Ever since Nico Harrison made that wild call to send Luka Doncic to the Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks have been drowning in drama. You’d think the guy who helped break the Mavs’ Finals drought would be untouchable, right? Nope. Less than a year after Luka dragged them to their first Finals since 2011, poof—he’s gone. And listen, the reaction?

Nuclear! Fans lost it (as is their right). The second Doncic stepped back into the American Airlines Center, the “fire Nico” chants exploded. I mean, you could hear (read: feel) them through your TV speakers. That kind of rage doesn’t die down overnight—it’s only been building.

Now, instead of cooling things off, Harrison’s been pouring gas on the fire. He held two pressers in six days, and man, neither one helped. The first one was this hush-hush, no-cameras-allowed meeting at the AAC with a handpicked media group. Weird, right? Then Monday rolls around, and he does another one, this time open to the local press at the Mavs’ facility.

When asked directly if this conference was being held to provide the fan base with a real explanation for the controversial deal, Harrison quickly shut that idea down. “No, it was… well, one, we do, we do this every year. This is, we do exit interviews. It’s, it’s no, it’s no different than what we’ve done in previous years,” Harrison said, appearing to deflect the emotional weight fans have attached to this offseason’s biggest move.

He continued, acknowledging that fans still don’t have answers but not suggesting they’re owed any either: “But because we haven’t adequately answered the questions, we figured we would open it up as well right now.” The lack of emotion—or even acknowledgment of the pain this move caused the fan base—was hard to miss. There was no apology. No regret. Just a cold, procedural response to what many in Dallas consider the biggest betrayal in franchise history.

And if the front office’s silence wasn’t loud enough during the chaos of the past few months, Harrison’s next admission only twisted the knife further. He openly acknowledged that, instead of stepping in to ease the tension or face the media storm himself, he left it to the players and head coach Jason Kidd to do the explaining.

“Yeah, we could have been better, you know, as I look back on it. Hindsight, we could have been better,” Harrison admitted when asked whether he should have done more to shield the locker room from the fallout of the trade. “Our goal was, is, never to run away from the media. That’s part of the job, and that’s the obligation.”

But then came the deflection.

“But also, we wanted to, we wanted to talk after we had our roster. You know, our plan was to put Kyrie, Klay, A.D, PJ, Lively on the floor so that people could see the vision, and unfortunately, that actually never came. So there was never a good time for us to do that.”

Translation? The vision never materialized, so they decided to stay quiet while the locker room and coaching staff took the heat. Rather than facing the music, the Mavericks’ front office left its players to field questions about a trade they had no control over. And now, even Charles Barkley’s had enough.

Charles Barkley has a (friendly) request for Nico Harrison

Before Monday’s games tipped off, Charles Barkley had a message for Nico Harrison—and it wasn’t sugar-coated. Despite calling him a friend, Barkley didn’t mince words. “Don’t do no more press conferences,” he said on national TV. “I don’t even know what you’re doing…This war is over, brother. You taking the L.”

It was tough love from someone who clearly still supports Harrison’s role with the Mavericks. Barkley hopes the GM keeps his job, and the team turns things around. But when it comes to public speaking? He’s begging Harrison to stop.

And honestly, it’s hard to blame him.

This all could’ve been handled differently. If Harrison had faced the media in Dallas right after the Luka trade, fans still would’ve been furious—but at least they wouldn’t have been left in the dark. Instead, he waited nearly two months.

That silence? It made everything worse.

Then, when he finally addressed the media, he didn’t ease any tension. He sounded unprepared, detached, and today, he made things even worse by admitting he didn’t expect this level of fan outrage. Think about that. After watching Luka give this franchise everything—deep playoff runs, MVP-level seasons—Harrison still didn’t see this coming?

Barkley’s right. Nico’s better off staying quiet until draft night. Because at this point, every press conference just reopens wounds the fan base hasn’t even begun to heal from.