Jason Kidd spoke to the Mavericks media at length, just a day after their general manager, Nico Harrison, was fired from the organization. The decision stirred up the media as the ownership openly called the general manager’s decision to trade their former superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers ‘a mistake’ and held him accountable in an open letter to the franchise’s supporters.
Subsequently, the head coach of the franchise, Kidd, spoke to the media about the aftermath of the decision, including its impact on the players. When asked about how the No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg dealt with the chants of “Fire Nico!” from the audience during their last game, Kidd was confident in Flagg’s ability to cut out the noise.
“I would just say look at his game. That’s the simple answer. He’s very mature for an 18-year-old. And if it wasn’t his greatest game (on Monday), it was one of his best,” said Kidd.
“He’s a winner, he wants to win, and he wants his teammates to make every shot. So understand that he’s 18, but in the end, he’s not afraid.”
Kidd felt that the fans were very “disrespectful” towards their own franchise and did not help with the team’s morale in a crucial moment of the game with their “Fire Nico!” chants in the clutch moments of the game after the Mavericks lost a significant lead against the Bucks.
“We can only hope that we don’t have to go through that again because it was a little disrespectful because the guys are playing hard…With that chant when we’re shooting free throws, it’s very disrespectful. But understanding they got their point across, the fans, but we have to move forward.”
“Again, we have a lot of guys who are in street clothes. We got over, I think, $100 million sitting on the sideline…I would hope that we start to get a little credit for that because these guys can hear those things, and they feel really disrespected,” Kidd further added.
“It’s hard to keep guys here in this league when they start to think that the home team is not home and becomes a visiting place, and so hopefully that changes tonight.”
The Mavericks’ head coach was also asked about the impact of Nico Harrison’s firing on the injury return timelines for players like Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.
“No, everybody’s doing their part to get back. Everybody wants to play. Everyone who is hurt, the progress is good. At some point, hopefully, we’ll see Kai in a uniform. He wants to play. He’s working extremely hard, mentally and physically, to get back to help us…
“He’s sitting there using his voice in the locker room, he’s antsy cause he wants to help. And right now the only way he can do that is by using his voice, and he’s doing that every day at a high level.”
“AD’s doing the same thing. He’s working out; he had another positive workout today. So hopefully he continues to trend in the right direction. And so did Lively, who had a positive workout today. Hopefully, we’ll have these guys out there soon,” said Kidd on Davis and Dereck Lively II.
The Mavericks are set to face the Suns tonight. They will look to rely on Cooper Flagg to generate the offense like they did in the last game, where it went down to the wire against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. The franchise will hope to bounce back and find some stability after parting ways with its general manager.
