DALLAS — Mark Cuban says Dirk Nowitzki was skeptical of the decision to hire Nico Harrison to run the Dallas Mavericks front office, a reservation Cuban said he had not made public until now.
Cuban shared the detail on a special edition of the Haymaker Network’s “House of Haymaker,” hosted by Ben Rogers and Jeff “Skin” Wade, while reflecting on the hire that came to define the most turbulent stretch in recent franchise history.
The Mavericks hired Harrison as general manager in 2021. He went on to lead the February 2025 trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, the move that triggered fan backlash and preceded his firing in November 2025. Cuban’s comments add a notable wrinkle, placing the franchise’s signature player among the voices who questioned the hire at the outset.
Mark Cuban Says Dirk Nowitzki Was Skeptical of the Nico Harrison Hire
Cuban said Nowitzki did not embrace the direction the front office was taking, and singled out the Harrison hire specifically.
“Dirk didn’t agree with everything that was going on,” Cuban said. “He didn’t agree with the Nico hiring. I don’t think I’ve said that publicly before.”
Cuban said Nowitzki voiced his doubt directly when the two discussed it.
“Dirk was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know if that’s the way to go,'” Cuban said.
Given how the Harrison tenure ended, Cuban gave Nowitzki credit for the early read.
“So to his credit, he called it,” Cuban said.
Why Mark Cuban Wanted Nico Harrison
Cuban explained the thinking behind the hire, framing it as an attempt to fix a specific organizational weakness rather than a misjudgment at the time.
“I explained to him that I needed somebody who had relationships with players already, and that was what we were missing,” Cuban said.
He said the franchise had struggled to attract top free agents and viewed Harrison’s deep network, built over years at Nike, as the remedy.
“Nico worked with them closely, and so he knew all these people,” Cuban said.
Cuban pointed to Harrison’s long relationship with Anthony Davis, the centerpiece of the Dončić return, as an example of the kind of connection that made him appealing.
“When he made the AD trade, he knew him from the time he was 13,” Cuban said.
Why Dirk Nowitzki’s Skepticism Resonates Now
Cuban’s account aligns with the position Nowitzki took publicly once Harrison was dismissed. In a television appearance on NBA on Prime shortly after the firing, Nowitzki endorsed the move and suggested it was overdue.
“This move should have probably happened this summer, honestly,” Nowitzki said, citing the distractions surrounding the team.
He tied his concern to the franchise’s young centerpiece, Cooper Flagg.
“I didn’t want this negative energy and this black cloud over the Cooper Flagg era, but here we are now,” Nowitzki said.
Nowitzki was blunt about the trade that defined Harrison’s tenure, echoing the fan reaction to the Doncic deal.
“This trade just made no sense,” Nowitzki said. “It made no sense to [the fans], and really there was no explanation for it either.”
With Harrison gone and Masai Ujiri now leading basketball operations alongside general manager Mike Schmitz, Cuban’s admission that Nowitzki saw trouble early adds the franchise’s most respected voice to the list of those who were wary before the direction unraveled.
Now, like Nowitzki, the Mavericks hope the direction they are headed will lead to success as they build around Flagg for the long term.
