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Mavericks Take Action on Racist Nico Harrison Death Threats After Luka Doncic Trade

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sean Deveney | Last updated Feb 7, 2025 8:15 PM ET

It will go down as one of the boldest, and perhaps most foolhardy, NBA trades in history, with the Dallas Mavericks shipping out star Luka Doncic to the Lakers for big man Anthony Davis. And while the man who initiated the deal—Mavs GM Nico Harrison—knew there would be fallout, he claimed that dealing away Doncic would prove to be the best thing for the Mavs in the short term, and perhaps in the long-term.

The trouble is, Harrison and the Mavericks underestimated the blowback they’d get on this deal, which was finalized five days ago.

At 25 years old and the heir to the throne of Mavericks greatness handed down from Dirk Nowitzki, Doncic was revered in Dallas, and led the Mavs to the NBA Finals last year. It appeared he had another decade or so of great hoops with the Mavs ahead.

Thus, there has been significant anger in the wake of the trade, including protests from the team’s faithful. It might have been for the best that the Mavs were in the midst of a five-game road trip when the trade happened, but any notion that the fury over the Doncic deal would be mitigated by the passage of days seems to be false.

Mavs fans are still angry. And they’ll play at home on Saturday for the first time in the post-Luka era, fully cognizant that the blowback could get ugly. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported that Harrison has, in fact, been getting death threats, and that the Mavericks are taking those threats seriously enough to move him out of his usual in-game arena seat.

“This is a heartbroken fan base and there have been some unfortunate developments regarding that anger, that angst. Nico Harrison has been subjected to death threats, there have been racial epithets included in some of those,” MacMahon said on ESPN’s SportsCenter.

The Mavericks’ organization has been worried about Nico Harrison’s safety tonight, per @espn_macmahon

"Nico Harrison has been subjected to death threats, security is going to be beefed up. There will be protests outside. Lines have been crossed"

pic.twitter.com/GUrYrIgoWm
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 7, 2025

“Certainly, security is going to be beefed up. There will be protests outside the arena, those are planned. Security will absolutely be beefed up. Nico Harrison is not going to be in his normal seat in the stands. There’s no reason to subject him to that kind of a security risk. That has been, definitely, an unfortunate part of this whole storyline.”

The Mavs tip off on Saturday at 3 p.m. EST against the Rockets.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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