Posted on 11/11/2025 1:33:41 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Last winter, Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison traded away Luka Doncic. Tuesday morning, he paid for it with his job.
Nine months ago, Nico Harrison made the worst decision of his life. The general manager of the Dallas Mavericks shocked the basketball world by doing something exactly none of his peers would ever have dreamed of.
He willingly traded away Luka Doncic, a perennial All-Star and one of the best players in the world, to the rival Los Angeles Lakers. A move that looked like a disaster at the time has somehow become worse with each passing month. Doncic looks like an MVP in purple and gold, while the Mavericks flounder in the cellar of the Western Conference. Every chance they get, Dallas fans have chanted “Fire Nico!”
Now those fans have gotten their wish.
Dallas owner Patrick Dumont attended the team’s game on Monday in person, sitting courtside as he watched the Mavericks drop yet another game at home. Tuesday morning, the Mavericks fired Harrison, bringing the saga of the most ill-advised trade in NBA history to a close.
“No one associated with the Mavericks organization is happy with the start of what we all believed would be a promising season,” Dumont wrote in a letter announcing Harrison’s firing. “When the results don’t meet expectations, it’s my responsibility to act.”
In the annals of questionable deals in sports, the Doncic trade slots in right next to the Red Sox sending Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees more than a century prior. Doncic, a Slovenian phenom who trained as a teenager at Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, had spent his first six seasons in Dallas proving himself to be exactly the sort of player any franchise would die for.
Doncic made five straight All-NBA first teams. He notched a...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
I don’t follow NBA, but maybe Doncic demanded a trade or indicated he would sit out if he wasn’t paid more, which forced the GM’s hand (??)
Lots of stories out of the NHL, for example, of players who hate their coach, hate some of their teammates, hate the city they live in, etc... - and demand a trade, play poorly on purpose, or exaggerate an injury until they get what they want.
1970. SF Warriors. Traded their #1 draft pick for the RIGHTS to Zelmo Beaty. Beaty refused to play and the Warriors continued to lose and end up with the #3 overall pick. Turned out to be Pete Maravich.
Franklin Muelli was the owner who engineered that trade.
They want to move to Vegas.
Lots of stories out of Dallas at the time about Doncic’s heavy drinking and poor training habits.
LeBron had been begging him to come to LA for years.
He was surprised to be traded. But once he was in LA, he liked it.
With the gambling scandals rocking the sports world, how much personal $KaCHING$ changed hands under the table?
I was on the road for most of 2024, moving trailer loads of stuff from our old place to a new home. It was a 3 hour drive & one of the radio stations I could get for about half the trip was ESPN. When Doncic’s name would come up, inevitably the talk turned to him not being in the physical shape a top level player should be in & the hope was that with the move, he would be mentored in that area (LeBron!) & be more motivated.
His defense sucked.
The problem isn’t that they traded him, it’s that they got jack squat in return.
Luka was fat and lazy in Dallas… getting traded lit a fire under his ass (for now)
If you are young, and into chasing dreams that cost you the MILLIONS you earn, like young skirts, drugs and the night scene, LV or LA are for you. If you have a head on your shoulders, I would rather live in Utah, or Sacramento.
I suspect LeBron read him the Riot Act.
No He didn’t want to be traded. Just dumbazz move.
Only imbecile would trade a star player in the prime of his career for a player six years old with injury issues.
Even worse, they traded Robert Parish and their No. 3 pick (turned out to be Kevin McHale) for the Celtics No. 1 pick they used on Joe Barry Carrol (or Joe Barely Cares).
Giving up Parish and McHale for JBC is arguably worse than losing Maravich for a 28 year-old Beaty mirage.
And I’m sure Anthony Davis is already missing games because of his injury.
All I care about is my Pistons are off to a great start!
I wonder if any $$$$ was passed under the table to ensure that deal.
He became a starter at age 16, on the adult team, the youngest age allowed in Europe.
6 feet 8 inches tall - and still playing point guard in the NBA.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.