Dallas Mavericks Navigate Post-Sale Power Shift as GM Nico Harrison Departs Amidst Internal Strife and On-Court Struggles

The Dallas Mavericks, grappling with a four-game losing streak and a period of organizational tumult spanning nine months, found themselves delayed on the tarmac at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. The team had recently endured a significant defeat in Memphis, a matchup between two franchises experiencing early-season difficulties. The subsequent delay in bus transport, caused by bureaucratic issues, prolonged the team’s discomfort, with players finally reaching their Georgetown hotel at the Four Seasons after 3 a.m. ET.

Anticipation within the team had centered on the expected return of All-Star big man Anthony Davis, whose personal medical team, alongside then-General Manager Nico Harrison, had targeted the following day for his comeback from a low-grade left calf strain. However, these plans were abruptly halted hours before tipoff against the Washington Wizards. Mavericks Governor Patrick Dumont intervened at the last minute, postponing Davis’s return based on the advice of Johann Bilsborough, the team’s director of health and performance. Bilsborough had raised concerns about the risk of aggravating the calf strain or sustaining a more severe injury, according to team sources.

This intervention marked a significant shift, representing the first instance of Dumont directly involving himself in the Mavericks’ day-to-day basketball operations since acquiring a majority stake in the franchise in December 2023. It also served as the most overt public indication that the considerable trust Dumont had placed in Harrison, strong enough last season to approve a highly controversial trade without seeking additional opinions, had substantially eroded. At the time, Davis’s availability was described as day-to-day, a description that also applied to Harrison’s job security. Three days later, Dumont officially terminated Harrison’s employment.

Harrison’s dismissal concluded what many inside the organization considered the most tumultuous period in Mavericks history. This era was characterized by a clash of competing egos, the contentious sale of the team, the trade of Luka Doncic—arguably the most dynamic star in franchise history—and a quiet but intense power struggle between former owner Mark Cuban and the general manager he had appointed.

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In the aftermath, Dumont and his newly structured basketball leadership, which notably includes Cuban in a renewed capacity, are charting a course for the future. This includes integrating 18-year-old Cooper Flagg, the consensus No. 1 overall pick delivered to Dallas through unprecedented lottery luck, offering the new ownership a critical opportunity to construct a sustainable contender around a generational talent. Multiple team sources also indicated that the Mavericks, currently holding a 4-11 record and positioned outside the Western Conference playoff picture, plan to explore the trade market for Davis before this season’s deadline. Davis, a 10-time All-Star, was the central figure acquired in the trade involving Doncic.

For a fan base that has expressed feelings of betrayal, numerous questions persist regarding this self-inflicted saga, many of which pertain to the franchise’s prominent former majority owner. Queries have arisen regarding the extent of Cuban’s influence in such a pivotal decision, and what his role will be moving forward as the Mavericks seek to stabilize the organization.

Discussions with over a dozen internal sources revealed that Cuban and Harrison, two of the franchise’s most influential figures, had been engaged in a sustained competition for influence and the attention of the relatively inexperienced new owner, Dumont. This struggle involved one individual determined to validate his basketball acumen after finally being granted autonomy, and another eager to reassert his presence in the team’s operations. This simmering power struggle reached a critical point on the morning of November 11, resulting in significant repercussions for all involved. "Mark’s been trying a palace coup for months," one team source commented.

The Ownership Transition and Cuban’s Assertions

On the evening of December 27, 2023, hours after the NBA officially sanctioned the sale of the Mavericks’ majority share to the Adelson and Dumont families at a valuation of $3.5 billion—more than twelve times what Cuban had paid 23 years prior—Cuban addressed reporters. Dressed in shorts and a team-issued sleeveless t-shirt, still perspiring from his customary pregame 3-point shooting routine, Cuban expressed enthusiasm about what he described as unique aspects of the deal.

"Nothing’s really changed except my bank account," Cuban reportedly boasted to the media, surrounded by a tight circle of journalists. He elaborated that the new owners, whose extensive wealth derived from operating the Las Vegas Sands casino corporation, would concentrate on the franchise’s business ventures. These included the eventual construction of a new arena, envisioned as part of a potential Dallas-based Venetian-style resort complex. Cuban asserted that he had been relieved of the financial pressures associated with funding an NBA contender as a "middle-class billionaire." He proudly proclaimed that he would continue to oversee the Mavericks’ basketball operations as part of the partnership, retaining a 27% ownership stake.

