It's been a chaotic season for the Dallas Mavericks, who have been mired in the trade rumor mill, watched Cooper Flagg blossom into an emerging star, and fired general manager Nico Harrison, all within a couple of months. This weekend marked the one-year anniversary of Harrison's infamous trade of Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, a move that ultimately cost him his job earlier this year.
Recently, NBA insider Marc Stein wrote a retrospective piece about the trade and its fallout on his Substack, and he revealed that Harrison wanted no part of the proceedings.
“I reached out to (Harrison) this week to share that I was doing a One Year Later piece in hopes of getting a quote or two. We indeed connected but he declined comment,” reported Stein.
When Harrison completed the trade of Doncic to the Lakers, which brought back Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and draft compensation, he immediately etched his name in professional sports infamy, robbing Mavericks fans of the star they had watched blossom into a future Hall of Famer since they traded for him on draft night in 2018.
One year later, it's still hard to fathom exactly what was running through Harrison's mind when he decided to make the move.
Yes, there are still questions about Doncic's defensive effort, volatile personality, and his conditioning, all of which the Lakers have been hard at work to address. However, this was a superstar just entering the prime years of his career, who had just led the Mavericks on a run to the NBA Finals less than a year earlier, and just like that, he was suiting up for the purple and gold.
It remains to be seen whether Harrison will ever speak out again on his thought process for the trade, or if any team will offer him a job moving forward, considering the severe hit his reputation has taken.
