Dirk Nowitzki ‘turned off’ by Mavs after $32 billion owners froze him out

Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki publicly criticized the Nico Harrison's decision to trade Luka Doncic.

Dirk Nowitzki ‘turned off’ by Mavs after $32 billion owners froze him out

Dirk Nowitzki is annoyed with the Dallas Mavericks

Ever since the Dallas Mavericks traded away Luka Doncic, fans have turned the heat on to Patrick Dumont and the Adelson family as well as GM Nico Harrison. Fans believe their collective logic to trade away a 26-year-old franchise cornerstone does not make sense from any angle.

Apparently, Harrison and new Mavs CEO Rick Welts met with a select group of Dallas based journalists earlier this week. That Q&A session was closed to the public and no cameras were allowed. The Mavs executives wanted to clear the air over why they chose to make the trade.

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However, in doing so, Harrison doubled down on the Doncic trade and claimed that he had ‘no regrets. He also referred to the logic of ‘defense wins championships’ whenever ESPN’s Tim MacMahon asked him about his logic behind the trade.

Now this behind-closed-doors session has caught the eye of many. Everyone is debating whether the Dallas Mavericks as an organization have a clue as to what they are doing. Tim MacMahon was on The Hoop Collective earlier and revealed how the current thinktank have kept franchise stalwarts in the dark.

First of all, Dirk is completely turned off by this franchise. I’ll have more on that situation coming out once they’re eliminated, probably Thursday morning. I asked, ‘Hey, why not seek Dirk’s input? Why not seek [Mark] Cuban’s input? He said, ‘If they’re not in the building, they don’t know what’s going on.’

Tim MacMahon said

The Dallas based journalist believes Nico Harrison and the owners have frozen franchise legend Dirk Nowitzki and minority owner Mark Cuban out of any decision-making process. MacMahon is continuing to dig into this situation and will report in a few days.

What Nico Harrison said about Dirk Nowitzki’s involvement

Tim MacMahon and other Dallas reporters were trying to figure out why Harrison and the Mavericks did not receive significant draft capital after trading Luka Doncic. But they were not getting any answers. MacMahon then asked Harrison what he had to say to Dirk Nowitzki who publicly criticized the trade.

My obligation is to the Dallas Mavericks, it’s what’s the best interest of the Dallas Mavericks, and that’s the most important thing. Some of those decisions are going to be unpopular maybe to Dirk and maybe to the fans, but my obligation is to the Dallas Mavericks.

Nico Harrison said

This seemingly confirms that the Dallas Mavericks did not want to involve the franchise legend into the decision. Mark Cuban pointed out that he was just informed by Harrison about the trade. Even though he objected to it, he had no say considering he had no operational control.

Mavs owners making Nico Harrison take the heat

When this discussion reached First Take, Stephen A. Smith was livid at Nico Harrison’s logic, or lack of that. He was baffled that they had no answer to when pressed about not netting additional draft capital or players they could build on.

In that discussion, renowned ESPN journalist Brian Windhorst was also present. As soon as he started speaking on the topic, he informed the panel that Tim MacMahon clarified the Dallas Mavericks owners asked Harrison to do the press conference.

As per Windhorst, this makes it clear that even though the $32 billion owners are calling the shots, they are making Nico Harrison take the heat for it. They are paying him a lot of money to do his job. That makes him the Guinea pig.