Hopefully, Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison didn’t try to clear his mind by watching the Dallas Stars Thursday night.
Harrison is used to “fire Nico” chants that break out at Mavericks games by now. But Thursday night, a “fire Nico” chant broke out at a Stars game, and it garnered enough support from inside the arena that the rallying cry could be heard clearly on the broadcast.
This shouldn’t be too much of a shock. Harrison might be the most hated person in American sports after shipping Luka Dončić off to the Los Angeles Lakers. He heard “fire Nico” chants at Mavericks games, he’ll hear it at Stars games, he probably even hears it at the local Starbucks, which is now a place for people to air their sports grievances.
The surprising part about this, however, is when it occurred. Maybe if it was a 5-0 game and fans had already exhausted their efforts in starting the wave. But late in the third quarter of a 2-2 game? You would expect the crowd to be more invested in the close game in front of them than trying to get the general manager of another team in a different sport fired. But that’s what happens when you trade away a city’s most universally appreciated athlete.
The Cowboys might have more popular players, but no athlete in Dallas was more unanimously beloved than Dončić. Everyone in Dallas recognized how great he is — well, everyone except for Harrison, perhaps.
It’s been a historically bad month for Mavericks fans. They watched a 25-year-old generational superstar get traded away because of injury concerns, only to lose Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving to injury. The Mavericks went from a franchise full of hope after going to the NBA Finals last year, to an organization that has now watched their season and reputation turn into shambles. And the only way fans know how to react is by blaming the person seemingly in charge, Nico Harrison.