The Dallas Mavericks
fired general manager Nico Harrison on Tuesday morning, following what will likely be remembered by most as the worst nine months any fanbase has ever faced in sports history. This came after Harrison made the daring move to trade fan favorite Luka Doncic to Western Conference rival Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis and one first-round pick. The move, made on a Saturday night in February, sparked the most public outcry and backlash that a trade has ever received. From social media campaigns and trending #FireNico hashtags to in-arena protests, billboards, and chants at games, fans made their displeasure impossible to ignore. After a 3-8 start through 11 games in the “defense wins championships” era, Dumont decided to let Harrison go, but only because of the outcry of the fans.
The shock trade of Luka Dončić on February 2, 2025 (just ahead of the NBA deadline) ignited a firestorm of fan anger. Within days, hundreds of Mavericks fans gathered for a protest rally outside the team’s first home game after the trade (on February 8 against Houston) to demand Harrison’s firing. They carried homemade signs emblazoned with slogans like “LOYALTY DIED #FIRENICO” and “TRADE NICO”, and chanted “Fire Nico!” in unison. A video of the demonstration shared by local media showed a crowd of upset fans filling the plaza outside the American Airlines Center, underscoring the raw emotions of the situation. As one
Sports Illustrated report described,” ‘Fire Nico!’ chants blistered through the plaza outside of American Airlines Center” from grieving fans still reeling days after losing their superstar.
“Fire Nico” Chants
The fan backlash was immediate and intense, both in person and online. Fans didn’t just protest at the arena; they also created memorials for Dončić and mobilized broader campaigns. According to one account, supporters
“paid tribute to Dončić by placing signs, flowers and memorabilia outside the arena”, which arena staff later removed. In a more enduring show of defiance, a group of devoted fans launched a fundraising campaign for protest billboards around Dallas targeting Harrison and the team’s new ownership. Within three days, they had raised over $30,000 toward billboard displays denouncing “GM Nico Harrison and the Adelson family” (the new majority owners).
“Trading away Luka Magic has left a deep void in the hearts of Dallas fans,” wrote organizer Jacob Posner in the campaign description, vowing that by banding together,
“we’re sending a strong, undeniable message to the Mavs front office: We refuse to be overlooked, and we deserve better decisions”. The GoFundMe, titled “Dallas Deserves Better,” eventually raised over $50,000 for multiple anti-Harrison, anti-ownership billboards near the arena, a clear indication of how organized and serious the fanbase had become in pressing for change.
As the season resumed, discontent followed Harrison
everywhere the Mavericks played. At the very next home game (February 10, 2025, vs. Sacramento), multiple fans arrived with large “FIRE NICO” signs, making their feelings plain on the arena’s jumbotron. When one such fan was caught on camera mouthing “Fire Nico” during a timeout, arena security swiftly intervened and ejected him and a friend, an action that drew loud boos from the crowd. “With emotions from the Dončić trade still raw, multiple fans were ejected … due to violations of the NBA’s code of conduct,”
ESPN reported, noting the fans’ signs violated rules against derogatory messages. The ejections only inflamed tensions: roughly 1,000 fans had even protested outside the arena before a game that week, chanting “Fire Nico” and even “sell the team,” while wearing T-shirts echoing those slogans. The discontent was so widespread that Mavericks owner/governor Patrick Dumont was loudly booed by the home crowd when he took his courtside seat, showing that fan frustration extended to the top.
