The Luka Doncic trade is already considered by many as one of the most lopsided in NBA history. Mavericks GM Nico Harrison continues to make it worse.
‘The Seal’: Mavericks GM Nico Harrison’s $345 Million Dollar Mistake Will Sink The Franchise
‘I Wouldn’t Say He Has An Impulsive Bone In His Body’
The Athletic recently wrote a profile of Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison, now forever known as “The Man Who Traded Luka Doncic”. The move was so egregious, that many assumed it could only be made by someone acting with haste and thoughtlessness. According to the article, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“I wouldn’t say he has an impulsive bone in his body,” said Rachel Baker, a colleague of Harrison’s from his days at Nike. Another former coworker, Jian Allen, echoed the sentiment: “There’s nothing about Nico that is haphazard or reckless.”
Within the first few days after the Anthony Davis/Doncic trade broke, media outlets reported the idea came to fruition during a coffee shop meetup in Dallas between Harrison and Los Angeles Lakers GM Rob Pelinka. Writers Christian Clark, Mike Vorkunov and Fred Katz dispel that narrative. Harrison apparently mulled the offer with his front office team weeks before he ever sat down with Pelinka.
Dealing In The Dark
Harrison and Pelinka’s relationship goes all the way back to the early 2000s. Pelinka represented Kobe Bryant when he signed with Nike in 2003, and Harrison acted as the brand’s liaison with the NBA. He experienced many successes and colossal failures along the way—most notably botching Nike’s pitch to Stephen Curry, leading the future superstar to sign with Under Armor—but always remained consistent in his approach.
Referring to themselves as “The Seals,” Nico and his team at Nike took their jobs seriously, perhaps to a fault. The group often operated in secret and behind closed doors. Harrison, who attended West Point, is described by his peers as habitual, secretive, and obsessive over diet and exercise. The article even mentions that he frequently greets people by saying “What did you eat today?”
Going From Bad To Worse Without Doncic
None of the information revealed about Harrison by Clark, Vorkunov, and Katz makes this debacle look any better. The fact that he genuinely considered exchanging Doncic and Davis for an extended period of time, and still pulled the trigger, boggles the mind.
Let’s even set aside trading a top-three player in the world for just a moment. This deal significantly handicaps the Mavericks in both the short and long term. Harrison and his front office now hold zero leverage with Kyrie Irving. He can choose to exercise his player option at the end of this season. The team doesn’t currently have anyone on the roster who can replace Irving’s production. No player in the upcoming free agency class would bring equivalent or better value. If Harrison wants to keep his job, he has no choice but to give Irving what he wants.
Circling back to Doncic, his accomplishments made him eligible for a “Supermax” contract, which he could have signed as early as July. That amounts to a five-year deal worth $345 million dollars, a hefty but worthy price tag for the perennial MVP candidate. The Athletic article states “The Mavericks were never going to offer Dončić that mega-deal.”
It’s Nico Harrison’s Way Or The Highway
This seems extremely disingenuous for several reasons, most notably because Harrison spent his entire tenure with the Mavericks making moves to pair Doncic with players tailor-made for his game. To Harrison’s credit, reinventing the roster with guys like PJ Washington, Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, and the gutsy acquisition of Irving—whose stock sat at an all-time low when the Mavericks acquired him—played a major part in their trip to the 2024 NBA Finals.
The evidence points towards Dallas going all in on Doncic, so what changed? When Mark Cuban sold his majority stake in the team to the Adelsons, Harrison vaulted up the food chain. The new owners gave him free reign to execute his vision. None of the current leaders were a part of the Mavericks when he was drafted, so Doncic was hung out to dry.
It’s clear that Harrison follows in a long tradition of sports GMs and owners that prioritize making an organization reflect their own image. They operate under strict monocultures and justify their rigid worldviews by saying things like “we want to build a winning culture.” In reality, it’s just ego laid bare.
