Charles Barkley wants Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison to stop talking with the media about the Luka Dončić trade.
“Listen, man, I consider you a friend of mine, Nico Harrison. I consider you a friend of mine, I wish you nothing but the best,” Barkley said during Inside the NBA on Monday. “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.”
He continued: “I don't even know what you're doing, I really don’t,” he continued. “Like, I got sympathy and love for you, but I have zero idea what you're trying to do. This war is over, brother. You taking the L. I hope you keep your job, I hope that team get healthy, but man, don't do anymore interviews. Please don't.”
His remarks come after Harrison held an end-of-season press conference early Monday where he addressed all questions pertaining to Dončić. When asked about the outrage among Mavericks fans over the trade, Nico confessed he knew Luka was “important to the fan base,” but underestimated how much the five-time NBA All-Star meant to them.
“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said at the 9:31 mark in the video above. “I didn’t quite know it to what level.”
Nico believed that getting Anthony Davis in the deal, and putting him on a fully healthy team that included Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving would quiet the negative responses. However, injuries to Davis and Irving never allowed fans to witness the team’s full potential.
Since the trade, Mavericks fans have been quite vocal about their disapproval, most notably when they chanted “Fire Nico” throughout the game when Luka returned to Dallas for the first time. “When you have 20,000 people in the stadium chanting, ‘Fire Nico,’ you really feel it,” Harrison said at the 12:35 mark.
Nico repeatedly stated that his intention with trading Dončić was to solidify the defense by acquiring Davis in the deal. “We really feel that defense is our calling card, and what we’re gonna hang our hat on, and when you have an opportunity to get one of the best two-way players in the league, we jumped at that opportunity,” he said at the 3:50 mark.