Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison seems to be digging himself a deeper hole and the media are coming for him.
His latest blunder was admitting that he didn’t know how much Luka Doncic really meant to Dallas fans.
“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison told reporters during his end-of-the-season press conference. “I didn’t quite know to what level.”
Smith wasn’t at all impressed by this comment.
“[Harrison] looked bad saying what he said yesterday,” Smith said. “You underestimated, you didn’t know how much, to what degree fans loved Luka Doncic? You underestimated that? Where the hell do you live? Are you in Waco, Texas, or someplace instead of Dallas? What are you talking about? How could you utter those words out of your mouth?
“That means that you are in some cocoon somewhere, you don’t go outside, you don’t go to the games, which clearly is not true because he’s always there. I’m saying, how in God’s name could you possibly say that?… You can’t say what he said, talk about being tone-deaf. Talk about being clueless and completely removed from reality to say you didn’t know how much the fans loved Luka Dončić.”
Barkley took a softer approach with the whole situation.
“Listen man, I consider you a friend of mine — Nico Harrison, I consider you a friend of mine,” Barkley said on Inside the NBA on TNT. “I wish you nothing but the best. I thought you did a good job last year with the Mavs, and obviously whatever happened this year didn’t work out.
“Man, don’t do no more press conferences. I don’t even know what you’re doing. I really don’t. I got sympathy and love for you, but I have zero idea what you’re trying to do. This war is over, brother. You takin’ the L (loss).
“I hope you keep your job. I hope that team gets healthy, but man, don’t do any more interviews. Please don’t.”
Whether Nico does keep his job remains to be seen, but he isn’t doing himself any favors at the moment.
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