Mavericks' Nico Harrison contradicts himself yet again

Nico Harrison just cannot get out of his own way. The general manager of the Dallas Mavericks has had a rough 2025, mostly his own fault, which started when he traded away Luka Doncic, a beloved figure within Dallas, for what felt like pennies on the dollar. And every step he's taken since then has backfired.

On Wednesday evening, it was revealed that he had dismissed multiple members from the medical training staff, including athletic performance director Keith Belton and head athletic trainer Dionne Calhoun. This was a needed move, as there were reported tensions within the training staff about recovery times, with the biggest being Dereck Lively II, who went from getting close to returning from a sprained ankle to missing over two months with a stress fracture in his foot. But even though it was a needed move, it still points out a contradiction from the GM.

Apr 18, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison watches warm ups prior to a game against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

About a month ago, Nico Harrison did a private roundtable with select members of the local Dallas media, where they got to fire off questions for about an hour. One of the more notable moments came when ESPN's Tim MacMahon pressed Harrison on Lively's injury and the dismissals of the previously beloved training staff, including Casey Smith.

Harrison responded, "It actually goes to show the strength of our medical team, because he was cleared to play, but his signs and symptoms were—our medical team knew it was something more, and so that's why they went and tested him again and saw the CT scan, which—they actually avoided a potential catastrophic injury... So you know, you will take the angle of being negative, but it's actually a positive thing, because they saw with the symptoms, even though he was cleared to play, they didn't feel right putting him on the floor. And so they went back. They stopped him from playing. They went back. They re-tested, and thank God we saw that he had a stress fracture."

Well, it couldn't have been that strong of a staff if he fired multiple members from it about a month later. We know of Calhoun and Belton (who didn't even have the correct certifications), but there are likely many more who were dismissed. A strong staff wouldn't have cleared Lively to play, to begin with, nor would a strong staff have had multiple members dismissed.

Belton was also a Harrison hire, can he be trusted again to not make the same mistakes? Probably not, but as of now, Nico Harrison still has his job and will be a part of the decision-making process for the new training staff.

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