Mavericks GM Nico Harrison avoiding local media on team’s return to Dallas a bad look
Maybe Nico Harrison had a dentist appointment. Had to pick up dry cleaning. Or, maybe he was meeting with a Realtor.
Possibly chatting with his new security detail., which reportedly is a sad reality.
The general manager of the Dallas Mavericks did not show on Friday afternoon when the team introduced his latest “pièce de résistance.”
Allowing the new players to have their own introductions with us local media types, so it’s “about them,” is reasonable. Your team is in town for the first time since it made a league-altering trade, and not making yourself available at all, however, is weak.
If ever there was a time to eat your peas, asparagus and a buffet table of other detestable vegetables, Friday was it. Get it over with it.
Now is the time to revert to your days when you were selling those $225 Nike shoes, and sell this move to a fan base that is convinced you torpedoed their team for the next 15 years.
On Friday, the Mavericks introduced their three new acquisitions - Anthony Davis, Caleb Martin and Max Christie. However angry Mavs are over the recent trades, this trio deserves zero wrath. They had nothing to do with it.
The man who boldly claimed to be the only point of origin of a move that remakes the entire franchise, whether you believe that, should have showed his face on Friday to the locals.
The day after the Mavs general manager traded Luka Doncic to the L.A. Lakers, Harrison met with reporters in Cleveland, before their game against the Cavaliers on Feb. 2. That session, which included coach Jason Kidd, was before a group of media that was a fraction compared to the SRO crowd that showed at the team’s practice facility on Friday.
There may have been two local reporters who talked to Harrison that afternoon in Cleveland.
In 24 hours, a man whose local reputation was the equivalent of a nifty $100,000 three-piece suit not only shredded it into a thousand little pieces but managed to make Jerry Jones look like the best general manager who ever lived.
The Mavs trading Luka Doncic to the L.A. Lakers will echo not for the next 10 years but well after, when the player is inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Short of telling not just the truth but the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the reasons why Harrison traded Doncic, fans may never accept the rationale. What has become readily apparent is that the Mavs’ front office was over Luka.
Fans may have loved him, but management hated him.
Nonetheless, the only way fans may forgive Harrison for this deal, short of the Mavs winning eight straight NBA titles, is if we learn the ownership group forced this decision down this throat.
To Nico’s credit, he made it clear that the ownership group, and specifically team governor Patrick Dumont, had nothing to do with this deal; Nico has owned all of it.
The way Harrison makes this round, Dumont trusts the “basketball” to the basketball people; that is the standard goal of any fan for the person who owns their favorite team.
For the new Mavericks involved, they are as stunned as the rest of us.
“I didn’t believe it at first. I’m pretty sure nobody did,” Anthony Davis said during the press conference. He said he plans to play on Saturday afternoon, when the Mavericks host the Houston Rockets.
“My reaction was like everyone else’s; I was shocked. You can’t stay in that emotion for too long.”
Wise words for all of us.
This is the second time the former No. 1 overall pick in the draft, in 2012, has been moved. When he arrived to the New Orleans Pelicans, he was celebrated as the franchise savior. When the Pelicans traded him to the Lakers, in 2019, that fan base was thrilled as he would be the reason they could win another title (they did).
Now he goes to a fan base that is currently eating chocolate ice cream by the buckets as they scroll through their phones watching Luka highlights. Mavs nation does not want Anthony Davis. Mavs nation wants their Luka back.
“I understand who Luka is. I get who Luka was to this franchise, to this city. I’ll never downplay that,” Davis said. “I’m not surprised by the fan’s reaction, and the city’s reaction. It’s my job to play basketball, and get the fans hopeful and reassure why Nico brought me here. I want to give them life back. It’s obviously a shock.”
A shock that will not last forever, even if the deal will for Nico Harrison.
The Mavs were right to let their new players have their meet ‘n’ greet, but Nico needed to show his face, too.
