‘Enjoy’ the parallel: Mavericks’ Luka trade mirrors Jerry Jones’ career-defining blunder
Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison is not a dumb man, but now he owns a 50,000 karat dunce Stetson because he committed the one sin a sports GM cannot make, one that Jerry Jones made in 1994 that defined his career.
Jerry’s ego could not work with his Super Bowl-winning head coach, the architect of a dynasty team. Jerry proudly proclaimed he “flat fired” coach Jimmy Johnson, and Jerry’s team has never fully recovered.
If it’s working, you’re winning, and on top, you figure it out. The ego should always be second to winning. Once the ego wins, you’ve lost.
In late January, someone needed to get to Harrison, who by then was contemplating trading Luka Doncic to the L.A. Lakers, and read to him the following: “How the hell do y’all screw something up like this?”
It was Barry Switzer who asked this of Jimmy ‘n’ Jerry, when he was named Johnson’s successor as the head coach of the Cowboys.
If this didn’t resonate, someone should have forced Harrison to watch the infomercial that is “The Last Dance.” The eight-part series about the final season of the Chicago Bulls dynasty, in 1997-’98, with Michael Jordan still owning the NBA should be mandatory viewing for all sports GMs.
Jordan made it clear he wanted to keep it going, but GM Jerry Krause was itching to prove how smart he was by rebuilding the team; that he didn’t need Jordan to be atop the NBA. Krause was enabled by owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who hated paying Jordan’s $33 million salary (BTW: In today’s dollars, that would be $64.3 million).
It is a coincidence these ego-based decisions were separated by four years; the results are not a coincidence. The team that Jimmy built won the Super Bowl in 1995, their last. The Bulls won the NBA title in 1998, their last.
The Cowboys have not reached a Super Bowl since then, nor an NFC title game. The Bulls have not reached an NBA Finals since ‘98, and since then they have reached one Eastern Conference final, in 2011.
The difference between the Cowboys and Mavericks respective decisions was Jerry dumped a head coach, a position that he has always felt is inferior to the importance of the talent on the field; the Mavericks dumped the talent on the field for pennies on the dollar.
For all of GM Jerry’s flaws and faults, the man has always worshipped at the altar of God-given sports ability. Jerry’s ego is roughly the size of Canada, Texas and China combined, and even he recognizes where he “fits” with football talent like Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, DeMarcus Ware, Larry Allen, and Zack Martin.
On Wednesday morning at The Star in Frisco, Jerry sat with son Stephen Jones next to Martin, who announced his retirement from the NFL He will be a first ballot selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Famously, Jerry had some doubts when Stephen and the Cowboys’ scouting staff wanted to select the guard from Notre Dame in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft rather than Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.
Jerry yielded to the other voices in the room, and when it quickly became apparent that not only was Martin the better selection than Manziel but one of the best offensive lineman ever, the Cowboys did what a team should do: Built around him.
While the Cowboys celebrated Martin, 26 miles to the south of The Star the Mavericks wade through a cesspool that their GM created because he refused to “figure it out” with his most talented player.
In the month since Harrison and the Mavs traded Luka to the Lakers, the state of the franchise has collapsed in a way that has no precedent. The Mavs will have made the NBA Finals in one year to missing the playoffs, and play-in, the next.
With an owner who has supported his GM to run the basketball part of the basketball team, this is on Harrison.
The details, and smear campaign, that have leaked out since the trade made it clear that Harrison was sick of Luka Doncic; that the two never established a relationship, certainly not like the one the GM has with Kyrie Irving.
After the Mavs announced that Irving is out for the year because of a torn ACL he suffered this week, Harrison released a glowing statement about a player he has known since Irving was a teenager on the AAU circuit.
Doncic’s diet and practice habits may have frustrated Harrison, but it was his job to figure it out. A player like Doncic does not come around but maybe once or twice in the history of a franchise.
Rather than recognize what was possible, and working, Harrison committed the same mistake Jerry made with Jimmy, and Jerry Krause made with Michael Jordan.
The ego may have won, but the team lost.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 4:21 PM.
