When the Dallas Mavericks started their inaugural season in 1980, they knew a long-term project would need to take place for them to look like a relevant NBA team. With guys like Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper, and Brad Davis, the first player to have his number retired, they helped pave the way for Mark Cuban to eventually build an empire.
With Dallas being gifted with guys like Dirk Nowitzki and eventually Luka Doncic, the Mavs made the perfect transition to pass the torch from one European star to another. With Nowitzki making NBA history by playing 21 years with one team, it showed the Mavericks were all about loyalty, which unfortunately is uncommon in the NBA today.
After Doncic was traded, Nowitzki revealed that he wanted to be a mentor to Doncic. This would've continued the loyalty that the Mavs used to preach about. Now, with GM Nico Harrison running the show, it seems he's taken the loyalty out of the Mavericks long before the infamous Doncic trade. Harrison also has a history of revealing news at the worst possible time with no care in the world, particularly to his former longtime athletic trainer, Casey Smith.
Harrison fired beloved Mavs trainer when his mother was about to die
This was the start of a downward spiral for the Mavs that occurred way before the Doncic trade. Casey Smith was a longtime friend of Nowitzki and was present for the Mavericks' only championship in 2011.
In 2023, following the Mavs organization celebrating Nowitzki's Hall of Fame ceremony, Harrison informed Smith that they needed to meet. Smith couldn't meet because he wanted to be with his mother for the final weeks of her life. Rather than waiting a few days and allowing Smith to spend this heartbreaking time with his mother, Harrison said the meeting couldn't wait and fired Smith over a video call.
This was the first of destroying loyalty for the Mavericks. Nowitzki considered Smith a good friend, and Doncic also admired Smith. The writing was on the wall for the whole time for Harrison to massively change the identity of the organization. This is just a simple form of humanity to give someone time to process the loss of a family member, and unfortunately, Harrison couldn't even pass the humanity test.
Donnie Nelson, the former Mavs GM, made plenty of mistakes during his tenure, but he and Mark Cuban would've never thought about getting rid of Nowitzki or Doncic. When Nelson was let go, it was the start of Doncic becoming unhappy in Dallas, with Doncic revealing that the Mavs "get rid of everybody" that he likes. This trend continued with Smith and several other key figures.
Harrison doesn't realize what Mavs culture once represented, as he revealed in his end-of-season press conference that he never realized how important Doncic was to the fan base. He wasn't aware that trading a generational superstar would ignite this type of frustration. While Harrison trading Doncic was a surprise in itself, the fact that he couldn't wait for Smith to process his emotions about his ill mother was unbelievably wrong.