Cuban acknowledged the absence of specific language regarding his authority in the official purchase agreement but insisted that the understanding was for him to remain in charge of all basketball-related matters, despite Dumont officially holding "final say" as the franchise’s governor. "That’s Cuban overselling himself because he always has a microphone in front of him," one team source informed ESPN. Minutes later, after detailing the deal’s intricacies, Cuban assembled the team’s players, coaching staff, and front office personnel in the locker room to deliver a similar message. "Nothing’s going to change," Cuban reportedly told them before their game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. "I’m still running basketball."

Inside the room, Cuban’s remarks were not received as intended. Multiple sources found his comments disrespectful toward Harrison, who was in his third season as the Mavericks’ president of basketball operations and general manager, following a distinguished career as a Nike executive. Across the organization, it was widely known that Harrison’s operational autonomy had fluctuated based on Cuban’s level of direct involvement. In front of the entire team and staff, Cuban had seemingly diminished the authority of the GM he had hired less than three years prior. For many attendees, a prevailing question emerged: why would new owners invest billions in a franchise only to permit the former owner to retain operational control?

Days later, Dumont made his initial visit to Dallas following the sale. He conducted separate meetings with the franchise’s business staff, basketball operations department, and players. In the latter two sessions, he was directly questioned about Cuban’s claims of retaining basketball authority. Dumont’s response directly contradicted his new business partner. "Mark is a friend. I will consult him from time to time," Dumont stated, according to multiple individuals present at the basketball operations meeting. "But make no mistake about this: I’m the governor of the team and I am making decisions."

This clear directive from Dumont was met with relief by many, including Harrison and Head Coach Jason Kidd, who, according to organizational sources, frequently expressed frustration with what they perceived as Cuban’s often counterproductive interference in personnel decisions. This development simultaneously created a power vacuum that Harrison promptly sought to fill. His efforts were aided by the team’s subsequent run to the NBA Finals during that season, propelled by a series of trade-deadline acquisitions that yielded immediate benefits, providing Dumont with sufficient evidence to place confidence in Harrison’s basketball judgment.

Harrison’s Ascendancy and the Doncic Trade

Two weeks before Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Dumont held his sole news conference since the ownership transfer, flanked by Harrison and then-Mavs CEO Cynt Marshall. "Normally when teams change ownership, they bring their own people in," Harrison noted. "Patrick and the Adelson family, they’ve adopted me as their own, so I really appreciate that. One of the things about Patrick and I, our conversations, we talk about leadership. We talk about investing in the community. We talk about culture. It’s all the things that I believe in. It reminds me of my old days at Nike." He then turned to Dumont, their eyes meeting with smiles. "Sounds great," Dumont responded, grinning.

Unlike his predecessor, Dumont maintains a preference for operating outside the public spotlight. Cuban, by contrast, had embraced the fame associated with NBA ownership, leveraging his image as a boisterous businessman into a long-running role on ABC’s Shark Tank, which significantly elevated his public profile beyond sports. Dumont, an MBA graduate from Columbia Business School with a background in investment banking, ascended to president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands in 2021.

Harrison, who progressed from field representative to vice president of North American basketball operations during his two decades at Nike, made cultivating a strong relationship with Dumont a priority after the franchise sale. He connected with his new boss by emphasizing a corporate approach, highlighting the importance of establishing a clear chain of command by reporting directly to Dumont rather than through Cuban, a practice he had followed for the previous two seasons. Both Harrison and Cuban declined to comment for this report. "Nico basically said, ‘Dude, I don’t want to deal with Mark anymore. He’s too much,’" one team source stated. With a direct communication channel to his new boss and his former one effectively sidelined, Harrison intensified the "ice-out" of Cuban. Harrison had once informed Cuban that he was known as "The Silent Assassin" at Nike for his ability to discreetly achieve his objectives in business matters. Cuban soon perceived himself to be in Harrison’s crosshairs. "Immediately after the sale, Nico started really playing Dumont," another team source explained. "He honed in. Then we went to the Finals, and Nico could do no wrong."

According to sources familiar with the dynamics, Cuban attributed his basketball operations exile to Harrison, not Dumont. As Harrison’s influence grew, Cuban privately claimed that the league office mandated the removal of a clause in the purchase agreement that would have guaranteed him the right to attend all basketball operations meetings. However, that clause reportedly contained no mention of Cuban possessing any authority over those operations. In Cuban’s view, as conveyed by a source, he would have retained control primarily because he believed he would be the most intelligent and experienced individual in the room. "That’s the most obvious instance of having my cake and eating it, too," a source involved in the process remarked. "How long have you known Mark Cuban? Did that seem out of character?"

