Mark Cuban can’t hide his disdain for Nico Harrison.
Just so bizarre that they traded him AFTER building the perfect roster around him.
Nico pointed out Luka’s flaws and so he built the most complimentary team possible for Luka, made the finals immediately. Then blew the team up and got an awful haul back lmao
Mavs definitely got better after the finals too, it’s sad we never got to see that team healthy or in playoffs.
They had Luka with 2 rim running/protecting centers, 2 3&D wings, a happy Kyrie and Klay as a 4th option. Yet somehow couldnt wait to blow it up and tank again
Like honestly, we could spend hours trying to rationalize what the hell they were thinking from every angle, business, sport, competition… and in literally every single one it just doesn’t make sense.
A money printing machine through merch, a globally recognized player whose name is basically a brand on it’s own, someone who makes people okay with paying higher ticket prices… and he just got you to the Finals while dealing with injuries that were starting to pile up.
No locker room issues that we know of. No issues with Coach we would know of….You’ve got a proven champion level catch and shoot player in Klay who came in basically for Luka.
….
Honestly, I don’t know other sports that well, but to me this is by far the worst trade ever made in NBA history.
Net Negative on literally every single thing.
Far and away from every report he’s beloved by the arena staff, his teammates and community. Coaches??? Idk, him and Rick had their falling out and it didn’t end much better with Kidd.
This would be like the Yankees trading Judge, Oilers trading McDavid or Buffalo trading Allen.
This is worse than any of those hypothetical trades because Dirk passing the torch to Luka gave him significant importance to the identity of the franchise. This was 27 years of legacy that Nico and ownership trashed.
Oilers did trade gretzky.
And the oilers won like the cup a year later still. The mavs dont even have a shot at playoffs a year later.
Didn’t he want out?
And still won Cups
It also made some sense i believe they literally were out of money or something?
Even though i don’t remember the details i believe this is far worse as there is LITERALLY NO WAY it was a good idea
Yeah, the owner literally did not have enough cash left to pay Gretzky’s salary, so it was either trade him or let him just walk in a few months.
Nico wanted to prove he was the smartest guy in the room
How big of an ego do you have to have to trade someone like Luka away.
I mean, Zuckerberg invested around $50-70 billion into the metaverse and now they’re shutting it down.
Reasoning is a skill at the end of the day. If you, or anyone else dont challeng you… eventually you’ll start making stupid decisions driven by ego.
Though… while Zuckerberg is the owner/CEO, I have no clue how Nico managed to convince everyone else. My tin foil conspiracy hat makes me think Kidd didn’t have a good relationship with Doncic, and while he maybe wasn’t actively sabotaging anything, he was probably happy to lose Luka instead of losing his job if it came down to Luka vs Kidd. So he joined the team with Nico to convince the owners.
it’s not close to the same.
meta has a core business that prints money. 200b rev in 2025. company worth 1.5t they can take many big swings.
nico traded away their #1 star and money maker.
the tech equivalent is like google shutting down search. unthinkable
Fair play, you make good point but my point is that both of those decisions seem to be driven by leadership and it’s believe in something that for anyone outside is rather ridiculous.
Criticism is very important in business and both ideas heavily promoted by the leadership were down right unrealistic. If not self destructive to some degree.
I know why Nico did it but he’s still a fucking moron. He thought that straight up, in a vaccuum, Anthony Davis is better than Luka Doncic. That’s the only explanation. He thought that everybody was wrong about Luka, that Luka was massively overvalued, and that the team would be better with AD.
Yes, it makes Nico one of the most inept executives in NBA history. But in order to pull the trigger he had to believe that.
Or he was purposefully sabotaging the Mavs.
Shams had to tweet after breaking the story that he didn’t get hacked. Every other “megastars gets traded” deal ever has some sort of “if you look at it this way it makes sense” to it, there is zero rational reason to trade Luka and the way the NBA works there’s basically no trade package for a top 5 guy that is ever going to be worth it.
Plus ultimate glue guy PJ. And also those 3&D wings were not only better at 3s and D than the two guys they replaced, they were also phenomenal secondary creators so that if we ever ran into a series where Kyrie was getting nuked, we had another place to look to for offensive creation. Jfc whenever I think of this trade it just pisses me off so much.
