The Dallas Mavericks made one of the more stunning moves by a professional sports team in recent memory when they traded the face of their franchise, 26-year-old Luka Doncic, to the Los Angeles Lakers in return for the often-injured Anthony Davis.
The move has earned the franchise the ire of its fanbase, and the man who orchestrated the trade is saying now that he didn’t anticipate how much Doncic meant to the fanbase.
“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said Monday during his season-ending news conference, following the Mavericks’ elimination following their defeat to the Memphis Grizzlies in the play-in tournament, according to ESPN. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”
Harrison feels that even after the trade, the Mavs were ready to compete at the highest level, before injuries to Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis completely derailed things.
“We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level, and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” Harrison said. “And so, unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that, so it just continued to go on and on.”
Doncic spoke earlier this week about his initial reaction to finding out he was traded.
“I was actually in the bed. My TV wasn’t working so I was on my iPad watching a movie about to go to sleep. First thing I said, probably three times, was, ‘Is this [an] April 1st [joke]?’
“Sadness, mostly. I was still in shock. Like, crazy shock. I felt like my heart was broken, honestly.”
If the Mavericks don’t completely turn things around next season, it’s hard to imagine Harrison will be employed for much longer or ever again after that.
