Nico Harrison is trying everything to move on from Luka Dončić — and none of it’s working.
The Mavericks GM attempted to laugh his way through the wreckage during his first media appearance following the fallout of the trade. On Tuesday, Harrison and team president Rick Welts met with select members of the Dallas media behind closed doors, with no cameras and no immediate audio recordings.
According to Dallas Morning News beat writer Mike Curtis, reporters were eventually permitted to tape the conversation, but the setup didn’t exactly scream transparency.
The optics couldn’t have been worse for a man now widely considered public enemy No. 1 in Dallas.
Tim Cato of DLLS Sports suggested the meeting offered little in the way of accountability, which is ironic given how hard Harrison has tried to frame himself as exactly that: a leader willing to own his decisions. But gathering a hand-picked group of media behind closed doors? That’s the PR equivalent of lighting a match in a gas leak.
Cato called the whole thing “bizarre.” In his review of the transcript, Cato noted that the agreement going into the meeting was that no video or audio would be used, just a handful of select reporters behind closed doors. His main takeaway? The messaging didn’t shift much. Defense wins championships. That was the line. Over and over again.
“There was definitely some re-creating of a narrative that didn’t involve Luka, although I thought there were some shots in there,” Cato recalled. “Nico said, ‘A lot of times, trades take a little bit of time, but our philosophy going forward is that defense wins championships.'”
Harrison repeated that mantra like a man trying to convince himself. And for all the talking, Cato walked away with the sense that no real answers were offered, just a rehash of old talking points dressed up as a new direction.
Same old, same old.
“At the end, I didn’t feel it was that transparent,” Cato said. “That’s the thing that most stood out, is that if you’re going to do it in this way if you’re going to have just a very select number of media members, you’re not going to film it, you’re not going to televise it, at this point why not be more transparent about the exact workings of the thing? If you’re just going to say the same thing over and over again, ‘Defense wins championships when the defense was a top-10 defense after the trade deadline last season. That defense helped get them to the NBA Finals.
“If you’re not going to explain why you think that defense from last year was flawed when asked about it, that’s not transparency. That’s just doubling down and saying the same phrases and words that you believe most justify to the public why you made this baffling move.”
Cato was still processing everything that was said, but his initial takeaway was that Harrison wasn’t offering clarity. The Mavs GM was simply trying to rewrite the narrative, one rehearsed line at a time.
Harrison was asked what he believed fans misunderstood most about the trade. His answer? That the biggest misconception is simply this: “We believe defense wins championships.”
That was it. No deeper explanation. No breakdown of fit, timeline, or how trading away a generational offensive engine supposedly strengthens your defense-first identity. Just the same vague philosophy repeated again.
This closed-door meeting wasn’t meant to replace the usual postseason press conference — the traditional exit interviews with the front office. According to Cato, that’s still expected to happen, potentially as soon as Thursday. Of course, that depends on whether the Mavericks win their do-or-die play-in game against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.
In the meantime, the Dallas media is left to chew on vague philosophies, off-camera messaging, and a GM who seems more committed to controlling the narrative than actually clarifying it.