Nico Harrison ripped for disastrous Mavericks mistake he just can't stop making

The Dallas Mavericks have been the most talked about team in the NBA for months ever since Nico Harrison decided he wanted to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, and while that chatter was positive for about an hour and a half for the first three quarters of Anthony Davis' Mavericks debut on February 8, it has been incredibly negative ever since.

No one can believe that Harrison would trade Doncic less than a year after he led the Mavs to their first NBA Finals appearance since 2011, and the fan outrage has been at an all-time high for weeks. Fans chanted "fire Nico" loudly during Doncic's return to Dallas earlier this month, and the anger has only intensified over the last week.

Harrison has participated in two press conferences over the last six days, and neither one of them went particularly well. One of them was a closed-door press conference last week at the American Airlines Center in which no cameras were allowed and only select members of the media were invited, and the other was an open press conference for Dallas local media on Monday at the Mavs practice facility, and in both instances he made things worse for himself and the team, and he is in the middle of a raging tornado of fan anger that he can't escape.

Charles Barkley thinks Nico Harrison needs to keep his mouth shut

It may be in his best interest not to hold any more press conferences until he speaks after the draft, and NBA legend Charles Barkley agrees.

Before Monday night's slate of games, Barkley sent a message to Harrison, someone he considers a good friend, and begged him to stop holding media availabilities.

"Don’t do no more press conferences," Barkley said in a message to Harrison. "I don’t even know what you’re doing...I got sympathy and love for you, but I have zero idea what you’re trying to do...This war is over, brother. You taking the L."

Barkley continued to talk about how he hopes Harrison keeps his job as GM of the Mavericks and the team gets healthy soon, but he continued to advise that he stop doing interviews for the time being. He seems to think that Harrison is only making things worse, and he's right.

This entire PR nightmare would have been preventable if Harrison had just had his press conference about this trade in Dallas immediately after it took place, but the Mavericks waiting over two months for him to speak about the most indefensible trade in NBA history is unfathomable. While he would have been under heavy scrutiny, regardless of when he held the press conference, an early press conference would have allowed for him to get out everything he needed to say quicker.

Harrison waiting until the last two weeks to speak about the Doncic trade has negatively refocused everyone's eyes on the Mavericks once again, and even Barkley noticed that his press conferences haven't been the best recently. He is saying things that are enraging the fan base even more, and today's comment may have been the nail in the coffin when it comes to the small group of fans who still support him.

Today, Harrison admitted that he didn't expect the fan outrage to be this intense about the trade, and for someone who has been around to see his top-three MVP finish last season, a trip to the finals last season, and countless legendary moments, this statement alone justifies Barkley's plea that Harrison should go silent for awhile.