Fire Nico!
This slogan that resounded throughout the American Airlines Center in Dallas finally came true after 9 months and 9 days. The Dallas Mavericks announced on their official website that they have officially parted ways with Nico Harrison.
In this announcement, there is only a pale and calm sentence about this personnel appointment and dismissal:
"Dallas Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont announced today that Nico Harrison will be dismissed as the team's general manager and chief basketball operations officer. The position will be laid off, effective immediately. "
No politeness, no thanks. This can be said to be very rare in the personnel appointment and dismissal announcements of the four major American leagues. It usually only occurs when employees commit major dereliction of duty or violate discipline.
So the attitude of Dumont, the owner of the Mavericks, is also obvious-when local fans in Dallas take the suspension of the 24-year consecutive sell-out record as a wake-up call, Dumont must draw a clear line with Nico Harrison, and he cannot wait for a moment.
Or you can also say...
Dumont finally regained his senses.
Not long ago, Dumont was photographed sitting and chatting with Doncic fans wearing Lakers jerseys.
At the press conference to trade Doncic, Harrison laughed to himself, and Kidd next to him looked livid. The reporter described him as " "An extremely depressing nine minutes." Harrison not only emphasized that others on the team, including Kidd, had no knowledge of the transaction, but also openly admitted that the boss was surprised at the trade proposal at first and "even laughed at the idea," but in the end "he was convinced" and approved the deal.
Yes, even Cuban, the junior boss who thought he was still in the decision-making circle, only learned about it after the deal was completed. And when he urgently called Harrison and tried to ask the other party to withdraw the transaction, the reply he received was "the transaction has been completed and cannot be changed."
At least all the sources at the time, the oral accounts of the parties, and the conversation between Shams and Stephen A. Smith can support each other: the person who planned, promoted and was responsible for the entire transaction was Nico Harrison himself, and Dumont only approved the transaction at the end.
Therefore, at this moment, the new boss of Dallas was engraved in the minds of fans as an incredible idiot.
Dumont originally thought he could stay out of the matter. However, amidst the shouts of Fire Nico, Dumont clearly found that he had been bound to Harrison. The fans' anger was not only directed at Nico but also towards him. Dumont revealed that he didn't understand it at first, but later gradually realized that many fans believed that the two of them were a team, and they collaborated to plan Doncic's transaction.
After nine months, Dumont made his choice - he would rather admit that he was stupid and be deceived than be recognized as stupid and bad - at least it was the lesser of two evils.
The more important point is that Dumont originally had no strong binding relationship with Harrison: Harrison was hired by Cuban in the summer of 2021, and Dumont was officially approved by the NBA Board of Governors on December 27, 2023 to become the team owner. In fact, Dumont and Harrison really started to cooperate in the 2023-24 season, when the Dallas Mavericks broke out of the Western Conference and reached the Finals.
Cuban's original agreement with the Dumont family was that he could continue to "operate the team" and did not give a time for leaving office. In Cuban's imagination, Harrison is in charge of everything, and he has the final say. It makes little difference whether he sells the team or not. But he never thought that this person with whom he had a short two-year honeymoon would quickly switch camps and easily squeeze him out.
According to Cuban, he later revealed that he originally wanted to write his continued operation of the team into the contract, but Harrison persuaded him that "the league will not approve it, but it can continue to operate." Later, he directly cited the rules: Cuban could not operate because he had no authority in the management. With such a simple two mutually exclusive rules, Cuban was easily kicked out, and Cuban could only suffer the disadvantage of being dumb and unable to find anyone to reason with.
So, the reason why Harrison persuaded Dumont to kick Cuban out was that he could not let others spend his money to support the team. What about Harrison himself, who was spending money and ruining the reputation of the boss?
No matter how Harrison and his supporters defend themselves, the Mavericks after trading Doncic have been shrouded in a strange atmosphere.
On February 2, the Mavericks traded Doncic to the Lakers. Grimes played in the home game against the Cavaliers, and then they will face the 76ers. According to Grimes himself in an interview, the atmosphere in the team was extremely depressing after the trade. Everyone was taboo to talk about this topic, but there was no communication between them. Grimes said he met Harrison in the passage and asked him face-to-face the topic of the transaction, but Harrison looked livid and did not give him a clear answer.
But Grimes's ability to ask this question had obviously touched Harrison's "reverse scale", or his "bottom line" at the moment. So during the pre-game training that day, Grimes was informed that there was no need to continue training, and the deal was completed.
Grimes + 2025 second round (No. 35 pick Bloom), in exchange for the 76ers' Kaleb Martin - since the team is in Philadelphia, Grimes does not even have to return to Dallas and joins the opponent directly on the spot..
Under Fire Nico’s message, Cuban gave a like.
There are no regrets about the medicine, but luckily they did the right thing.
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(Text/Wen Ruo)
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