GM Nico Harrison Had Simple Message to Mavs Fans Frustrated Over Luka Doncic Trade

Harrison believes winning cures all woes and said as much to anybody unhappy the franchise traded Luka.
Luka Doncic will be missed, but Nico Harrison believes winning cures all woes
Luka Doncic will be missed, but Nico Harrison believes winning cures all woes / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
In this story:

Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison faced the music on Sunday and spoke to media after trading away franchise superstar Luka Doncic in exchange for Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis, among other pieces.

He was asked what he'd say to "frustrated" Mavericks fans who are up in arms over his decision to ship out Doncic, 25 years old and already a perennial MVP candidate. He sent a simple message to those fans: winning cures all.

"I’m sorry they are frustrated," Harrison said to The Athletic's Christian Clark. "It’s something we believe in as an organization that’s going to make us better. We believed it sets us up to win not only now but in the future. And when we win, I believe the frustration will go away."

A lot of confidence in that quote. Harrison, obviously, believes the addition of Davis and his All-NBA-caliber defense will offset the loss of Doncic's All-NBA production offensively. And, ultimately, he may very well be right; if Dallas can muster up enough offense between AD and Kyrie Irving every night, they'll be tough to beat. Especially in a seven-game series.

Still, such promises mean little to the legions of fans who believed they'd be rooting for Doncic for a long time. It will be a while before the fanbase gets over his loss— if they ever do.


More of the Latest Around the NBA


Published
Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.