In full scenes of Nico Harrison's turbulent season, Dallas Mavericks - The Athletic

How are all the requirements in Dallas under Nico Harrison, and who is now the best influence in the organization?

Patrick Dumont passes the American Airlines Center four hours before tip-off with two hours to go.

I felt like a show of strength and muscle of the Dallas Mavericks Governor, as Dumont was there in his team's game against the Milwaukee Bucks to bring a boom on someone.But before doing so, Dumont was shown regret in a courtroom interview with Nicholas Dickas-Disk

Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison presented the trade idea to Dumont, who approved it.

Two hundred and eighty-two days later, after the incessant chants of "Fire Nico" poured from the roof at the Mavericks' home games, missing the playoffs, three injuries to the star that Harrison traded for Doncic, a stroke of luck in the draft lottery and after a disappointing start to this season, Dumont was ready to move on from his GM.

When Dumont visited Dallas on Monday morning, league sources said plans to fire Harrison were already underway.There were more "fire Nico" chants during the Mavericks' loss to the Bucks on Monday night.Early Tuesday morning, word began to spread that Harrison was done.The Mavericks made the announcement official in a press release at 11:24 a.m.

It's a humbling time for Dumont, his wife, Sivan, and her mother, Miriam Adelson — the ownership group that bought a majority stake in the Mavs from Mark Cuban for $3.5 billion in 2023 and is in control when the team reaches the NBA Finals in 2024. Just two years later, Doncic is averaging 37 points per game with the Mavs, one point adrift.Harrison is unemployed.

In the immediate aftermath of what is considered one of the worst trades in league history, Dumont showed almost blind faith in Harrison.

"We believe in Nico," "We appealed to the drum.

How did Dumont come to the conclusion, over the course of nine months, that he was ready to unceremoniously dump Harrison?

Injuries to key players were undoubtedly a factor.But Harrison harmed his own position by making bad appointments;creating and fanning the flames of a public relations crisis;And, most of all, shows poor decision making in basketball.The Mavs put a roster on the field to start the season that was sorely lacking in offensive playmakers, which stymied the offense and led the team to the bottom of the Western Conference.

Had they not said goodbye to a generational talent who was one of the best of all time.

"It's a lost cause," said a senior league source who was told why Harrison was fired.

The mavericks are not only 3-8 overall, 2-5 at home and in 14 years for the year in the West.

They are injured, unlucky and playing through a barrier in their home arena.On Monday, Mavs Mavs P.J.Washington tied the game in all three shots and had to shoot them, and the fans had to shoot them as they counted "Fire Nico."He missed his second attempt, ruining any real opportunity, and Dallas extended the game and extended it.Washington took the blame, but individually, but individually, other Mavericks players so far this season, it's been easier for them to play on the road than at home.

Monday's loss to the Bucks was the sixth straight game Davis missed with a left calf strain.Multiple league sources said Davis tried to convince the Mavs to let him return to the field and Harrison urged him to return, but the team's medical staff ruled that out, citing the possibility of a ruptured Achilles tendon if Davis returned too soon.

Kyrie Byrte was arrested with ACL ACL suffered in March, Player Harrison, with the help of coach Jason Kaeder, Forrison signed D'Anriz Jusplize, compared to coach Jason Kaeder.Faberg, 6-Foot-9 Duke never wanted to do college, the Mavs, he didn't want to do it in the mavs and it was bad.

Heading into Wednesday's game against the Phoenix Suns, Maviicks's numbers were last in the NBA in scoring percentage and 3-pointers.Russell shot 27.8 percent from 3, while the field is the season Play Thompson made 26.7 percent of shots from outside.Thompson started his first 79 games with the Mavericks, but by week Mend started to lead to the bench.

With losing, the injured and negative resources, a lion reasons, a lion dumps dumonst to his team in the first.Cuba, was a Submit, that was it, cleaned the group, cleaned the Harrison, let Hanal, to cause him after the elder transaction.

Cuban, reached by email, declined to comment to The Athletic.

The same hypothesis, from a different perspective, was made by Kidd and other team officials loyal to the coach.While it is unclear whether Kidd ever made a direct appeal to Dumont to remove Harrison, Kidd clearly disagreed with Harrison being on the roster.In Dallas' first seven games this season, Kidd has opted not to deploy a traditional point guard.In the Mavericks' second game of the season, Kidd played surprisingly well.with undrafted Ryan Nembhard getting more minutes than Russell.

Last summer, Kidd considered leaving the Mavericks to coach the New York Knicks.There was interest between the two sides, league officials said, but the Mavericks refused to fire the kid and rewarded him with an extension.That gave Kidd the power to have any disagreements with his front office.He had more years left on his contract than any of them.

That's how Ralph Green Jr., a former Nike executive who spent 22 years at the company, remembered Harrison from his youth.

Those were the words Russell used to describe Harrison in September at Mavericks Media Day.

Although people in the basketball world saw Harrison as a smooth operator behind the scenes, in public, Harrison often came across as awkward and clumsy, which made him the target of criticism and ultimately blame.

Business Dream and Olympic and Olympic Gold Medalist "Defense" win over Hanrist's Egyptian champion at DaCis.

