Nico Harrison's disastrous Mavericks hire nearly sparked an all-out brawl

The Dallas Mavericks have been in their quietest week of news since well before the Luka Doncic trade. While the after-effects of the Doncic trade are poised to simmer and ruin Dallas’ franchise for years to come, the Mavericks are getting a much-needed break from negative press after having been eliminated from playoff contention a little under two weeks ago.

This is great for Dallas’ players who fought valiantly amidst terrible circumstances to give the organization a chance at making the playoffs this season, but the dirt being dug up on the Doncic trade will truly see no end for the foreseeable future.

Perhaps one of the more critical pieces on the organization that has been published since the trade was written by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, but the piece was completely sourced and gave fans an accurate depiction of the 18-month-long behind-the-scenes events that led to Doncic eventually being shipped out from Dallas.

MacMahon’s piece delved deep into the organizational dysfunction that prompted the Doncic trade, with Nico Harrison being the primary driving factor in the events that led to Doncic eventually being traded. However, the piece also touched on the mismanagement of 21-year-old Dereck Lively II’s stress fracture in his ankle he sustained earlier this season. Lively II was listed as questionable on January 20 after missing the previous two games due to a right ankle sprain, and Lively II was subsequently taken through an “intense return-to-play workout” in hopes that he could ramp up for action versus the Minnesota Timberwolves two nights later.

Nico Harrison's Belton hire nearly spurred a disaster for the Mavericks

That didn’t end up being the case, though, as Mavericks trainer Keith Belton ended up being interjected in his course of action by Athletic Performance Director Johann Bilsborough. Bilsborough had reportedly seen the medical/training department be overtaken by Belton in certain instances, and the two staffers didn’t have a good working relationship according to the piece, even though they had only been hired by the Mavericks just before this season, as far as it seems.

Bilsborough cited that Lively II still may need a CT scan, and when the decision was made to do the scan, the Mavericks found Lively II had a stress fracture in his ankle. This reportedly led to Bilsborough and Belton getting into a heated brawl, which team sources described as “Not punches, but they were going at it.”

Fortunately, Lively II made a full recovery from injury, but this kind of dysfunction from a medical perspective isn’t the hallmark of a winning NBA franchise. The Mavericks had one of the best in the business from an athletic training standpoint with former staffer Casey Smith, but Harrison viewed Smith as an enabler for Doncic and his decision-making, and was subsequently removed from the organization and is now with the New York Knicks.

Bilsborough reportedly didn’t respect Belton’s acumen in the piece, and when Harrison was questioned by MacMahon about the handling of Lively II's injury at his closed-door presser a few weeks ago, he took a cop-out answer.

“It actually goes to show the strength of our medical team, because he was cleared to play, but his signs and symptoms where our medical team knew it was something more," Harrison said. "So that's why they went and tested them again and saw the CT scan, which they actually avoided a potential catastrophic injury. So you know, you will take the angle of being negative, but it's actually a positive thing, because they saw with the symptoms, even though he was cleared to play, they didn't feel right putting him on the floor.”

This answer from Harrison undermines the severity of the situation, as his medical team was nearly throwing hands, and Lively II could have been severely re-injured if Belton’s return-to-play plan slipped through the cracks. Belton reportedly was missing multiple certifications to be officially ratified as an NBA trainer, though there was an expectation from the league he’d receive those certifications by the end of the season, while his collegiate certifications were accepted in the meantime.

Clearly, Harrison should have evaluated the staff at hand here before forcing them to work in the same department. Bilsborough is a sports scientist from Australia, and Belton was a college fullback for Syracuse University in the early 2000s, and while that doesn’t denote them not getting along, they clearly have far different backgrounds and experiences, and Harrison should have done a better job at making them work in sync with each other. He hired Belton before Bilsborough, despite Belton being someone who would work under Bilsborough, and the dysfunction only begins there.

Bilsborough worked with the Boston Celtics from 2017-2020, but that is the only NBA experience between the two men, and Harrison let the two’s season-long pettiness and feud emanate into his sophomore center nearly suffering a catastrophic injury if he returned to the court. Bilsborough and Belton are still employed by the Mavericks at the time of this article, and it doesn’t seem like Harrison plans on making any edits to this current medical staff.