Warriors' Draymond Green Slams Media Coverage After Mavericks-Lakers Luka Doncic Trade

When the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers without warning in the middle of the night, Nico Harrison was rightfully slammed for the move. Months later, it led to him being fired as the general manager of the Mavs.

The reason that he says he made the trade out loud was "Defense wins championships," but behind the scenes, Harrison had grown tired of Doncic's lack of conditioning and constantly getting injured, as well as his complaining with the officials.

Recently, the media has called out a lot of the same things around Doncic, as the Los Angeles Lakers look like a mess. Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green has caught wind of that and is now going after the media on his podcast for being as harsh as they were on Doncic.

︀︀“So many people crushed Nico for the reasons that he gave. When Nico gave those reasons, everybody said he’s ridiculous, he’s crazy," Green started. "Now, when I turn on the TV, all I see is media who crushed Nico, which essentially aided in him getting fired, regurgitating the same things that Nico Harrison was saying. I haven’t seen one person come out and say, ‘Hey Nico, I’m sorry for the things I said about you when you made those moves, because I just said the same things out of my mouth.’ This has nothing to do with Luka and everything to do with the media and Nico Harrison. Nico gave his reasoning as why he thought that was the right move. Everybody said ‘you’re a f**king idiot.”

Draymond Green calls out the media for having a double standard with Nico Harrison for trading Luka because he didn’t believe in some of his habits 👀

“So many people crushed Nico for the reasons that he gave. When Nico gave those reasons everybody said he’s ridiculous, he’s… pic.twitter.com/IM5N9q9iyW
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) February 27, 2026

There Are Many Reasons to Criticize Nico Harrison For the Trade

Everyone called Nico Harrison crazy because of the totality of the trade. The Mavericks were months removed from making the NBA Finals and traded their biggest star, one whom the city of Dallas had attached to. The Mavericks have a very loyal fanbase after Dirk Nowitzki spent 21 years with the franchise, and Doncic was supposed to be next part of that.

To trade him away while only negotiating with one team, the NBA's most iconic franchise, and only getting pennies back in return made it worse. They only got back Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. A year later, the franchise turned around and salary-dumped Davis to the Washington Wizards for expiring contracts and low-ranking draft capital.

Doncic has flaws as a player: his defense will always be heavily criticized, he's not driving to the basket as much as he used to, he's not the most durable player, and he complains a lot to the officials. But he's still one of the four best players in the world, and he belonged to Dallas. That's why Nico Harrison was, and always will be, so heavily scrutinized for making that trade.

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