That message didn't sit well with the Mavericks fan base, which saw a team built around Dirk Nowitzki, one of the best offensive players in league history, win a championship in 2011. Davis is a 6-10 big man with quick feet who can protect the rim and defend on the perimeter, a figure Harrison probably compared favorably to Doncic with that term "defensive." But that didn't pan out, as Davis, who was injured when the trade wascompleted, was injured again in his first game with the Mavericks on February 8 and missed the next 18 games.

In June, with the Mavs not only missing the playoffs but also losing Irving for the foreseeable future, Harrison addressed the media on draft night.The Mavericks just selected Cooper Flagg No. 1 overall, earning the right to receive the NBA draft lottery thanks to a miracle.Harrison delivered two lines - "Fortune favors the brave" and the declaration that "fans are finally starting to see the vision" - which angered Mavericks fans even more.Harrison seemed to take credit for his lottery luck in Dallas, which Mavericks fans felt was unfair.

The Mavericks' public message has been a problem for some time.Back in February 2024, the team hired a new head of public relations with no prior experience in the field, Victoria Martinez, who came from the FBI.In the federal government, Martinez's area of ​​expertise is counterterrorism.

The meeting of the April team of the April team is one of the most high-profile.Harrion spoke with CEO Rick on the website, but the maricks absickers said that the meeting itself is not allowed.

Five days before media day in September, the Mavericks fired Martinez as part of a department-wide restructuring.Colleagues believe Martinez was set up to fail.She was hired without any experience and then asked to handle the cleaning duties after the donk trade.

Multiple team sources told The Athletic it was part of a larger pattern of poor hiring practices and a perceived lack of accountability on Harrison's part.As ESPN first reported, Harrison was forced to fire director of athletic performance Keith Belton last May after failing to obtain proper certification from the American Strength and Conditioning Association.Earlier in the season, Belton had a heated argument with one of his bosses about Dereck Lively II's return to the court.The incident was serious enough to require the intervention of human resources.

Many employees responded to the vote by saying that in addition to hiring unqualified people for important positions, Harrison gave no opportunity to anyone who disagreed with the way things were done.Long-term director of health and operations Casey Smith remained on the job until weeks before the start of the 2022-24 season.Smith was highly respected throughout the NBA and had strong relationships on the court.

"If you hurt Nico's sensibilities in any way, that's it," one former team employee told The Athletic."He's a sensitive guy."

How much damage Doncic caused to the business — both to the organization and to the All-Star players involved — won't be known for years.Still, while Irving enjoyed some good moments before it all fell apart and the Mavs ran until the 2024 Finals with Doncic as he rehabbed his reputation, the same can't be said for Davis and Thompson.

For Thompson, the 35-year-old who left Golden City Wars in the summer of 2024 for a chance to play for the title, he finds himself in a worse competitive situation than the one he left.Additionally, one specific issue that has caused such division between him and his former Warriors is that Thompson is on the bench as the sixth man.And the irony of it all, when it comes to the free agency pick that landed him in Dellas, is that you're probably only playing with it if it happens.

As reported at the time, the Lakers and Thompson discussed a four-year, $80 million deal in free agency - if the Warriors cooperated in a sign-and-trade - a three-year, $50 million deal from which the Mavericks would eventually walk away.But the allure of Donnie's greatness was a big draw, as was the chance to go with Irving in the backcourt.Given the choice between working together, Thompson calculated to go with the latter.Little did he know that the transfer of the upcoming star player would leave him on the wrong end of Hoops history.

Davis, 32, is currently the center of speculation across the league.He has two seasons left on his current contract, a player option worth $62.8 million through the 2027-28 season, but is eligible for a three-year extension worth about $218.5 million this summer.That's the same contract Irving agreed to with Davis (which includes a player option for $42.4 million in 2027-28).In this situation.

Yet Dallas has been lured downfield this season, as the 2026 first-round pick is the last of its first-rounders with full control through 2031. Reinvesting so heavily in their older stars as a result likely creates serious complications that could force them to make a trade.However, the first thing Dumont needs to do is decide what kind of front office decisions will be made in the future.

Meanwhile, Harrison's former co-chairs Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi have been promoted to interim co-general managers.Finley, 52, a 15-year NBA player who spent most of his career with the Mavericks, is best known as a manager for knocking the beer out of Doncic's hands during the team's celebration for reaching the Finals in 2024.League sources said he was, at least initially, reluctant to accept the promotion.

Riccardi, 39, is a former front office member of the Brooklyn Nets who joined the Mavericks in 2022 and was promoted by Harrison to assistant general manager the following year.If Riccardi is promoted to Harrison's full-time successor, it would be a clear sign of Kidd's influence over Dumont in the organization, league sources said.

Another potential replacement for Harrison is Dennis Lindsey, who currently serves as Trajan Langdon's second-in-command in the Pistons' front office.Lindsey was an adviser to Harrison in Dallas in 2023-24, and is, according to league sources, the preferred choice of Cuban.Dumont.

Nine months ago, Harrison was the only Harrison Dumont was listening to.Maybe the Governor of Mavericks heard Harrison and understood that February day, the next day, forty-four years later.

Harrison didn't take long.