DALLAS — The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Dallas Mavericks by a final score of 130-125 on Sunday afternoon. It was a back-and-forth contest for most of the affair, but Philadelphia began to take control late in the third quarter and did not look back. During the game, a fan shouted “fire Nico” loudly while PJ Washington was shooting a free throw, reference Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison. Some Mavs fans' disdain for the front office following the Luka Doncic trade has been difficult to ignore, but Washington said the team is “sick and tired” of hearing it at games.
“At the end of the day the trades happened, we understand we have a new team now,” Washington said. “All that ‘fire Nico’ stuff, we’re just sick and tired of hearing it. We just want to go out and play and the fans to support us.”
Max Christie, who was included in the Doncic trade, was hesitant to directly respond to Washington's comments.
Max Christie did not want to comment on PJ Washington’s comments, but he did discuss the process of tuning out the fans’ criticism of the trade.#MFFL pic.twitter.com/aGeKIwpTEL
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“Definitely not pleasant to hear, but I can't really comment much on that to be honest,” Christie said.
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However, Christie did explain how the Mavericks have attempted to ignore the criticism and outside noise.
“We're professionals and our job is to come out here and perform regardless of the circumstances that we're in,” Christie said. “We get paid a lot of money just to play basketball… We have things like that that may be distracting… It shouldn't affect us. We're professionals…Distractions are gonna be there, we gotta be able to move forward and move past them and not let those affect us.”
The Mavericks will try to jump back into the win column on Wednesday in a road game against the Indiana Pacers. Dallas will then return home for a contest against the Detroit Pistons on Friday before embarking upon a four-game road trip.
More to come on this story.