Cuban, according to sources familiar with his thinking, privately maintained that Harrison was unqualified to be the primary decision-maker for the team’s basketball operations, despite having hired him in June 2021 following the contentious departure of long-time Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson. Cuban reportedly insisted that he never intended to grant Harrison autonomy, hiring him instead with the expectation that his relationships with players and agents would help the Mavericks reverse their consistent trend of underperforming in free agency. To address Harrison’s perceived shortcomings as an inexperienced NBA executive, Cuban hired former Utah Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey as a senior advisor in summer 2023, a move suggested by Doncic’s agent Bill Duffy and business manager Lara Beth Seager.

Harrison, conversely, attributed what he considered the Mavericks’ most significant personnel errors during his tenure to Cuban: the 2022 departures of Jalen Brunson in free agency and the acquisition of Christian Wood, a player whom Head Coach Jason Kidd reportedly did not want to coach and resented having on the roster. Several members of the coaching staff and front office also blamed Cuban for these decisions.

In discussions with Dumont, Harrison adamantly argued that the basketball operations department would function far more effectively without Cuban’s constant interference, sources said. Dumont found compelling evidence for this argument in the Mavericks’ 2023-24 season surge, which followed trade-deadline deals to acquire Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington. This success, however, occurred only after the Washington Wizards allowed Kyle Kuzma to veto a deal that would have seen Dallas surrender two first-round picks for him, compelling the Mavericks to pivot to alternative targets. Dallas had been 28-23 and in eighth place in the Western Conference, two games out of fifth, when Harrison’s new additions joined the team. The Mavericks subsequently achieved the league’s best record (16-4) and top-ranked defense in the final 20 games of the regular season, culminating in a run through the Western Conference as a No. 5 seed. This performance provided Harrison with the necessary leverage to convince Dumont of his prowess as a personnel decision-maker.

"Nico did a hell of a sales job," a Mavericks official stated. "He took credit for everything that was done. When Patrick asked questions—asked how we got Kyrie, how the draft happened, etc.—[Harrison] said he was the guy. We got on a roll and went to the Finals. Fool’s gold." Dumont would occasionally request that Harrison "keep Mark in the fold" regarding personnel discussions and decisions, sources noted. Harrison would agree but reportedly often disregarded the request. At this juncture, communication between Cuban and Dumont was minimal, largely due to the team’s success. Cuban and Harrison rarely spoke. "Nico built the moat and put up the fence and said, ‘I got this!’" a source familiar with the Harrison-Dumont dynamic observed. "Clearly, that was the wrong strategy."

Harrison increasingly isolated himself, his direct line to Dumont serving as a source of power. Sources throughout the franchise believed Harrison would convey to Dumont only what he desired his boss to know, not necessarily comprehensive information, particularly given Dumont’s status as an NBA newcomer. "The one guy in basketball ops who had a pipeline to Dumont wasn’t giving him the straight scoop," one team source commented.

This strategic positioning enabled Harrison to persuade Dumont to authorize the Doncic trade, a transaction widely considered illogical by rival executives for various reasons. These included parting with a perennial MVP contender in his prime without any credible threat of a trade demand, and receiving what was largely perceived as insufficient value in return. Harrison presented his case from a business perspective. Doncic was eligible to sign a five-year, $345 million supermax contract extension in the upcoming summer. Harrison argued to Dumont that such a deal would constitute a poor investment, citing Doncic’s conditioning issues, reported off-court habits, and recurring calf strains, predicting that his body would eventually break down. Doncic’s camp and Harrison had reportedly clashed over the recovery process from the calf strain that sidelined the superstar at the time, which the GM presented to Dumont as evidence of Doncic’s insufficient commitment to the Mavericks. Harrison also attributed the Mavericks’ five-game elimination by the Boston Celtics in the Finals to Doncic’s defensive deficiencies. He pitched Dumont on a vision of constructing the league’s premier defense around Anthony Davis, with whom Harrison had maintained a close relationship since Davis’s teenage years in the AAU circuit. "Defense wins championships," Harrison reiterated in his limited public explanations of the trade’s rationale.

Harrison further convinced Dumont that discussions regarding the trade required strict containment to minimize the risk of media leaks, which could have allowed Duffy, Doncic’s agent, to leverage the situation to scuttle the deal. Involving Cuban, Harrison reportedly advised Dumont, would likely lead to a leak. No one else was informed; no one else needed to be. Dumont accepted this premise, and that was all that mattered. "’In Nico we trust’—too much at the end of the day," a source remarked, referencing a quote from Dumont’s interview with The Dallas Morning News days after the trade. "That quote has come back to haunt [Dumont]."