That Celtics team also matched up really well against them. Would they even have a “bad” matchup in the NBA this season if they stayed together?
For a guy who hasn’t been healthy in ages. Everyone knew it was a bad deal, even NBA players couldn’t believe it and thought Shams was hacked. Just unreal amounts of collusion by the NBA to keep the Lakers relevant and then hush up the Mavs with Cooper.
The fucking thing is they made the finals. like if they were knocked out in the first round with that team well they still could have gotten a better package but it’d be at least a little more understandable. they made the finals…… like if my team made the finals with jokic at 26 then traded him. that’s so fucked.
The reminded me of Boston ironically from 2022. Young and not quite ready to win the finals but almost there.
Not to mention the Celtics squad the beat them on 2024 was just that good, in probably top 5 team oat talks.
By 25, that was falling apart.
Porzingus was getting more and more sick.
Jrue and Al were getting older
And the Celtics were in the 2nd apron
Top 5? That’s a lil bit of a stretch imo. Maybe top 10.
This was some under the table shit and Nico was the fall guy. No one is that stupid.
i think occams razer is that he probably just had a personal issue with the guy which clouded his judgement. who knows
People underestimate how stubborn older nba fans are. Nico sounds like every 50 year old on Facebook who hates the current generation of basketball because they “play the wrong way”.
I also don’t buy that Nico was the mastermind; Dennis Lindsey was an “advisor” to the Mavs FO until the 2024-25 season (aka when Luka got traded). Lindsey is a Spurs guy and built the Mitchell/Gobert Jazz, dude has connections and a good basketball mind, I wouldn’t be shocked if he helped with a lot of the ideas and possibly even connections behind some of the trades they landed to build that 2024 Mavs roster around Luka
Don’t think that’s occam’s razor though. I think the boring answer is that Nico convinced himself he was being smarter than everyone else and he wasn’t
It’s hard for me to believe that Nico had a personal vendetta and ownership signed off on it and no one else in the org stopped him
Yeah, I think it was likely a “multiple things can be true at the same time” sort of thing.
- Nico had a hard-on for Luka (tough boss vs “under-achieving” employee kind of thing. Who isn’t familiar with one of those types?).
- Nico thought he was brilliant after his previous moves. Typical tough boss mentality.
- Now throw in that the new owners may have come in with the mindset off rip that they wanted to shed or keep salary at X amount and had little interest in giving out a supermax to Luka because they didn’t have enough \( for escrow after just purchasing the Mavericks OR they needed whatever \) was left for other, future endeavors.
That lines up with the rumors that the Mavs are really a front for Dumont wanting his casino. Do your own research (just a simple Google search) on it to see for yourselves.
[edit: Type something like “is pat dumont getting his casino”.]
It all equates to the perfect storm. Which, let’s face it, is exactly what needed to happen for someone like Luka to get traded. A perfect freaking storm.
Even if he wanted him shipped out why not let a bidding war commence? It’s not like Luka can veto it if he knew.
No one is that stupid.
If there is anything the last year or so has shown it is that people are definitely that stupid.
*last decade
*last 200 thousand years
Nah man there are definitely people that stupid
No - Nico just really despised Luka and truly believed that he had a bitter shot at a title with 33 year old Anthony Davis. He is truly that stupid.
No one’s that stupid?? Are you paying attention to the world around you?
Nico is that stupid. stop covering for him
this is the most fascinating about this whole situation – literally everyone thought this can’t be real, it’s too stupid, must be that Sham got hacked. No one would make such a stupid trade.
The issue is the guy himself has repeatedly affirmed it was his choice. And that he thought it was good.
So we either believe him, or think he’s too stupid to understand how stupid he is. Like way below average dumb.
I mean it’s obvious lol
People thought Nico was a great GM for building that roster for Luka too. Makes no sense
Dennis Lindsey built the roster NICO DID NOT BUILD SHIT
facts, the moves nico made up until that point were great.
Then he made the worst trade of all time.
