Former NBA star Charles Barkley came to Nico Harrison‘s defense on Wednesday after the Dallas Mavericks fired him as general manager. The Mavericks’ 3-8 start to the 2025-26 season did not help Harrison keep his job. On top of that, the team had to deal with injuries to the best players. Kyrie Irving is out, recovering from a torn ACL he suffered last season. Anthony Davis, on the other hand, has missed his seventh-straight game of the year due to a calf strain.
But the frustration from the Mavericks fans stemmed last season, when the franchise traded away five-time All-Star guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. Since then, the team’s supporters have protested that Harrison should be relieved from his position. Fans got their wish on Tuesday when owner Patrick Dumont released a statement confirming that the organization has moved on from the executive.
While most of the blame has been directed at Harrison, Barkley is the opposite. He believes that it’s unfair that he was the Mavericks’ “scapegoat.” The current ESPN analyst also said that Dallas just had a string of bad lucks, especially with the injuries to their star players.
“[Harrison] was doing a good job, then he had the bad luck with Anthony Davis never being available, basically,” Barkley said. “But the thing that bothers me is he’s just being made a scapegoat. … There’s no way in the world Nico Harrison had the power to trade Luka Doncic unless the owner of the team signed off on it. That was his call.”
"There's no way in the world Nico Harrison had the power to trade Luka Doncic unless the owner of the team signed off on it. … I feel bad the way Nico's being made a scapegoat."
Charles Barkley weighs in on the Mavericks parting ways with GM Nico Harrison. pic.twitter.com/ooMEl0a7iy
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 13, 2025
Charles Barkley’s co-host and former NBA star, Shaquille O’Neal, agreed with his take.
“It’s part of the business. When you’re in a powerful position, sometimes you become what’s known as the ‘scapegoat’ when things don’t go well,” O’Neal said. “He’s done a lot of things there, but he’ll always be remembered for trading Luka Doncic.”
Charles Barkley had high praise for Nikola Jokic
On Wednesday’s edition of “Inside the NBA,” Charles Barkley took the chance to recognize what Nikola Jokic has done for the Denver Nuggets. According to Barkley, the Serbian star is the best basketball player in the world, and many people are taking him for granted.
“What the Joker’s doing right now, we’re just taking this dude for granted, man. He is the best basketball player in the world. He’s just going out there getting easy triple-doubles. And he ain’t getting them flukey, like 10 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists. He’s getting like 25, 16, and 17. But those three teams (Nuggets, Spurs, Lakers) are the best right now,” Barkley said.
Jokic is averaging 26.2 points, 13.2 rebounds and 11.4 assists through 10 games. With an 8-2 record under his leadership, the Nuggets are tied for second place with the San Antonio Spurs.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
