Every time Dallas Mavericks fans try to move on from the painful Luka Doncic trade, something new comes out of the woodwork to rip off the bandaid and cut deep in the heart of the city all over again.
First, it was Doncic coming back to Dallas last Saturday night to lead the Lakers to a furious fourth-quarter comeback victory. Making Doncic 4-0 against the Mavs since his untimely exodus. That has to hurt. Now, recent sensitive intel from ESPN reporter Tim MacMahon reveals that Nico Harrison washarboring visions of Luka’s exitfrom Dallas for quite some time.
Talk about adding insult to injury. No pun intended. But seeing a slimmed-down version of Doncic go for 33 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds in front of a Dallas crowd who still adore him had to feel like a fevered dream from an alternate reality.
Call it basketball inception. Except Leonard DiCaprio isn’t the thief who robbed you. Not at all. It was an inside job. Nico Harrison installed his own Trojan Horse and attempted to topple the same organization that he had helped to build over the past few years.
Harrison changed the trajectory of the Mavs in a fit of unrighteous anger
Tim MacMahon recently illuminated the dark shadows of this Dallas horror story by discussing an off-the-record conversation he had with Nico Harrison about Doncic’s recurring calf injuries, which Harrison largely attributed to Doncic’s lack of preparation in the offseason. He was fed up.
The fractured relationship between Doncic and Dallas’s front office was beginning to show cracks, and Harrison seemed motivated to end the partnership with the European prodigy in a hurry.
Harrison spent a year at the Army West Point Academy during his college days, and those disciplined Army ideals clashed with Doncic’s laid-back, I’ll play myself into shape training regimen.
MacMahon further elaborated on his “Howdy Partners” show that Harrison had reached a tipping point after Doncic's latest calf strain on Christmas Day 2024. He said, “So, I was talking to Nico, and this was right after the Christmas calf strain, which was Luka’s fourth calf strain in a short span, like 18 months or so. It was an off-the-record discussion, and he was basically complaining that it’s always the same problem, always the same problem, referring to Luka’s conditioning.”
MacMahon continued, “I said, 'What are you gonna do about it?” Basically, I told him, “Hey man, I’m tired of being the bad guy. I’m tired of being the one who’s always reporting on the conditioning stuff while y’all never put your names on it. If you want to complain about his conditioning, put your name on it, because I’m tired of taking all the heat.”
“So I asked again, “What are you gonna do about it?” And I swear to you, Mike, he said, “If I’ve got to trade him, I’ll trade his (expletive).”
Harrison couldn't have the tough conversations with Doncic himself, and this is what ultimately doomed the Doncic era. Rather than taking up his concerns with Doncic's conditioning and working toward a solution, he would just leak details to the media. Not a good look.
That conversation took place in December 2024. Doncic was then traded to Tinseltown just two months later in February 2025, for Anthony Davis, a player that Harrison had long admired. But as we all know, Davis comes with his own set of injury challenges. And he is six years older than Doncic, who was just 25 years old at the time of the trade.
Now Davis is on injured reserve due to ligament damage he sustained to his left hand in early January, and he’s projected to miss at least six weeks. Thus putting the Mavs in a constant state of flux, while also leaving questions about their roster next season.
Luka’s peers and front offices across the league were stunned. It shook the NBA landscape. And fans, players, and front office personnel still shake their heads at the absurdity of it all.
But that was how badly Harrison wanted to get out from under Doncic’s shadow. And somehow, someway, he was able to convince the Mavericks’ owner, Patrick Dumont, to believe in his vision of a post-Luka utopia.
Luckily, Cooper Flagg continues to lift his game to another level, as he just scored a career-high 49 points in a close 123-121 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night. In time, maybe Flagg’s greatness will be able to heal Dallas’ broken heart.
But until then, Mavs fans will continue to rue the day that Nico Harrision was given the keys to a kingdom that he didn’t deserve.