Nico let Jalen Brunson walk for nothing, blew the teams cap space on Tim Hardaway Jr instead of Alex Caruso like the analytics guys wanted, traded for Christian Wood and Grant Williams, tried to give 2 firsts for Kyle Freaking Kuzma, signed JaVale McGee to an awful deal only to stretch him, fired the best respected trainer in the league, dumped Q Grimes for negative value, cut an ok prospect on his rookie deal (OMax) to sign Exum despite Exum being physically unable to play and went into this season knowing his job was on the line and thought D’Angelo Russell could save the offense
Also those PJ/Gaff deals are only good trades, if you have Luka setting them up on offense and keeping you from tanking in the years you’re out draft picks. Kyrie was just filling the hole he created with the Brunson debacle and Lively’s future is in question thanks largely to foot injuries he suffered under the watch of the medical staff that Nico hand picked who cleared him to play on a broken foot
Luka’s ability to be the best player on the floor in the playoffs covered a lot of team building sins
AND THEN traded for Grimes, traded for Klay, signed Naji, signed Winwiddie.
nico got kyrie…. Dennis Lindsey DID EVERYTHING ELSE,
NICO DID NOT BUILD SHIT.
Not just drafted Lively, I believe they traded down and got rid of the big Bertans contract while doing so
the last 2 weren’t his moves. it was Dennis Lindsey
It wasn’t the “perfect” roster around him - it was a good roster. The Mavs went to the finals because Luka played like the best player in the league (despite playing one leg) and his teammates did their jobs.
I’m tired of this narrative that he needs a particular type of team to win - he needs what every other superstar needs to win a championship and that is competent teammates who play hard.
The Finals roster was a great roster around him, and then the roster the next season got even better with the addition of Grimes, Naji, and Klay.
Well, to be fair, it was easy to see what Dallas was lacking after the Finals.
Between Luka and Kyrie, there was no real third option for long-range shooting, whether from mid-range or from three. There were so many times when PJ Washington or someone else got the ball in a basically wide-open spot and it was just brick after brick.
That’s why they needed Klay. One of the greatest catch-and-shoot players in NBA history, and also someone known for his tenacity on defense.
So to me… it was obvious Dallas were building the roster around Luka’s weaknesses and attributes.
For example, Luka is always going to get blitzed or double-teamed, so you need reliable shooters to pass to, or a reliable center who can come up, set deep screens, and help break the double.
To me, with Klay, Dallas literally had everything they theoretically needed. Sometimes life is just unfair and injuries mess everything up.
Like, imagine the Pacers trading Haliburton or Siakam after making the Finals. Tough luck injuries happen some more serious than others…But what’s the point of giving up?
to be fair, he’s never had a teammate with even half as much chemistry as Kyrie before or since and that team was definitely way better fit to his strengths then the Lakers rn
That’s because Kyrie was by far the best player Luka has played with. Brunson was just entering his prime when he left and KP dealt with injury after injury in his time in Dallas.
The Lakers traded for Luka because they were a mediocre team and they still have pretty much the same roster around him now. The top 5 minutes played for the Lakers this year is Luka, Smart, Laravia, Rui, and Ayton.
They squandered away a lot better than “half as much Kyrie chemistry”, in early prime Jalen Brunson.
Mavs actually put a better team around him after the finals, then traded him.
can’t believe some guys are still not seeing the vision!
Nico had a boner for street clothes. He had a vision and it completely backfired.
So glad to see the bug spread his wings and fly
Just need my best friend Nick Mullen to take on a strategic advisor role with the Guangdong Southern Tigers to complete the trifecta.
speak a little chinese for em
Go ahead, Derek!
Do that General Tsao’s shit you were saying
yo mayo pijiǔ?
Maybe they heard about Luka’s plan to buy $40,000 worth of chocolate and immediately claim a chargeback
What specifically about me….
A real unsung bit
I don’t get how the least funny member of Cumtown has now interviewed basically all the most famous people imaginable lol
His heart is pure
That’s the bit that nick setup, it’s fucking genius and hilarious if you think about it
he’s great at it, too.
It was the center-left pivot
Cause he was always the glue of the group. Adam was able to take punishment from Nick and Stav like a moth absorbs dust. Now that he’s free to spread his bug wings all over you see that he’s actually quite good.
