Mavericks GM ‘didn’t know exactly how important Luka Doncic was for the fans

General Manager of Dallas Mavericks, Nico Harrison, gave an interesting entry on Monday when he spoke to reporters about his decision to act the fan favorite Luka Doncic in the Lakers in February.

No, Harrison did not admit that the move was a mistake. On the contrary, he stood closely to his explanation “Defense Wins Championships” that he did the deal that sent Doncic to Los Angeles and brought Elite defender Anthony Davis to Dallas.

But after more than two months by Mavericks fans, Harrison asked for his release – in a very loud and visible way – that he had underestimated the outrage that surprise trade would cause.

“I knew that Luka was important for the fan base,” said Harrison, a former long-time Nike manager, whose fourth season ended with the Mavericks on Friday with a defeat against the Memphis Grizzlies. “I didn’t know exactly what level.”

During his six season, the 26-year-old Doncic became popular with the organization in the Dallas fan base, which made the all-star game five times and led the Mavericks to the NBA final 2024. If Harrison did not recognize the adoration of the fans for the Slovenian superstar before trade, he will certainly do it now.

“If you have 20,000 people in the stadium and sing” Fire Nico “, you really feel it,” said Harrison. “I mean, it is – I use the word ‘fantastic’, but not positive. How can you really feel how you feel.

“But my job is to make decisions that I believe in the best interest of this organization, and I have to stand by the decisions and some of them will be unpopular. This was clearly one that is unpopular.”

Harrison said he thought – and still thinking – the fans would have taken a friendlier to hand over such a loved one if they were able to see his and the “vision” of the organization of Five of Davis, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington and Dereck Lively II.

Instead, a rush of injuries prevented them from summarizing the soil at all.

“Really, as we looked at it, was when you put a team on the floor, the Kyrie, Klay, PJ, Anthony Davis and Lively, have the feeling that this is a team for championship calibers, and we would have gained at a high level, and that had learned some of the outrage about the outrage.

Harrison added that he would expect the core team to be back next season and “fight for a championship”.

“I think winning will help repair the relationship with the fans, and we plan to do that,” he said.

Harrison spoke at a press conference six days after he and the CEO of the team, Rick Welts, carried out a circular tablest discussion with a small, selected group of media members. These reporters were not allowed to bring cameras and it was initially announced that they could not bring audio recording devices, although they were only allowed to record the meeting for transcription purposes.

The purpose of the roundtable was to close the Doncic situation, but Harrison admitted on Monday that this did not happen.

“The goal was that I answered all (DONCIC) questions (Sun) that I could talk about the team today as it is at the moment and then what we are doing in the future,” said Harrison. “But because it was a good thing, I basically answer the same questions that I answered last week because we didn’t do well enough.”

During the Roundtable event, Harrison repeatedly fell back to the mantra “Defense Wins Championships” as an explanation for trading with Doncic. During an interview with Malika Andrews von ESPN, which was broadcast on Friday, Doncic was asked about Harrison’s comments.

“It’s just sad as he is talking about,” said Doncic. “I never say anything bad about him and I just want to keep going. The fans, my ex-teammates, I will always stay in my heart. It’s time for myself to continue from there.”

Harrison said of Doncic’s comment and said: “I feel the same way. I have never actually spoken of Luka at all, and I am only ready to continue with this team that we have.”

For Harrison and the Mavericks, the opportunity to continue, will only progress in the next season. Doncic, on the other hand, has the opportunity to take a further step in this process, while the Lakers organize the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday evening with the chance to bind their playoff series in the first round in one win.

La fans seem to know how important Doncic is to possibly achieve this.