A year later, everyone was right about the Luka Dončić trade except for Nico Harrison

It really doesn’t feel like the Luka Dončić trade was only one year ago Sunday. It just can’t be 12 months since the Dallas Mavericks pulled the most shocking trade in NBA history, a move that permanently altered the course of two franchises. It can’t be 365 days since the news broke in the middle of the night that, yes, Nico Harrison really did that.

And yet, it is. We have reached the anniversary of the deal that sent Dončić (plus Markieff Morris and Maxi Kleber) to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick in 2029.

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You probably know how that worked out.

It might feel long ago because the trade has already been chiseled into NBA lore as a complete catastrophe, a story of hubris and jealousy ripped from the theater of ancient Greece. There is already a beginning (the trade), a middle (the surprise hope of Mavs rookie Cooper Flagg after a disappointing end to the season) and an end (Harrison’s firing).

It is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight that trading Dončić — and trading Dončić in the way the Mavericks did, in the dead of night with no teams to bid against the Lakers — was a stupid move.

The funny thing is no one needed the benefit of hindsight to call that move dumb the second it was reported. Immediate reactions to the trade ranged from shocked to dumbfounded to enraged, with little support for the Mavs’ side of the deal.

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There was, of course, one proponent of the deal for Dallas. Harrison defended the trade for months, right up until his firing in November. He acted like a man with “Fargo’s” “What if you’re right and they’re wrong?” poster hanging in his office.

Unfortunately, this is a case where they (meaning everyone) were right and Harrison was wrong.

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To understand just how wrong Harrison was about this trade, let’s revisit his stated justifications for the trade, as well as the ones leaked by a Mavericks front-office employee who may or may not have been Harrison. The reasons broke down into the following points:

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We could interrogate those further, and also…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/a-year-later-everyone-was-right-about-the-luka-doncic-trade-except-for-nico-harrison-192508169.html

Author : Jack Baer

Publish date : 2026-01-31 19:25:00

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