Fired Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison will never live down the Luka Doncic trade.

Mark Cuban, a minority owner for Dallas who is now acting as an advisor to the franchise, ran down his side of the story when he found out that Doncic was being traded to the Lakers.

“I’m at an event in Florida,” Cuban said on the Run Your Race podcast, describing the night that the Doncic trade came to fruition. “I get a text from Nico: ‘Call me.” I’m like, ‘OK’. I thought he was telling me that he’s thinking about it, then I realized it’s done. And then it’s like, nothing I can do, not my party — I wasn’t happy about it.”’

But recently it was Harrison who threw Cuban under the bus for losing Knicks star Jalen Brunson in free agency, a move that, while not as high-profile as the Doncic trade, is viewed as an equally dooming move for the Mavericks.

Nico Harrison was fired last week after the Mavericks situation blew up. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“Harrison blamed Cuban for what he believed were the Mavs’ biggest personnel mistakes during his tenure, which came in summer 2022: allowing Jalen Brunson to get away in free agency and trading for Christian Wood, a player [Jason] Kidd didn’t want to coach and resented having on the roster. Several members of the coaching staff and front office also faulted Cuban for those moves,” ESPN reported.

Brunson signed with the Knicks for $104 million in 2022, which he later extended at a team-friendly discount.

Cuban has since blamed Rick Brunson, Jalen’s father, for his unceremonious Dallas departure, although the Knicks were fined a second-round pick for tampering with Brunson before free agency.

After Cuban sold the controlling stake in the Mavericks to the Dumont family in 2023 at a valuation of $3.5 billion, far below what many in the league thought the Mavericks would be worth, there appeared to be a power struggle in Dallas.

It was initially expected that Cuban would maintain control of basketball operations, but that did not come to fruition, culminating in Dumont giving Harrison the reins.

Harrison then eventually traded Doncic for what was considered well below market value.

Mark Cuban was at an event in Florida when he got the “call me” text from Nico Harrison. Getty Images

Doncic was traded seemingly under everyone’s nose, even minority team ownership, to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, who has barely played in his time since the trade due to injuries, guard Max Christie and a first-round draft pick.

The Thunder, Spurs and others could have put together far better packages, most around the league agreed.

The trade was so bad that everyone assumed that ESPN reporter Shams Charania was hacked when he posted the trade news on social media.

Luka Doncic is thriving for the Lakers. NBAE via Getty Images

“It’s Nico’s decision, I respect it. He did what he thought was right,” Cuban continued before he called back to the poor decisions he made in the past when he was the majority team owner.

“That’s in the past. Maybe it’ll be his Steve Nash, and maybe Luka will go on to win two MVPs. After we [let Nash walk in free agency], we went to the Finals and then we won the Finals. So as long as it turns out that way, I don’t care.”

Doncic is off to a wonderful start for the 11-4 Lakers this season, averaging a career high 34.6 points per game.

Harrison is now unemployed, as he so boldly posted on his Instagram, with the Mavericks team that he built struggling to the tune of a 4-12 record after Wednesday’s 113-111 home loss to the Brunson-led Knicks despite having rookie of the year favorite Cooper Flagg.