Ridiculous Nico Harrison narrative still swirling around Mavericks must be silenced

The Dallas Mavericks fired Nico Harrison on Tuesday morning after the team started 3-8, and despite all of the false narratives trying to be pushed by the national media about this groundbreaking news, he was not the scapegoat for the infamous Luka Doncic trade. This move was Harrison's trade and Harrison's trade only.

A scapegoat is a term used when a person is unfairly blamed for making a decision, often alluding to the decision being made for an ulterior motive. Charles Barkley was the most recent talking head who tried to push the Nico Harrison scapegoat narrative. This take hasn't been extremely popular since the trade, as reports and Harrison himself have stated that this was his trade, but some people think otherwise.

"The thing that bothers me, is he's just being made a scapegoat," Barkley said. "There's no way in the world Nico Harrison had the power to trade Luka Doncic unless the owner of the team signed off on it...That was (Patrick Dumont's call). I feel bad the way Nico's being made a scapegoat."

Nico Harrison is the only one responsible for the Luka Doncic trade

Barkley went on to reiterate his opinion on Harrison not having enough power to make the Doncic trade, but he continues to miss the point. It's obvious that a GM can't make a trade by themselves, but the Mavericks were in a unique situation in that regard at the time of the Doncic-Davis swap.

Harrison acted in the dark, keeping negotiations with Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers behind closed doors, and he only involved Patrick Dumont in this process. He pushed out anyone in the organization who disagreed with his way of doing things, and this slowly led to him being the sole decision-maker.

From firing Casey Smith to not making an effort to keep Dirk Nowitzki around the organization despite his legendary career in Dallas, Harrison wanted to make the Mavericks his team, and he thought his way was the only way.

Harrison had the authority to make any move that he wanted if he got Dumont to approve of it, and the rest is history.

Harrison presented the Doncic trade to Patrick Dumont, the Mavericks' owner, and Dumont signed off on it. That's all there is to it, and Doncic was traded before he hit his prime because of it.

Harrison is the one who crafted the Doncic trade from scratch, as he had major concerns about his conditioning and injuries, and he sold Dumont on these reasons.

What Barkley isn't realizing is that owners hire general managers to make these types of decisions. Dumont doesn't have the time to evaluate every player around the league and decide which players make the most sense in Dallas.

That is the front office's job, and that's why he hired Harrison.

Harrison sold Dumont on Anthony Davis being able to help the Mavericks win right now more effectively than Doncic could, and that, on top of many other factors, led to Dumont ultimately greenlighting the trade. This trade turned into an utter disaster immediately, as Davis got injured in his first game as a Maverick and Kyrie Irving tore his ACL less than a month later.

The Mavericks' 2024-25 season imploded in the blink of an eye, and it all started when Harrison decided to swap Doncic for Davis. It will undoubtedly go down as one of the worst moves in sports history, and despite Barkley's beliefs, Harrison deserves to be blamed for making it.