Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison finally has a reason to smile after a rough couple of months following the Luka Doncic trade. The Mavericks won the 2025 NBA Draft lottery to secure the No. 1 pick for the upcoming draft, and Harrison’s joyous reaction to the results went viral on social media.
The moment we won 🙌 #MFFL pic.twitter.com/KfsitX1tFE
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) May 13, 2025
Harrison and the Mavericks would not have been expecting to get the top pick in the lead-up to the lottery. They had just a 1.8% chance, the fourth-lowest odds, and fortune smiled on them after everything that had gone wrong in the months prior.
Harrison had been put on blast for trading Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February, and things went from bad to worse from then on. The Mavericks had acquired Anthony Davis as part of the package for Doncic, and he’d get injured on debut.
More injuries then followed to derail the Mavericks’ season, and the hammer blow would come in the form of Kyrie Irving suffering a torn ACL in March. They still managed to make it to the play-in tournament, but were knocked out by the Memphis Grizzlies in the final game.
A season that promised much turned into an absolute disaster for the Mavericks. They went from making the NBA Finals in 2024 to not even being in the playoffs in 2025.
While there was some misfortune involved, Harrison bore the brunt of the blame for the Mavericks’ failings. He had put together a team that could compete for a championship in 2024, but had seemingly undone all that good work by shipping Doncic out of town.
The Mavericks seemed a bit lost heading into this offseason, but have now been given a lifeline. They are set to draft Cooper Flagg, and he gives the franchise a new lease on life.
Of course, the Mavericks getting the opportunity to draft Flagg after all this has led to suggestions that the lottery was rigged. Their CEO, Rick Welts, was part of the first-ever draft lottery in 1985, and he recalled the conspiracy theories.
“I’m the only person who was in this room and the room 40 years ago. I was in charge of the NBA draft lottery 40 years ago when Patrick Ewing won. I’ve been doing conspiracy theory stories ever since. This is very surreal, personally.”
Many cried foul when the New York Knicks won the 1985 lottery to draft Patrick Ewing, and it’s the same story now. The Mavericks couldn’t care less, of course, just like the Knicks back then.
The Mavericks had Rolando Blackman represent them at the lottery, and he is hoping the fans get off Harrison’s back now that they got the top pick. During an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio, Blackman stated the fanbase can now stop with the “Fire Nico” chants.
“The Dallas Mavericks fanbase now can yell other things instead of what they’ve been yelling the last part of the season,” Blackman said.
That’s unlikely to be the case. Getting Flagg does ease the fanbase’s pain a bit, but they are never going to forgive Harrison for trading Doncic. Also, he didn’t exactly have anything to do with them getting this top pick, for them to look past that decision. Harrison is going to remain Public Enemy No. 1 in Dallas for a very long time.
