It seems the tide may finally be turning on the Nico Harrison era of Dallas Mavericks basketball.
After months of outrage, protests, billboards, chants, and awkward public encounters with the Mavericks
GM, it seems the owner of the Dallas Mavericks has finally had enough.
Patrick Dumont has been largely silent since the infamous Luka Dončić trade, giving just two interviews nearly a month apart that largely stated that he stood behind his general manager’s decision. While there have been no public statements refuting that sentiment, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported on Monday that Dumont has begun inserting himself into roster decisions about the team, specifically the return of All-Star Anthony Davis.
Davis, per MacMahon’s reporting, was gearing up for a Saturday return against the Washington Wizards, before Dumont pulled the plug. MacMahon continued on Monday’s Hoop Collective Podcast, saying trust between Harrison and Dumont has been “completely disintegrated.”
“At this point, I believe it’s a matter of when, not if, Nico Harrison will be fired,” MacMahon said. “There is a very, very strong likelihood that will be in-season.”
While the timing is unknown and Harrison still has a chance to turn this ship — which Jason Kidd told his players was not burning after Wednesday’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans — around, it appears the Harrison era is ending in Dallas.
That begs the question: what next?
Fans will no doubt rejoice after the news. The team’s next home game will probably the loudest since the 2024 NBA Finals home games and the team may even offer an apology for the trade that shifted the team’s future and history. These moves will perhaps give fans closure over what happened, but the next GM will have a tall task in assembling a team that can actually consistently win games.
Perhaps, the move is to blow it all up. Trade Davis, Daniel Gafford — really anybody with trade value — and start over. Build around Flagg, Dereck Lively II, and other young pieces while using your last first round draft pick until 2031 to draft a co-star for Flagg.
That potentially resets the timeline and puts the Mavericks on pace to be competitive again by the end of the decade, but I don’t think that will satisfy fans.
The roster construction is what it is. No new GM can fix that, and no new GM can bring Luka Dončić back. The team has been hijacked, and it will take a long time to build back the love of the team that was built over the last two decades.
However, I do believe there is a path forward.
The Mavericks need to go back to what made them so easy to root for. It’s time to bring Dirk Nowitzki back.
I can hear the comments now: “oh here goes another Mavs fan thinking Dirk is the answer to everything.”
But this time, he is.
The Dallas Mavericks are not struggling to find fans because they’re losing games. The losing certainly doesn’t help, but the team’s core fandom has been around since 1980. They’ve seen some BAD seasons of Mavericks basketball. They’ve seen an 11-71 season — which was then immediately followed up with a 13-69 season. They then watched the Mavericks not get the No. 1 pick in either of those drafts.
This isn’t meant to be a “woe is me” piece about the Mavericks, but the fans have seen struggle and come out of it on the other side and Dirk Nowitzki is a shining example of why.
Dallas doesn’t have rows of banners on the AAC ceiling. They aren’t the Lakers or the Celtics or the Warriors, but the fanbase has ranked among the top of the league over the last two decades because of the brand of basketball Dirk ushered into this city and into fans’ hearts.
Even if you weren’t a Mavericks fan during the Nowitzki era, you wanted to root for him. He took pay cuts to help the team. He did the work to get better every season. He went through playoff heartbreak after playoff heartbreak and came out the other side better every year.
He never gave up. And right now, Dallas needs someone who won’t give up.
The fans need someone who will sit down and say “things are bad right now and I don’t know when they’re going to get better, but I know I’m going to be with you until things are okay again.”
If the next GM comes in and is only worried about how to win more games, they will be missing the forrest for the trees. The Dončić trade didn’t just hurt their basketball team; it hurt the city’s soul and I truly believe only one man can save us from the pain that we’ve been feeling over the last year.
Patrick Dumont, get out your checkbook, buy Dirk out of his Amazon Prime contract, and make him the face of this franchise as soon as humanly possible.
He’ll need a staff, one he can trust: get it for him.
This is the man you want, and he may not even want the job himself, but you have to get him to see how badly the city needs it, specifically how badly the city needs him.
