The Dallas Mavericks decided to move on from Nico Harrison, a move that likely took a bit longer than it should have.
After moving on from Luka Doncic, a trade that clearly didn't make sense, there wasn’t much of a reason for the Mavericks to continue to allow him to be the general manager.
Many have been upset with Mark Cuban’s role in the situation, despite Cuban no longer being the team’s majority owner. He's still involved with Dallas, but he admitted in the past that the Doncic trade didn’t go through him at all. He was just as shocked as everybody in the world when it happened, which is a problem in itself.
According to insider Marc Stein, who initially broke the news about Harrison being fired, he wrote that this wasn’t just a small decision, and he stated that it was something that’s been brewing for quite some time.
"During a fall-from-ahead loss Monday night to the Milwaukee Bucks, Harrison was actually subjected to only a few fourth-quarter strains of the ‘Fire Nico' chant that has become so commonplace in Mavsland since the spring," Stein wrote. "But league sources tell The Stein Line that a decision had essentially already been made by that point."
According to Stein, it was also reported that Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont met with Cuban to inform him of the news prior to making the decision. Upon meeting with Cuban, the organization decided to call for a meeting with Harrison the following day.
It remains uncertain just what involvement Cuban had in terms of whether he had any say on Harrison keeping his job, but considering some of his comments throughout the year, it almost feels safe to say that he was very much on board with letting him go.
Cuban understood what Doncic had meant to the city, not only as a player, but as a person. For all the latest on the Mavericks and NBA news and rumors, head over to Newsweek Sports.
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