The Luka Doncic trade was not a standalone instance of Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison betraying those in the organization.
According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and a long list of Mavericks sources who chimed in to him, the drama within the franchise dates all the way back to August 2023, when Harrison fired a longtime Mavericks staffer, Casey Smith, who was close with both Dirk Nowitzki and Doncic.
But it wasn’t just that Harrison let go a trusted member of the organization, he did so while Smith was out of the state tending to his gravely ill mother in the final weeks of her life.
With Smith being in his hometown in Ohio and Harrison being back in Dallas, the former wasn’t able to meet in person, leading to Harrison setting up a call in which he fired Smith — seemingly out of nowhere.
Smith worked for the Mavericks for nearly two decades — he began as the Mavericks’ head athletic trainer in 2004 before making his way up to Dallas’ director of health and performance years later.
Nowitzki, who’s widely considered the greatest Maverick of all time, credited Smith for contributing so significantly to the German big man’s lengthy 21-year career. Nowitzki considered Smith to be one of his best friends.
Since Smith’s firing, Nowitzki has been noticeably distant from the Mavericks.
He’s attended just two NBA games since the blockbuster trade Harrison executed at this year’s deadline: Doncic’s first as a Laker and the Slovenian star’s first game back in Dallas.
Nowitzki also used to frequently attend practices and provide team input, but opted to no longer be involved in the inner workings of basketball operations after Smith’s firing.
“Over the past year, you could already see the team heading in a different direction,” Nowitzki said in German recently on the “Campus 41” podcast. “Now we’re seeing the result of that.”
Doncic was widely expected to be the one to dethrone Nowitzki as the greatest Maverick of all time and was also close with Smith — he was one of the few Mavericks staff members who was able to connect with Doncic when he came to Dallas from Europe as just a teenager.
Harrison reasoned the firing by saying that Smith was “too negative,” which many within the team interpreted as Harrison wanting more of a “yes-man” in the role.
“[Harrison] was 100 percent threatened by [Smith],” a source told ESPN. “[Harrison’s] going to show that [he’s] in charge and nobody else can question that.”
Harrison, who traded Doncic due to his frustrations with the superstar’s conditioning, believed that Smith was an “enabler” of Doncic.
“You bringing up Casey [Smith] is like almost, it’s kind of a joke,” Harrison said last week. “Last year, Casey wasn’t around, and we made it to the Finals. No one brought up Casey last year. So, to bring him up this year doesn’t really make sense. He’s been away for two years. So it’s — I’m not even going to comment on that.”
Smith now works with the Knicks as their vice president of sports medicine, reuniting him with former Maverick Jalen Brunson.