Dear Nico Harrison: You traded Luka Doncic and Mavericks fans will never forgive you

Heading into their Wednesday night matchup versus the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks are currently the 10th seed in the Western Conference at 38-41 with just three games remaining in the regular season. Dallas is poised to play the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Play-In Tournament once their season wraps up, but whether the Mavericks will wield home-court advantage or not will depend on whether they finish with a better record than the Kings. This is a wild turn of events for a team that made the NBA Finals last June to be clawing for home-court advantage in the play-in, but Dallas' season going down the drain can be attributed to one man.

Dear Nico Harrison,

You have selfishly and unequivocally managed to ruin Dallas Mavericks basketball for the entirety of this season, and potentially for the next 5-10 years.

This game versus the Lakers tonight has been long-awaited by many Mavericks fans, as well as many fans who abandoned their Mavericks fan card upon the Luka Doncic trade happening. Fans will finally get to see Luka Doncic back in the American Airlines Center in what projects to be one of the most emotional reunions for an opposing player and his former fanbase in the history of professional sports.

No one knows what to expect tonight in terms of how the game and fan reaction will combine together, and there are obviously a lot more unknowns heading into this game compared to a normal regular season contest. However, two things are certain: that being that Doncic will be doing anything in his power to destroy the Mavericks, and fans will be extremely happy to get to say a proper goodbye to the Slovenian superstar, as Doncic will likely get plenty of applause for every solid play he makes.

This all could've been avoided if Harrison hadn't made a one-sided power move to trade Doncic for Anthony Davis at the beginning of February, but he decided to throw Dallas' future into the trash for an injury-riddled 32-year-old star in Davis. Harrison blindsided Doncic and committed the biggest cardinal sin a GM could possibly make by not maximizing value for someone who is widely considered a top-three player in the league when he's hitting on all cylinders.

This isn't a slight against Davis or Max Christie, as they were not asked to be put into this situation or traded to the Mavericks whatsoever, but Harrison put himself and Dallas' organization in an irredeemable situation by making this move. Doncic was coveted in Dallas for leading the franchise to its first Finals appearance since 2011 and took the mantle from Dirk Nowitzki as the next face of the franchise.

Mavericks fans had the most reciprocated loyalty from almost any superstar in league history with Nowitzki, and they got to see another European superstar in Doncic carry the torch from Nowitzki in Doncic's rookie season and Nowitzki's final year. It was a picture-perfect setting for Doncic to bring multiple championships to Dallas, and he was a superstar who carried the same sense of loyalty that Nowitzki did, even if there wasn't a full guarantee he was going to stay in Dallas through his entire career.

Doncic obviously had some habitual issues that Dallas' organization has made sure to fully document post-trade, but none of these factors should have overridden what Doncic has brought to the franchise over the past seven seasons, and Harrison completely neglected all of this by making this trade. Harrison neglected fans' emotional attachment to a beloved figure and superstar in Dallas, the unfair backlash Davis would face for simply being the face of this return package, as well as Dallas' future, by making this move.

Whether or not Kyrie Irving tears his ACL on March 3 or not due to an increased workload without Doncic on the court, Dallas would be in a much better position now and for seasons to come if Doncic were still on the roster. There are no justifiable reasons as to why Harrison made this trade, even if the duo of Irving and Davis with a solid supporting cast can galvanize something special, like fans got a hint at on February 8 versus the Houston Rockets.

The Mavericks aren't better now by making this move, even if Irving was still healthy, and Harrison should've stayed strong on building a roster around Doncic versus outright trading him for differences that could've been worked through before coming to such a drastic decision at this stage in Doncic's career. There are obviously others to blame, such as Patrick Dumont, the Adelson family, and partially Mark Cuban, but Harrison was the main proprietor here, and it understandably doesn't seem like Mavericks fans will ever look past this franchise-compromising move.