Mark Cuban Reflects on Luka Mavs-Lakers Trade, Says It Was ‘Necessary’ for Nico Harrison to Be Fired
Former Dallas Mavericks majority governor Mark Cuban suggested on Sunday that Nico Harrison, the general manager responsible for trading Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, deserved his firing in November.
“It was a mistake [trading Dončić] and I wish they would have spoken to me first,” he told NBA reporter Marc Stein. “I’m happy for Luka. And I’m happy for Mavs fans that we’ve got [Cooper Flagg], even though I recognize that we all still miss Luka. The people responsible for that [deal] are for the most part gone, which I think was necessary.”
It isn’t the first time Cuban has let his thoughts on the matter be known.
“If the Mavs are going to trade Luka, that’s one thing,” he said on WFAA in March 2025 after last season’s deal stunned the NBA world (h/t ESPN). “Just get a better deal. No disrespect to Anthony Davis, but I still firmly believe if we had gotten four unprotected No. 1s and Anthony Davis and Max Christie, this would be a different conversation.”
While Cuban supposedly had an agreement in place to remain in the team’s basketball operations even after he sold the team to Patrick Dumont, he was shut out of the Dončić trade talks entirely.
“I’m at an event in Florida,” Cuban said in November on the Run Your Race podcast, recounting the evening Dončić was traded. “I get a text from Nico: ‘Call me.” I’m like, ‘OK’. I thought he was telling me that he’s thinking about it, then I realized it’s done. And then it’s like, nothing I can do, not my party—I wasn’t happy about it.'”
Neither was anybody in Dallas, with the relationship between the fans and organization becoming so toxic that Harrison basically had to be fired to restore some semblance of peace.
That’s the risk you take when you trade the face of your franchise during his prime years, and Cuban seems happy that the Mavericks ultimately cut ties with Harrison.
