“WORST TRADE IN NBA HISTORY.” The sign from one of the fans protesting at Dallas Mavericks‘ American Airlines Arena against the Luka Doncic trade presents the fury. And at the center of this hate would naturally be Mavs General Manager Nico Harrison. Amid all the criticism from multiple directions, Harrison would be relieved to find that Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade has his back for his bold decision-making.

“Shout out to Nico Harrison. Shout out to Nico Harrison… What he did… What I dislike is people getting these positions of power… They don’t do nothing with them… I looked at Nico and I said, that’s being bold,” Wade said on his The Why With Dwyane podcast of Harrison’s decision to trade Luka Doncic.

Miami Heat icon further emphasized that not everyone has what it takes to be bold. Something that Harrison did in The Flash’s opinion. The 3x NBA champ even compared Harrison’s guts to be similar to that of Miami Heat President Pat Riley. From letting go of players like Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James to Dwyane Wade himself, there’s no doubt that Riley didn’t have second thoughts when it came to decision-making.

Wade highlighted a similar incident from the past. “If you in the position to be bold, to me, that’s Pat Riley-ish… I go back to what Pat Riley did with us… We come off a very successful year. And then Pat Riley traded for Antoine Walker. We ended up getting Gary Pay… Got Jason Williams, we got James Posey. We did a 13-player trade. We just came off the Eastern Conference finals…”

This shocking trade goes back to August 2005 when the Heat president agreed on a five-team, 13-player deal, considered one of the biggest trades in NBA history. Back then, even Wade was shocked by the decision that came from Riley. “We good… Got Shaq, we got Eddie Jones, UD, me… Big trade in the summer, changed our team. And it was bold… In my mind, I’m like, why are you doing this…”

The Heat legend now has the answers to questions he had in his mind back then. He summed it up perfectly on his The Why with Dwyane Wade podcast. “You got to be bold. You got to see past what everybody else see. And it’s not a lot of people that will do that. And so shout out to Nico for being bold and doing something like that…” Wade had no doubt that the Mavericks were good but had they taken the same team to the Finals this season, they would’ve suffered the same fate they did last season.

If you are a fan of Luka Doncic or the Mavs, you know a major reason for fan hate against Harrison is not just because of the fact he let Doncic go. The backlash also comes from the fact that the trade earned Dallas just Anthony Davis and a single first-round pick despite LA having more players like Auston Reaves and Dalton Knetch throw in for someone like Luka. Furthermore, the Mavs have even sent a second-round pick back to LA in exchange for their first-round pick.

Mavericks GM opens up on the reasoning behind the Luka Doncic trade

To address the decision, the Mavericks GM recently spoke about the team’s long-term vision, emphasizing why they believe Anthony Davis was the right fit. He stated his belief that in the long-term timeframe, AD makes a perfect fit for the Mavs.

Harrison further emphasized that pairing Brow with Kyrie Irving and others in Dallas makes sense for not just winning now but in the future too. “The future to me is three, four years from now. The future, 10 years from now, I don’t know… They’ll probably bury me and (Kidd) by then. Or we’ll bury ourselves.”

Sounds confident, right? But if anything, his comments have only added fuel to the fire. Trading a generational talent like Doncic was already a tough pill to swallow for Mavericks fans, but replacing him with Davis—who has a history of injuries—makes the decision even more questionable.

Since leading the Lakers to a championship in 2020, Davis has struggled to stay on the court. He played just 132 games over the next three seasons while missing 114. Sure, he’s been more available recently, but let’s be real—can the Mavs afford to take that gamble? Even accepting Dwyane Wade’s take on this being a bold decision, the chances that this backfires are pretty strong.