Report: Patrick Dumont Made Nico Harrison Do Closed-Door Press Conference

According to Shams Charania of ESPN, Patrick Dumont made Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison do the closed-door press conference with local reporters. 

Harrison didn’t want to do it. 

“Nico Harrison did not want to do this closed-door roundtable. This was not his idea. This was something that was enforced by their owner, Patrick Dumont.”@ShamsCharania on the Mavs GM’s press conference. pic.twitter.com/lPilLq8iin

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 17, 2025

Harrison traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis and Max Christie.

He has gotten death threats since the trade but doesn’t seem fazed by them. 

“Personally, I’m optimistic,” Harrison said. “You know, when you look at the team and you know, a couple times we’ve had three games in a row, we had eight players, and only seven and a half could actually play. Some of them were restricted minutes, but they didn’t stop playing. And so I’m super optimistic about that, and I believe in the trade I made, I believe that that’s going to bring us a championship caliber team going forward, and so I’m optimistic and excited about the future, and I do believe that once we win, the fans will come back. My family is solid. I don’t really want to talk about them, but my wife and I, we have super grounded kids, and they’re not oblivious to everything, but they’re well adjusted.”

The Mavericks beat the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday. They need to beat the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday to make the 2025 playoffs. 

Meanwhile, Doncic and the Lakers are the third seed in the West. 

“Yeah, there’s no regrets on the trade,” Harrison said. “Part of my job is to do the best thing for the Mavericks, not only today, but also in the future. And some of the decisions I’m going to make are going to be unpopular, and that’s my job, and I have to stand by it. And one last thing, also add, every trade I’ve done has been met with high scrutiny, and so eventually I’ll earn the trust of this community that you know some of these trades are going to work out, and they have at a high-level.”