LA QUINTA: LEGENDS OF THE SEVEN

The Mavs hired GM Nico Harrison in 2021, but he and the team parted ways on Tuesday after 4-plus seasons together.

The Dallas Mavericks announced GM Nico Harrison has been relieved of his duties as general manager, team governor Patrick Dumont said Tuesday.

The Mavs have appointed Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi as co-interim general managers as the team will begin a “comprehensive search” for a permanent replacement.

The Mavs hired Harrison in 2021, announcing his addition to the team on the same day they announced the hiring of coach Jason Kidd. Harrison oversaw the team and its rise behind its then-star, Luka Dončić, as the Mavs made the NBA Finals in 2024. Dallas lost the series 4-1, but seemingly had a bright future with Dončić and other key players in tow.

However, Harrison and the Mavs stunned the NBA world last season when Dončić was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster, three-team trade in early February.

Harrison later said he miscalculated the depth of love his club’s fans had for Dončić before the trade that sent the young superstar to the Lakers for Anthony Davis. But despite the persistent catcalls from fans for him to be fired in the months since the deal, Harrison said he believed that trade was the right move for building a championship contender in Dallas.

“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said during his season-ending news conference in late April. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”

Dumont’s hope for goodwill with the fans never came, even after Dallas landed No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg with just a 1.8% chance to win the draft lottery.

There have been plenty of empty seats in the upper deck of American Airlines Center this season, something not seen consistently since 2018, when the Mavericks traded up to get Dončić with the third overall pick.

Harrison was in his fourth season and had engineered three trades that helped the Mavs go on a run to the Western Conference Finals in 2022 and the NBA Finals two years later.

The Dončić trade and a slow start to the first full season without the young superstar led to a stunning downfall. Dallas is 3-8, and Davis has missed six of the 11 games with a calf injury.

Dumont approved Harrison’s decision to trade Dončić, which kept the Mavericks from having to commit to a $346 million, five-year supermax extension for the Slovenian star.

The slow, injury-plagued start to this season for the Mavericks coincided with Dončić joining Wilt Chamberlain as the only NBA players to open a season with three consecutive games of at least 40 points.

The hiring of Harrison was the first step in trying to restore stability after former general manager Donnie Nelson was fired, and then Rick Carlisle resigned as coach a day later. Nelson and Carlisle had been together for 13 years.

Harrison hired Kidd as coach, and the Mavericks reached the Western Conference Finals in their first season together after Harrison’s first blockbuster trade.

He broke up the European pairing of Dončić and Kristaps Porziņģis and got Spencer Dinwiddie, who played a key supporting role with Dončić as the Mavericks stunned Phoenix with a Game 7 blowout in the West Semifinals before losing to Golden State in five games.

A year later, Dinwiddie was part of the next blockbuster trade, which brought Kyrie Irving from Brooklyn. The Mavericks faltered the rest of that season largely because of injuries, but they reached their first NBA Finals in 13 years in 2023-24, led by the pair of star guards.

Cuban sold the Mavericks to the Las Vegas-based casino families of Dumont and Miriam Adelson just a few months before the run to the NBA Finals. He said at the time of the sale that he would maintain control of basketball operations, but that didn’t happen.

Dumont quickly put full control of the basketball side in the hands of Harrison, who saw Davis as a championship-caliber player in the mold of Bryant. Davis won a title with LeBron James and the Lakers in 2020.

Cuban criticized the trade of Dončić, saying he never would have approved it and adding that he didn’t think Dallas got enough in return. Months later, though, Cuban credited Harrison for his salary cap management.

Harrison spent 19 years in Nike’s basketball division, and before his time with Dallas was vice president of North American operations. He worked closely with many of the brand’s stars, including the late Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

After a year at Army, Harrison played his final three seasons at Montana State before a seven-year pro career in Belgium. He went to work for Nike after his playing career ended.