Had no idea there were so many garçons du cum in the NBA subreddit
Huge overlap with the circlejerk, apparently
i genuinely thought i was in the wrong sub or it was a doppleganger
Mark you hired this clown first, acting like he’s innocent lol
He did great while mark worked there
Agreed. Let’s not act like Nico didn’t make good moves for the Mavs up until the Luka trade. He brought them to a finals appearance
I’d argue it’s a mixed bag as it is for most GMs. We got a terrible return for Porzingis, lost Brunson for nothing, sold a first rounder for a year of Christian Wood in addition to lucking into Kyrie, and snagging Gafford and PJ. Although both of those moves were extremely questionable in hindsight when you consider the same guy that deleted our draft capital was also the guy that made that draft capital so crucial by trading away inarguably the best player to play for the Mavericks.
So the good moves he lucked into but the bad ones were his fault?
Huh? Is that what I said or did I say he lucked into Kyrie and snagged PJ and Gafford?
Surely i cant be expected to read everything correctly.
It seemed like you were minimizing the good decisions he made. Just annoyed me for some reason. Fuck him for giving luka to the lakers regardless. Ima not be like this rn and let you go off bc i see the mavs flare, yall have every right
No he didn’t.
Nico inheritaed Luka, Brunson, and KP and within 3 years KP had helped the Celtics win a championship, Brunson turned the Knicks franchise around, and Luka has opened up a contending window for the Lakers in the post Bron years.
His few successful moves were almost entirely luck - 1 being Kyrie imploding his trade value in Brooklyn to a point that the Mavs could afford him and the 2nd being Kuzma turning down the trade request so they had pivot to PJ. But even those moves were only needed because he prioritized Javale Mcgee to Brunson in 2022 & made Grant Williams the big offseason signing in 2023.
Brunson was running to daddies team anyways. Knicks got punished for colluding.
well under Mark, Nico helped build the team that made the finals. Then when Mark left, i guess Nico took the mask off and went full power trip mode
He went to a defacto dictator once mark left
Yeah, this is my issue with Cuban acting like this about the Mavs. He hired Nico, he decided to sell the Mavs, he chose to sell them to Dumont, he even said part of the deal is that he would be involved.
This entire situation is a creation of his own making. If he wanted to do it differently, then that was within his own power.
I’m sure he knew it could all go bad but it’s still surprising it went that bad that quickly. It’s like a substitute teacher setting fire to the school. Yeah, you’re not expecting anything great of the substitute teacher but you expect that they aren’t insane.
He didn’t trade Luka. Nobody thought Nico was doing a bad job until he traded Luka lol
I’m beyond tired of Mark talking. He could’ve stayed and owned the team but sold for even more money? Has he attacked the current owner because he has to know a Luka trade doesn’t just happen without discussions right
And then sold the team. You don’t get to be mad bro lmaoo
Cuban wanted to be the smarted guy in the room so bad he intentionally surrounded himself with idiots
I also love the billionaire pretending to relate with the regular person criticizing trump and his policies. Mark buddy, this world is all for you, stop with the pandering it’s gotten old
Adam brought that fact up to him too, Mark definitely feels betrayed by Nico
Its so fucking weird seeing the Bug do this and itll never not be to me
They get legitimately banger guests somehow. I still don’t care enough to watch most though
As someone said on the Cumtown subreddit, “how does Adam not have massive imposter syndrome is beyond me”.
He’s tried to stay a bit more professional as he’s gotten more popular, but the Chris Cuomo episode is all-time.
The Dua Lipa clip is solid gold.
Jesus Christ lol
He’s painful at times. I understand now why he was the punching bag
He is but i still find myself watching most episodes because the questions he asks these people are refreshing and not the same PR garbage they get asked in every interview
he’s nathan fielder but half the comic and twice the jew. i love cumtown
Half is generous, I’d say 5%
As Nick said (or something to this effect) “Stav will fail bodily, I’ll fail mentally, and Adam will be left to profit from the wreckage”
It really makes Cumtown even more iconic that Adam went on to be a big talk show host, Stav became a movie star and Nick did nothing except crawl into his hole and be depressed. Btw I’m gay
Nick is building a real size X-Wing in his garage.
Hi, I’m gay entrepreneur Mark Cuban
Gay actor Michael Douglas here
Tucker: “What is going on? What is happening? Watching the Mavericks play basketball used to feel good. It doesn’t anymore. Now, I like having sex with gay guys instead. Don’t believe me? Take a look.”
