GM a “scapegoat” and pinning the trade of Luka Doncic — which largely led to Harrison’s downfall — more on Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont.
“[Harrison] was doing a good job, then he had the bad luck with Anthony Davis never being available, basically,” Barkley said. “But the thing that bothers me is he’s just being made a scapegoat. … There’s no way in the world Nico Harrison had the power to trade Luka Doncic unless the owner of the team signed off on it. That was his call.”
Mavericks
“There’s no way in the world Nico Harrison had the power to trade Luka Doncic unless the owner of the team signed off on it. … I feel bad the way Nico’s being made a scapegoat.”
Charles Barkley weighs in on the Mavericks parting ways with GM Nico Harrison. pic.twitter.com/ooMEl0a7iy
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 13, 2025
Barkley’s words contradict multiple reports by NBA insider Shams Charania, who on Tuesday after Harrison’s firing reiterated who was behind the Doncic trade.
“It was Nico Harrison,” Charania told Stephen A. Smith on Tuesday’s episode of First Take. “It was Nico Harrison’s decision, it was Nico Harrison’s pitch, it was Nico Harrison’s idea to trade Luka Doncic.”
Those reports didn’t stop Shaq from agreeing with Barkley, however.
“It’s part of the business. When you’re in a powerful position, sometimes you become what’s known as the ”scapegoat” when things don’t go well,” O’Neal said. “He’s done a lot of things there, but he’ll always be remembered for trading Luka Doncic.”
Whether he was the “scapegoat” or not, the Mavericks now appear set to move on without Harrison, with players and coaches on Wednesday calling for a return to normalcy at AAC and the focus of the organization returning to the on-court product.
Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.