Mark Cuban tells his side of Luke Doncic trade after Nico Harrison points finger in Mavericks debacle

Fired Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison will never live down the Luka Doncic trade.

Mark Cuban, a minority owner for Dallas who is now acting as an advisor to the franchise, ran down his side of the story when he found out that Doncic was being traded to the Lakers.

“I’m at an event in Florida,” Cuban said on the Run Your Race podcast, describing the night that the Doncic trade came to fruition. “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.”’

But recently it was Harrison who threw Cuban under the bus for losing Knicks star Jalen Brunson in free agency, a move that, while not as high-profile as the Doncic trade, is viewed as an equally dooming move for the Mavericks.

“Harrison blamed Cuban for what he believed were the Mavs’ biggest personnel mistakes during his tenure, which came in summer 2022: allowing Jalen Brunson to get away in free agency and trading for Christian Wood, a player [Jason] Kidd didn’t want to coach and resented having on the roster. Several members of the coaching staff and front office also faulted Cuban for those moves,” ESPN reported.

Brunson signed with the Knicks for $104 million in 2022, which he later extended at a team-friendly discount.