Nico Harrison reacts to Luka Doncic's disappointment over Mavericks GM having 'no regrets' on trading him to Lakers

It's getting to a war of words between Luka Doncic and Nico Harrison. Days after Doncic said that Harrison's apparent talk about his defense and health was "sad," the Dallas Mavericks GM came up with his own response.

After the Mavericks missed the playoffs, Harrison held a press conference. In a video posted by NBA Central on X, when a reporter asked about his response to Luka Doncic, Harrison said that he felt the same way and was ready to move on.

"I feel the same way he does. Like, I have actually never spoken ill of Luka at all and I am just ready to move on with the team that I have."

In an interview with ESPN that aired on Friday, April 18, Malika Andrews asked for Doncic's response to Harrison saying he had 'no regrets' because "defense wins championships." This was in response to a question regarding his decision to trade him.

The LA Lakers superstar said that Harrison's comments were "sad" and he wanted to "move on."

"It’s just sad the way he’s talking right now," Doncic said. "I never say anything bad about him and I just want to move on."

The Dallas Mavericks have had a very unfortunate season. After the Luka Doncic trade, Kyrie Irving went down with a knee injury and is expected to miss the start of the next season as well. They also missed the playoffs after finishing as a 10th seed in the 2024-25 season.

Nico Harrison admits he underestimated Luka Doncic's massive fanbase in Dallas

Nico Harrison might have made a sound decision from his own reasoning and perhaps, this new Mavs team would be able to redeem him in future. However, it seems like he wasn't entirely aware of the sentiment of his fanbase when he decided to send his superstar to Los Angeles.

During the same interview that he held as the Mavs' season came to an end, Harrison said that he knew that the Dallas fanbase loved Luka Doncic. However, after witnessing the outrage, he said that he has underestimated the love.

"I did know that Luka was important to the fan base. I didn't quite know it to what level," Harrison said.

However, Harrison again repeated his true intention to pull the trigger on the trade. He said that he believed that a team with Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, Derek Lively and Anthony Davis was a championship team.

The Dallas Mavericks won only 39 games this season, just a year after reaching the NBA Finals. Harrison also added that the outrage from fans also happened because the Mavs couldn't win games.