Nico Harrison has made it clear: he does not regret the Luka Doncic trade even after a nightmare end of the Dallas Mavericks season. The main decision maker of the MAVs with the media on Tuesday for the second time from the Doncic trade. Harrison Cameras and recording devices. From the press session, but the quotes that come out are still shocking given how badly the Doncic trade for the Mavericks has developed.
Harrison reiterated that he does not regret trade with Doncic. He attached to the script of why the movement did: he believes that the defense wins championships, and did not believe that Doncic could be a reliable part of the future of Dallas to the extension of Supermax that should be due in the summer. In the hours after Doncic trade occurs, Harrison leaked to the media that his philosophy is “defense wins the championship.” Guess which line repeated on Tuesday?
The general manager of MAVs, Nico Harrison and the CEO Rick Welts, just finished an hour session with selected media members based in Dallas.
“Defense wins the championship” was the most frequently pronounced phrase.
Will have complete coverage in @Espn This afternoon.
– Tim Macmahon (@espn_macmahon) April 15, 2025
Someone should tell Harrison that the MAVs had a better defensive qualification with Doncic this season than Dythy with the player for which he was changed, the great man Anthony Davis. Davis was injured in his first game with the MAVs, which is exactly surprising for a player who has a career prone to bone injuries, and Alreamy dealt with an abdominal tension when he was changed to the MAVs. Things only worsened from there for Dallas, with multiple holders with injuries, including the devastating acl torn from Kyrie Irving that will remain in the next season. The MAVs have no hope now or in the future thanks to the Harrison Doncic trade.
Doncic’s trade for the package that Dallas returned was always an indefensible decision. It is clear that Mavs leadership is completely delusional in terms of how they saw Doncic and how they approached trade. When the disastrous result of the trade is pressed so far, the CEO of Dallas, Rick Welts, compared it with another unpopular trade at that time that worked well: the Warriors who treat Ellis for Andrew Bogut in 2012.
.@tim_cato Give about @Dlls_mavs That the CEO of Mavs, Rick Welts, compared the trade of Luka Dončić with the former team of the warriors who exchange Ellis for Andrew Bogut in 2012.
Incredibly out of contact.
– Mavs Film Room (@Mavsfilmroom) April 15, 2025
There are simply no sharing between the two trades. Ellis never formed an All-Star team in his career. Doncic already had five noddes of All-Nba in the first team in his name at 25, and had just taken the Mavericks to the NBA finals of 2024. Ellis was changed in part to clear space for a young ascending guard named Stephen Curry. The mavs have no one can approach what Luka does.
Why better comparison for this trade? Try Babe Ruth’s treatment. That did not work so well for the red socks, even chief coach Jason Kidd believes it is great to hear the comparison.
Another problem linked to the exchange was the imminent extension of Doncic Supermax, a five -year contact and $ 346 million that Dallas did not want to pay this summer. No player has rejected a Supermax contract, and Doncic Essentialy confirmed that he was going to sign it following the trade (he is no longer eligible for the Supermax since he was changed to the Lakers). Harrison said it was not a guarantee that Donc would sign the Supermax, which feels like a floor lie. He attached to his weapons just after Tim Macmahon from ESPN pushed him back.
Macmahon: “Luka was going to sign the Supermax. Why didn’t you sign it and then if you really wanted to change it?
– Jared Christopher (@jaradlchris) April 15, 2025
There are many conspiracy theories about Doncic’s trade, but it seems that Harrison was full of convinced that his team would never win a championship with Luka on the list. Harrison was a close associate of Kobe Bryant during its peak, and did not see Bryant’s murderous mentality in Doncic when he reported that the training camp outside.
Harrison is also out of mind in this case, but the important thing is that he really believes it. Here is the line they will put in Harrison’s professional tomb once it is fired.
Nico: “My obligation is for the Dallas Mavericks, it is what is the best interest of the Dallas Mavericks, and that is the most important thing. Some decisions will be unpopular perhaps for Dirk and perhaps for fans, but my obligation.”
– Tim Cato (@tim_cato) April 15, 2025
Harrison’s moment with this media bombing was also strange, it happened a day after the Dallas Wings wrote the Paige Bueckers No. 1 in general and one day before the MAVs play an elimination game in the NBA game tournament in the confrontation 9/10. Why couldn’t I wait until after the season it is official?
NBA fans will talk about Doncic trade for decades. Harrison could be defending it, but it was a bad trade at the time he succeeded, and has worked even more in the short term.
If the MAVs want to recover the goodwill of their fans, they should start shooting Harrison. Anthony Davis’s trade would be a good next step, especially considering that Kyrie Irving is out of the next season. Harrison’s legacy is already sure: he is the guy who made the most stupid exchange of modern sports history. Luka is still writing her own legacy, and now that will be with the Lakers. The faster end, the better they will all be.