Who put their dick in my ass?
Michael Balls Penis
Cuban acting like he doesn’t have a part in this is hilarious
He literally doesn’t. It was the first time he wasn’t the final say in trades since he bought the team in like 1998 and they traded away the best PG to come out since like Magic lol
People that think Cuban would have allowed this are fucking DUMB as bricks
He was literally building Luka as the next Dirk yet some people still think he had a say in this lol
It’s not that he had a say in it. He would’ve given his left nut before trading Luka. It’s that he paved the way for it by selling the team to shitty owners who had no understanding of the franchise’s history, fan desire, and limited understanding of basketball in general.
He could’ve sold to anyone, but he wanted a stake in whatever casino bullshit the Adelsons were planning. He made a bad business move and the fans suffered for it.
He sold the team to an ownership group that cares more about other endeavors.
Cuban having good pr out of this situation is hilarious to me.
Steph??????
Steph in the draft didn’t have the hype that Luka did, that’s basically what I was getting at.
.. He hired the guy who traded Luka.
He sold the team to the people who approved the trade.
You really can’t see how he has some responsibility here?
Cuban hired him but had the power to personally approve/deny any moves. Now a valid arguement can be made that owners should allow GM’s autonomy to run the team and it absolutely shows Cuban did not hire the most competent person for the job but at the same time that trade never would’ve gone down like it did with him as the majority owner.
He made the trade?
He hired a guy with 0 nba front office experience to the most important job in an nba front office.
Are we just gonna pretend like he didn’t build a good team around Luka while Cuban was still there
Wow cool Adam made it on the nba subreddit he’s so cool now
Hey it’s cool Adam
Hey everybody it’s me Cool Adam
I had a tummy ache and now I feel like I’m on druuuugzz
I won’t fall for this Cuban PR
Dude. For real.
All these posts with the Nico hate are ridiculous, especially at this point. Everyone in that organization was complicit in that trade and making these posts trying to lay it solely at Nico’s feet is pathetic.
I disagree. Didn’t Nico basically negotiate that trade in secret with only Dumont knowing what he was doing? Kidd looked like he wanted to die at the first press conference, and we’ve seen no indication this was anything other than a Nico brainchild with Dumont’s stamp of approval.
Now, Cuban hired Nico, but the trade itself was not something most people in the Mavs org knew was coming.
pretty based, but he has a lot of shills on here (or bots)
There’s a lot of people who like to act like they would be good owners and the evil rich guys suck. They relate to Cuban
Is that a type of cigar?
Cuban is beside himself. Driving around downtown Dallas begging (thru texts) for the address of the man who hired Nico Harrison.
We don’t know how much Nico had to do with it, but he was the GM when the got to the finals, so that is almost as good as it gets. By the time the trade happened Cuban was mostly out of the picture.
Dudes rock
Get this nba slop out of my Cumtown subreddit.
Mark you’re the one that hired him when he had no front office experience. This is your fault.
And he made some great decisions and built a very good team until he went full moron
You can’t blame Cuban for this lmao
People in the Mavs organization said Dennis Lindsey who was the assistant GM organized those trades, Nico wanted to trade for Kuzma but it fell through.
There’s plenty of blame to go around and Cuban absolutely deserves a ton of it
The most frustrating part about the Luka trade discourse is people thinking it starts and ends with Nico. He certainly deserves the bulk of the blame, but Dumont and Cuban are also culpable to various degrees.
Nico was driving the bus but Dumont and Cuban gave him the keys
No he doesn’t. He sold the team, he had no say anymore. Unless you want to get mad at him because he sold his team, but that would be silly
Some people are really effective with constraints where someone is above them to help guide them and not make dumb decisions. Some of those people are also really bad when you remove those constraints and let them do their own thing.
It’s not Mark’s fault Nico and the new owner are complete idiots without him.
Nico Harrison is Vince Russo
glad to see Adam Friedland getting some shine!
