The Mavericks have parted ways with Haralabos Voulgaris, a well-known sports gambler who was hired by the team in 2018 as the director of quantitative research and development, reports Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.
As Townsend explains, Voulgaris wasn’t fired by the Mavs. His contract expired at the end of the 2020-21 season and the club simply opted not to re-sign him to a new one.
Although Voulgaris was never Dallas’ head of basketball operations, his departure from the organization is worth highlighting, since he had reportedly gained an outsized influence in the front office in recent years.
A report in June stated that Voulgaris had either initiated or approved nearly all of the Mavs’ roster moves for the last two seasons and suggested that his influence was virtually on par with that of president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson. While Mavericks owner Mark Cuban disputed The Athletic’s portrayal of how much power Voulgaris had, the executive’s abrasive personality was reportedly a source of some tension in the front office and he was said to have a “strained” relationship with star guard Luka Doncic.
Now, three months after that report was published, neither Nelson nor Voulgaris are part of Dallas’ front office, which was overhauled this offseason. Nico Harrison is the team’s new general manager and president of basketball operations.
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