Bill Simmons hits the Nick Harrison factor in the Luka Doncic trade

With Nico Harrison was fired would the Dallas Mavericksthe Luka Dončić The trade as the worst deal in NBA history only grew.

More than nine months after Harrison, the Mavs’ general manager, shockingly pulled the trigger on sending Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas owner Patrick Dumont fired Harrison after near-constant calls from fans and analysts for his job, as well as a 3-8 start to the 2025-26 NBA season. Meanwhile, Doncic and the Lakers, at 8-3, are flourishing.

And while most harshly critical of Harrison at the time of the trade, there were those who refrained from going too far in criticizing the executive for Doncic’s evident weight fluctuations, as well as reported instances of poor work ethic and alarming health habits off the field. But Doncic, noticeably thinner this season, is playing very, very well in Los Angeles, which popular podcaster Bill Simmons was something Harrison just wasn’t bill for pre conducting trade.

“Now that it’s almost 10 months later, and if you look back — this was really, ‘We don’t think Luca can be the face of our team,’ and what’s the best thing we can do, and it’s almost like we could go to the Lakers if we get this trade for him now because they don’t understand what they’re buying,” Simmons said on his podcast. “But the part they missed, which I said at the time, you’re lighting a fire under someone who — the only thing you could throw them at is, well, he’s not in great shape yet, he’s a little bit of a giant. All the things that trading him, you’re just lighting this huge fire under him to be like, ‘Oh, I’ll show you.’ So that was the greatest thing that could ever happen to him, which people were saying at the time, including me. And that’s the part he didn’t include in the trade. What is the potential of what I am giving up? What’s going to happen if this guy takes it to the next level, what’s going on?”

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Doncic, who said he was blindsided by the trade, seems to have taken it personally, and subsequent reports in which Harrison and his allies tried to justify the trade almost certainly didn’t help. Except that it helped the Lakers, who replaced 31-year-old Anthony Davis, prone to injuries, with, at worst, 25-year-old Doncic, who was out of shape. And while it didn’t pay off in a big way last season, Doncic was fired up for LA to start this season.

Although he missed four of the team’s 11 games, Doncic averages 37.1 points9.4 rebounds, 9.1 assists, and shooting career highs or near career highs from the field, at the free throw line, on two point shots, and his true shooting percentage would also be a career high. Due to the great play of Doncic, as well as Austin Reaves, the Lakers are half a game behind the second place in the Western Conference and without LeBron James.

Doncic and the Lakers will play tonight in OKC at 6:30 PM Pacific Time against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.