Hes really done a 180 from staining. For example, camping chairs and linens
There’s a jug of soap in the shower
We’re all trying to find the guy who did this
The owners wanted go deal Luka not just Nico lol
Mark…you played a role in this. Don’t act so innocent
Cuban is a performative, entitled douchebag
Fuck Cuban, he sold the Mavs at a discount to the worst people possible to get gambling revenue. He also hired Nico
I
My brother in Christ you hired the sandwich
No longer relevant to this sub
I can’t believe a clip from the Adam Friedland show is on r/NBA lol
Maybe you shouldn’t have sold the team to corrupt worker abusing, politician bribing, genocidal psychopaths that care about nothing but what benefits them. Wonder if that had something to do with all this turned out.
Boom, this is spot on
Cuban was defending nico after that trade it’s just now that he is talking bad about it.
Hypocrisy aside, this is hilarious.
Wasn’t Cuban telling Mavs fans to shut up during some matchs because they were singing “fire Nico” ? Does he have Alzheimer or he’s just being hypocrite?
Nico was a double agent tbh
I don’t blame Cuban. Put all that work in just to have one person ruin the fuck out of it. I don’t think I could ever let that one go.
The Nico trade was so bad that people that don’t follow basketball were asking me wtf happened.
I really don’t believe anything Mark Cuban says. Mostly because i have a healthy aversion to billionaires.
It’s really no one’s fault but the owner for pushing out Mark Cuban
A ton of people said it at the time, but Nico will become synonymous with anything stupid/trade related.
I’m not even sure a super qualified front office exec could even be hired as a GM if his name was Nico. It would be like someone running for German parliament named Adolph in the 50s.
Marc Cuban sold the team to non basketball people. I hate how he’s tried to rewrite history in his favor. Also, he kinda sucked as an owner. He admitted to never taking the draft seriously. Dirk never played with another prime star. The Mavs won one championship in spite of him. As soon as they got it right he let Barea, Butler, and Chandler walk so that he could have a conversation with Dwight Howard.
Pfft Cuban doesn’t care, he’s heading to the southern part of the Gulf when the bonito run, and they are BIG.
good Nico can’t ever get enough hate for what he’s done
This dude hired him, sold the team to someone that doesn’t know anything about basketball instead trusting the guy who Cuban hired and now acts all innocent. Also the clippers stuff with Cuban defending the owner.
I think Nico is a good guy! Because the owner that suffers is a bitch
Fuck Mark Cuban
yes its so hard to hide when you do a highly produced podcast with questions written up by your pr team, then post an edited video highlighting the specific narrative you want to spread
soOOoooOOOoooOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo difficult
You hired him, fuck face.
Someone had something on that man and this was his payment.
Why’s he talking to a bug?
He didn’t like people ridiculing and booing Nico though
Y’all need to go subscribe to the Adam Friedland show right the fuck now or don’t it’s up to you but it’s really good
This guy sold the team. So he also holds some blame.
Seriously in all of sports, what trade even comes close? This shit was nonsensical in every single aspect. I guess in a way thats impressive lol.
I imagine the gap between this and whatever the 2nd worst trade is in history is larger than the gap between 2nd and like a thousand.
Mark’s plastic surgery eyes put me at unease.
Fuck Mark and Nico
He hired him. He should disdain himself.
Get out! Cuban made multiple bad moves from 2011 - until sold the majority stake to a Zionist who wanted Luka traded. Cuban got his 3.5 billion dollars & now gets to blame Nico for what was HIS fault for thinking Adelson would still let him run the team.
I understand how he feels. I can barely hide my disdain for Mark Cuban.
A trade so bad it ended Nico’s career
I believe Nico Harrison was the fall guy and the Adelsons just didn’t want to pay Luka the supermax.
Cuban is like a kid that made a mess of his room and gets mad when his mom tells him to clean it up.
You’re the one who hired Nico in the first place!
Fuck Cuban.
But Mark hired him and sold the team. How is he mad when he chose to sell the team?
What jackass hired him? Which guy was it who was duped into thinking he’d have a say in something he no longer owned?
Cuban is so full of shit.
His legacy could have been the guy who built and surrounded two HOFers with championship teams. He could have gracefully retired at some point with Dirk being his right hand man and Luka being his left hand man and been a god in Dallas.
Instead, the Luka trade will forever be on his resume, even if he had nothing to do with it because people rightfully will always say that if he never sold, this would not have happened.