The Firing and Cuban’s Resurgence

During halftime of the Mavericks’ November 10 game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the night before Harrison’s firing, Dumont reportedly welcomed an 18-year-old fan, Nicholas Dickason, wearing a gold Doncic Lakers jersey, to sit beside him. Dickason, encouraged by his father, later informed The Athletic that he approached Dumont to apologize for a previous gesture during the season-opening loss to the San Antonio Spurs, the only other game the governor had attended that regular season. During their amicable conversation, Dickason stated that Dumont expressed regret regarding the Doncic trade.

Following the game, a surreal home loss that saw the Mavericks squander a 13-point fourth-quarter lead amidst deafening "Fire Nico!" chants during free throws, Cuban made his way from his customary seat near the home bench to meet Dumont by his seat near midcourt. Simultaneously, on the opposite side of the court, Harrison descended the portable stairs by his seat and entered the tunnel, as the bitter power struggle that had gripped the Mavericks for years shifted decisively. Harrison, who reportedly received death threats after the Doncic trade, never returned to his usual seat among the four reserved for front office officials in the lower bowl opposite the team’s bench. For the remainder of last season, he stood in that midcourt tunnel, accompanied by security. This season, he arranged for those stairs to be rolled in before every game, enabling him to access and exit his new seat a few rows behind the home broadcast table without encountering fans.

A few months after the trade that ultimately sealed his Mavericks tenure, Harrison and the team secured the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft through lottery luck. It was at this point, multiple team sources stated, that Cuban’s efforts to orchestrate Harrison’s removal intensified. Harrison then exacerbated fan discontent following the team’s selection of the consensus No. 1 pick, Cooper Flagg, in late June. "Fortune favors the bold," Harrison declared, a comment that resonated poorly with a fan base unprepared for such a sentiment. Weeks earlier, amid widespread backlash that threatened the franchise’s future viability, Dumont had reportedly urged Harrison to undergo media training, hoping to craft a message that would mitigate some of the self-inflicted damage. The lessons apparently did not resonate. A couple of days later, at Flagg’s introductory news conference, Harrison stated his hope that fans were "starting to see my vision," further alienating the fan base at a time when the acquisition of Flagg and the excitement for the future should have been celebrated.

Four months later, with the Mavericks floundering at 4-11, occupying 14th place in the Western Conference amid predictable struggles, and the mounting fan angst negatively impacting the players, Dumont determined that action was necessary. The dynamic between Dumont and Cuban reportedly never became contentious, according to sources on both sides. Their long-standing friendship formed the basis of the franchise sale negotiations. These same sources indicated that Cuban bolstered his credibility with Dumont through criticisms of Harrison’s roster construction over the summer, which quickly proved to be painfully accurate. Cuban had reportedly warned Dumont that Dallas would face significant offensive struggles due to a lack of off-dribble creators and shooting. Harrison had downplayed these concerns. The Mavericks currently rank second to last in the league in offensive efficiency.

"I understand the profound impact these difficult last several months have had," Dumont wrote in a letter to fans released that afternoon, vaguely referencing the Doncic trade in his only public comments this season. "Please know that I’m fully committed to the success of the Mavericks. Thank you for your support, thank you for holding us accountable, and thank you for your passion and for your patience. You deserve transparency and a team that reflects your spirit."

Cuban has strongly advocated for replacing Harrison with Dennis Lindsey, currently the second-ranking member of the East-leading Detroit Pistons’ front office, sources confirmed. Lindsey is expected to be considered during a comprehensive search process that will include both external and internal candidates. For the immediate future, however, Dumont has opted for a "GM by committee" approach. This committee, which may remain in place through this season’s trade deadline, convened with Dumont to discuss potential strategic scenarios on the afternoon of Harrison’s firing. Assistant General Managers Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi, recently promoted to interim co-GMs, were present. Head Coach Jason Kidd, who has acquired significant influence within the organization after signing a contract extension during the preseason, was also in attendance. Cuban was present as well, signaling his return to the franchise’s inner circle.

Cuban is reportedly enthusiastic about being part of the small group Dumont is relying on for guidance through this turbulent period and for education regarding NBA business. "He’s walking around on air right now," a team source commented. "Cuban’s floating in his Skechers." However, Cuban is not expected to regain his previous status as the Mavericks’ primary shot-caller, nor will he ever. As one source articulated, Cuban relinquished that right when he sold his majority stake. "He’s a consultant, not a decision-maker," another source stated. "But he’s at the table."

Nevertheless, the duration of his presence at that table and the ultimate reach of his influence remain uncertain. Those decisions, according to a source briefed by Dumont, will ultimately be made by the individual appointed to replace Harrison.