Browsing: Dirk

When Dirk Nowitzki speaks about the Dallas Mavericks, his voice is heard. The franchise legend and Hall of Famer had a lot to say Friday night at the desk of “NBA on Prime” after he was asked about the firing of much-maligned Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison.

Nowitzki went on for more than two minutes, calling out Harrison’s shocking trade of Luka DonÄić, which Nowitzki said “made no sense” and “definitely set the franchise back” while also explaining how the timing of Harrison’s dismissal is unfortunate because of “this black cloud” that now hovers over the Mavericks at the beginning of 2025 No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg’s NBA career.

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“This move should have probably happened this summer, honestly,” said Nowitzki, who won a championship and NBA Finals MVP with the Mavericks in 2011.

“I didn’t want this negative energy and this black cloud over the Cooper Flagg era, but here we are now.”

At the time of Harrison’s head-scratching February deal that sent a then-25-year-old DonÄić to the Los Angeles Lakers, Nowitzki was working for the Mavericks in an ambassador and advisor capacity. Even so, Nowitzki accepted an invitation from DonÄić, his former teammate and fellow international icon, to attend the five-time All-NBA first teamer’s first game in Los Angeles.

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While DonÄić started a new chapter in purple and gold, the Mavs were more blue than ever. Harrison’s crown jewel of the trade, 10-time All-Star big man Anthony Davis, immediately suffered an adductor strain related to the abdominal injury he hurried back from, costing him six weeks right from the jump. Then nine-time All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving tore an ACL. The injury-riddled Mavericks made the play-in tournament but not the playoffs, and the resentment toward Harrison only grew.

[Get more Mavericks news: Dallas team feed]

Nowitzki said Friday he wasn’t surprised Dallas didn’t “just get over it.”

“I just knew,” he said. “I figured this fan base is a passionate and loyal fan base. I was lucky enough to experience it for 21 years. … They’re extremely passionate.”

Nowitzki continued: “And this trade just made no sense. It made no sense to [the fans]. And, really, there was no explanation for it, either. You go to the [NBA] Finals the year before. You gave up all these assets to build, really, the team around Luka with some 6-9 wings that all can switch and guard. You had two lob threats with [Daniel] Gafford and [Dereck] Lively, and the team was built around [Luka]. You added Klay [Thompson when] the shooting was a little bit of an issue in the Finals against Boston. So you did all this. … Going into [the] Christmas Day game, they were 14-3 out of the last 17 games, so they’re just starting to hit their stride, and then Luka gets hurt. And unfortunately that’s the last game he’s ever played in a Mavs uniform.

“It was very sad. It was very sad how that ended, and it felt like … the fans feel like they got robbed of actually seeing the end, seeing this through, seeing Luka develop into hopefully a champion one day. And it feels like they never got to see the end to this. So this was very heartbreaking.”

Right up until Harrison was fired Tuesday, “Fire Nico!” chants echoed throughout the American Airlines Center at Mavericks home games.

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Head coach Jason Kidd said before Wednesday’s game, the now-3-9 Mavs’ first at home since Harrison was canned, that those chants made his players feel “really disrespected.”

Kidd acknowledged the fans’ healing process yet emphasized it was time to turn the page. Nowitzki agrees.

“Now I think it’s time to move on,” he said Friday on “NBA on Prime.”

“It’s time to move on now, focus on this team, on this franchise. This definitely set the franchise back. But now it’s about building it back up, and obviously this team is struggling a bit. It needs the support, all it can get. So hopefully we can have a good year here from now on and cheer the team up.”

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Dallas Mavericks minority stakeholder Mark Cuban denied the organization ran afoul of any NBA rules when it re-signed Dirk Nowitzki in 2014.

Appearing on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, Cuban called it “nonsense” that a production company he co-owned purchased a documentary about Nowitzki for way above market value as a way to circumvent the salary cap.

Cuban was once again a guest on Torre’s podcast to push back against the idea Los Angeles Clippers team governor Steve Ballmer knowingly paid star Kawhi Leonard through a sponsorship deal with Aspiration.

Starting at the 1:23:15 mark of the episode, Torre pivots to what some fans labeled a “sweetheart deal” between the Mavericks and Nowitzki in 2014.

The franchise legend took a massive pay cut as his salary fell from $22.7 million in 2013-14 to under $8 million the following year. Torre reported he turned down max offers from other teams, and his below-market contract allowed Dallas to land Chandler Parsons that summer.

Cuban asserted that Nowitzki “wanted Tim Duncan money,” a reference to how the San Antonio Spurs star took less toward the end of his run there.

The salary cap had remained around $58 million from 2010-14 and only rose to $63.1 million for 2014-15. At that time, aging stars such as Nowitzki and Duncan were incentivized to sign smaller contracts so their teams would have more flexibility to land other players.

This is where Nowitzki: The Perfect Shot comes in.

Magnolia Pictures, which Cuban co-owned, purchased the distribution rights, and some theorized the transaction was a way to give Nowitzki the money he had had on the table from other teams.

Torre confirmed the Magnolia deal actually totaled $100,000.

Even if the Mavs did violate NBA rules, it had little effect. They lost in the first round of the 2015 and 2016 playoffs, and then they missed the postseason altogether for three straight years.

But Torre and Cuban made it clear the conspiracy theories about Nowitzki’s 2014 return to Dallas were just that.

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There’s an argument to be made that Dirk Nowitzki was the NBA’s original stretch-4 and one of the best power forwards in league history.

Mark Cuban doesn’t believe younger generations see him that way, however.

“I think while he was playing he was acknowledged because he was hitting all these milestones. The championship, 20,000 points, 30,000 points, the number of All-Star Game appearances. When he was playing, people truly appreciated him,” he told Boardroom’s Rich Kleiman (11:00 mark) on Thursday. “Now, he’s appreciated in Dallas because of all the things he does in the community, and true Mavs fans remember and love him, they see the statue in front of the arena.

“But outside of Dallas, it’s almost as if younger fans don’t really understand the impact he had on the game. His ability to come in a change a game, his ability to shoot and score and rebound and do all of the things he needed to do to win. Ten straight years of 50-plus wins. That’s unheard of in this day and age. And yet, kids—unless you’re in a highlight film or on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube videos, you’re not truly appreciated any longer. And that’s not just Dirk, that’s Patrick Ewing, guys we all really, truly loved and appreciated.”

Nowitzki, 47, is a Hall of Famer for a reason. He was a 14-time All-Star, one-time MVP and one-time champion. His 31,560 points are the sixth most in NBA history, and his 1,522 games played rank fifth.

His place in NBA history is secure, even if he hasn’t quite stuck in the collective consciousness among the younger generations like other players of the past.

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