The Luka Doncic commerce was not a standalone occasion of Mavericks normal supervisor Nico Harrison betraying these within the group.
In response to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and a protracted record of Mavericks sources who chimed in to him, the drama inside the franchise dates all the way in which again to August 2023, when Harrison fired a longtime Mavericks staffer, Casey Smith, who was shut with each Dirk Nowitzki and Doncic.
Nevertheless it wasn’t simply that Harrison let go a trusted member of the group, he did so whereas Smith was out of the state tending to his gravely unwell mom within the closing weeks of her life.
With Smith being in his hometown in Ohio and Harrison being again in Dallas, the previous wasn’t capable of meet in individual, resulting in Harrison establishing a name during which he fired Smith — seemingly out of nowhere.
Smith labored for the Mavericks for practically twenty years — he started because the Mavericks’ head athletic coach in 2004 earlier than making his approach as much as Dallas’ director of well being and efficiency years later.
Nowitzki, who’s broadly thought of the best Maverick of all time, credited Smith for contributing so considerably to the German huge man’s prolonged 21-year profession. Nowitzki thought of Smith to be certainly one of his greatest pals.
Since Smith’s firing, Nowitzki has been noticeably distant from the Mavericks.
He’s attended simply two NBA video games because the blockbuster commerce Harrison executed at this yr’s deadline: Doncic’s first as a Laker and the Slovenian star’s first sport again in Dallas.
Nowitzki additionally used to steadily attend practices and supply workforce enter, however opted to now not be concerned within the internal workings of basketball operations after Smith’s firing.
“Over the past year, you could already see the team heading in a different direction,” Nowitzki mentioned in German not too long ago on the “Campus 41” podcast. “Now we’re seeing the result of that.”
Doncic was broadly anticipated to be the one to dethrone Nowitzki as the best Maverick of all time and was additionally shut with Smith — he was one of many few Mavericks workers members who was capable of join with Doncic when he got here to Dallas from Europe as simply an adolescent.
Harrison reasoned the firing by saying that Smith was “too negative,” which many inside the workforce interpreted as Harrison wanting extra of a “yes-man” within the position.
“[Harrison] was 100 percent threatened by [Smith],” a supply advised ESPN. “[Harrison’s] going to show that [he’s] in charge and nobody else can question that.”
Harrison, who traded Doncic because of his frustrations with the famous person’s conditioning, believed that Smith was an “enabler” of Doncic.
“You bringing up Casey [Smith] is like almost, it’s kind of a joke,” Harrison mentioned final week. “Last year, Casey wasn’t around, and we made it to the Finals. No one brought up Casey last year. So, to bring him up this year doesn’t really make sense. He’s been away for two years. So it’s — I’m not even going to comment on that.”
Smith now works with the Knicks as their vp of sports activities drugs, reuniting him with former Maverick Jalen Brunson.
