Klay Thompson says the words that would save Nico Harrison's reputation

What if the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Finals? Really think about it for a second. How would that impact Nico Harrison's reputation after the Luka Doncic trade? Klay Thompson believes this Mavs team has a chance to do that, as he said pretty plainly during Mavericks media day, "Once we get Kyrie back, I don't see why we can't win the whole thing."

Let's assume the Mavs do win it all... A fun assumption, I know!

Would Harrison suddenly be back in the good graces of fans? I don't believe even a title would completely rehabilitate his image, to be frank. Mavs fans will never fully forgive Harrison and that's his own fault. I'm definitely not trying to convince you to forgive him, by the way. You shouldn't.

But lucking into a championship is infinitely better than purposefully building a team that doesn't win the championship, right? Frankly, I don't care if my team's GM is spinning around 10 times then throwing a dart at a board to determine which player to acquire if that player ends up being incredible. I would prefer that scenario never happen in the first place, but you get what I'm saying.

The whole point of being a GM is to build a roster that wins the NBA Finals. And if the Mavs win it all like Thompson thinks they can, wouldn't that mean Nico Harrison technically did his job well?

I guess that depends on how much you value what is "important" about sports, which is winning, versus how much you value what is actually important about sports, which is the community it brings — and which Nico Harrison tried to effectively dismantle by trading Luka.

Klay Thompson believes the Mavericks can win the NBA Finals

Is he right? In other words, is this thought experiment even worth undergoing? Well, that's the big question, of course. The Mavericks don't have any glaring holes on their roster, and when Kyrie does return, there's some real star power on top.

For the record, Mavs fans don't have to "choose sides" here. They can root for the current team to succeed while still harboring disdain for Nico Harrison for what he did — even if he lucked into a good Mavericks team in 2025-26 that at least one player believes can compete for a championship. Because even if he built a contender by accident, he still traded Luka on purpose, and I don't know if any amount of future team success will allow that to be forgotten. But a championship might help.