Dallas Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison recently spoke about the 2024-25 season and said he was surprised by the fans’ reactions to trading away Luka Dončić.
Harrison addressed the media publicly on Monday for just the second time since the team traded Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, the first coming shortly after the trade was announced in February.
Outside of these two press conferences, Harrison has held just one meeting for select Dallas media members to address some of the concerns about the franchise, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Harrison was asked on April 21 about the reaction to the franchise trading away Dončić, noting that he was surprised that Mavericks fans were so connected with the 25-year-old superstar.
“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base. I didn’t quite know to what level,” he explained.
Harrison said the franchise believed that the current roster could compete at a championship when fully healthy and that success on the court would ease some of fans’ criticisms.
“We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” Harrison said.
“And so, unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”
Harrison received significant backlash since the trade was announced, with many fans calling for the Mavericks to move on and fire him at the end of the season.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, “Fire Nico” chants have become incredibly popular throughout the city, and various fans have been removed from games for chanting or making signs that display this message.
At one point in the conference, Harrison was asked about these chants and why he believes he should remain the Mavericks’ general manager.
“I think I’ve done a really good job here. And I don’t think I can be judged by the injuries this year. You have to judge from the totality from beginning to end. And so, I think I have a really good working relationship with Patrick [Dumont]. I think you add in Rick [Welts]. The leadership we have is really elite, and you’ll see next year when our team comes back. We’re gonna be competing for a championship,” he responded.