The Dallas Mavericks brought some much-needed joy to their fanbase when they fired general manager and president of basketball operations Nico Harrison on Tuesday. Not long after the news broke, The Athletic pointed out that Cooper Flagg’s mother, Kelly, had reposted a tweet from a Mavericks fan calling for Harrison’s firing.
“Cooper Flagg should not have to listen to ‘Fire Nico’ chants when a teammate of his is at the free throw line with the game on the line. Nico Harrison will be a huge distraction and a stain on this franchise until he is fired. Get rid of him as soon as possible so we can all move forward.”
Cooper Flagg’s mom has entered the chat 😳
Kelly Flagg reposted a fan tweet about Nico Harrison to her X account. pic.twitter.com/iNfhU96Lf4
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) November 11, 2025
Fans calling for a general manager’s firing is one thing, but a player’s mother doing so unsurprisingly caused a stir. Whether fair or foul, the belief then becomes that the player himself feels the same way.
With that in mind, Kelly felt the need to speak up. She issued a clarification in response to that post by The Athletic.
“Retweet wasn’t about firing Nico. It was about the fact that the fans were chanting during our free throws. Our guys had nothing to do with what went down. It’s done now so we all need to move on. Hopefully better days ahead.”
Mavericks fans at American Airlines Center chanting “Fire Nico” had become a somewhat common occurrence after Luka Doncic was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025. The organization obviously wasn’t too pleased with the chanting, and some fans had even been ejected from the arena for expressing their frustrations about Harrison.
The Mavericks might have been hoping they wouldn’t have to deal with the chants in this 2025-26 season, but it wasn’t to be. The chants first broke out as early as the second game of the season, with the team on the verge of falling to 0-2.
You could hear the chants again in the fourth quarter of the Mavericks’ 116-114 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, a game which Harrison attended. With the home team blowing what was once a 13-point lead, the crowd broke into the chant when their players were at the free-throw line.
Cooper, the first pick of the 2025 NBA Draft, was among those who made a trip to the charity stripe, and he did end up missing one free throw. Did the chanting play a part? Only he knows, but it certainly wouldn’t have helped.
As Kelly stated, the Mavericks players had nothing to do with the Doncic trade. They didn’t want the Slovenian gone, and she didn’t like the fact that they were being subjected to this treatment.
Kelly now wants everyone to move on following Harrison’s firing and is hoping for better days ahead. If her son plays as well as he did against the Bucks on a consistent basis, then better days will indeed come for the Mavericks.
Cooper had 26 points (9-15 FG), nine rebounds, four assists, two steals, and one block on the night. It was the 18-year-old’s best game for the Mavericks so far and eased some of the concerns caused by his slow start.
Cooper will be in action next when the Mavericks take on the Phoenix Suns at American Airlines Center on Wednesday at 8:30 PM ET. You’d imagine the atmosphere will be the best it has been for a very long time, and that should give the players a bit of a boost.
