Earlier this week, the Dallas Mavericks finally did what fans had been pining for and fired general manager Nico Harrison. The move came nine months after Harrison disastrously decided to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, and has since watched his team stumble out of the gates to a 3-8 start this year, despite having lucked into Cooper Flagg in last season's draft lottery.
Some have wondered how much differently things would have gone on the Doncic front had Mark Cuban not sold the team to the Dumont family shortly prior, and recently, ESPN NBA insider Tim McMahon took to the Hoop Collective podcast to shed light on how Cuban could be stepping back into a bigger role within the organization now.
“It went from zero to something. Exactly what something is, I’m not sure. He’s no longer the world’s richest mascot only,” said McMahon.
“I’ll say this, he walked off the floor with Patrick Dumont after that loss to the Milwaukee Bucks Monday night,” he added.
An interesting change for the Mavericks
Mark Cuban was known to have been making many of the basketball decisions during his time as the majority owner of the Mavericks, which saw the team win an NBA championship in 2011 and also usher in the Luka Doncic era in the late 2010s.
Harrison's time as general manager immediately became a ticking time bomb the second he inexplicably decided to end that era in early February, and now that the team has not morphed into the championship contender he prophesied, Dallas had no choice but to pull the plug.
It remains to be seen what new role Cuban will have in the organization, considering that it is still run by the Dumont family. However, Mavericks fans will likely welcome any and all help from a familiar face at this point in time.