Chants of
“Fire Nico!” quickly became a routine soundtrack at Mavericks games. Fans chanted it during the first home game after the trade, again when Luka Dončić made his highly anticipated return to Dallas in a Lakers uniform, and virtually every time the team struggled on the court. One local reporter noted that
“those two words have followed Harrison around since the Dončić deal”, becoming a ubiquitous refrain at Mavericks home games for the rest of the 2024–25 season. The environment grew so hostile that the Mavericks’ arena video crew reportedly stopped showing adult fans on the big screen at all in the immediate aftermath of the trade, focusing only on kids to avoid broadcasting live protests. Despite such measures, the chants only grew louder. By season’s end, Harrison himself acknowledged the constant jeers:
“When you have 20,000 people in the stadium chanting ‘Fire Nico,’ you really feel it,” he said at his April end-of-season press conference. Harrison oddly described the experience as
“awesome, but not in a positive way”, making clear he was acutely aware of the
awe-inspiring scale of the fan anger (even if the terminology raised eyebrows)
Not even
stepping away from Mavericks games could shield Harrison from the chant. In February, Harrison attended a Southern Methodist University (SMU) college game in Dallas, only to have the student section erupt into “Fire Nico” chants upon spotting him in the stands. Even children joined in at that SMU game, as videos showed
“the next generation… joining the ‘Fire Nico’ movement” to heckle the Mavs executive in a completely different arena. This illustrated how ubiquitous the slogan had become across Dallas.
As WFAA News reported, Nico Harrison seemingly
“can’t go anywhere in the city without calls for his termination.” Fans were venting not only at Mavericks games but at any opportunity, a reflection of how deeply the trade and subsequent losing stung the community.
Social Media Campaigns
Beyond physical protests, Mavericks fans harnessed
social media to voice and organize their discontent. On Twitter (now X), the hashtag
#FireNico became a rallying cry. Fans flooded team-related posts with calls for Harrison’s firing and shared viral footage of chants at games. For example, during a late-October 2025 loss (as the new season began 0–2), a loud
“Fire Nico!” chant broke out at the American Airlines Center. A fan’s video of it spread quickly on X.”‘ Fire Nico’ chant starts as the win-now Mavs are losing to the Wizards,” one fan tweeted, alongside a video capturing the crowd’s unified cries. The phrase even trended locally on Twitter at various points during the saga (especially after high-profile losses or news mentions), appearing in the platform’s trending topics for Dallas sports conversations.
Fans on X also shared memes and expressed their frustration in creative ways. Many began ironically referring to themselves as “free agent fans,” declaring that they would not support any team until Harrison was gone.
“I thought being a free agent fan would be more fun, but this has sucked,” one supporter joked, pining for a reason to cheer for the Mavericks again. Others on Twitter directly pledged to stay away from team media or games
“if they ever #FireNico,” effectively a conditional boycott. One fan told the Mavericks’ podcast hosts, “Looking forward to jumping back in if they ever #FireNico”, implying he had stopped engaging with team content until the GM was fired. Another fan tweeted, “So proud of our fanbase. Not letting Nico off the hook just because he drafted Cooper Flagg,” commending fellow supporters for keeping up the pressure despite a promising rookie joining the team. These posts, which were racking up likes and replies, demonstrate how MFFLs (Mavs Fans for Life) sustained a coordinated online movement calling for Harrison’s removal.
On Reddit, the Mavericks’ fan community was equally vocal and organized. The r/Mavericks subreddit saw daily discussion threads dissecting every team misstep and linking them to Harrison’s decisions. Highly upvoted posts carried titles like
“Time to fire Nico” (after seeing Dončić thrive elsewhere) and
“The Fire Nico chants are well deserved”, reflecting the consensus that the GM had to go. Fans on Reddit even coordinated some of the offline protests. For instance, brainstorming and promoting the “Dallas Deserves Better” billboard campaign that took shape in early February. The organizer of the billboard fundraiser shared planning details with the subreddit, rallying fellow fans to donate and contribute slogan ideas. In essence, Reddit became a hub for Mavericks faithful not only to commiserate but also to plan tangible actions (protests, billboards, coordinated chants) demonstrating their ire. By the time rumors swirled in November that Harrison was on the hot seat, users on r/Mavericks were tracking every development, with one commenter noting the
“power of [fan] stupidity in numbers” that might finally force the front office’s hand
Other platforms also mirrored this sentiment. On Facebook and Instagram, local fan groups and pages shared clips of “Fire Nico” chants and photos of protest signs or T-shirts. One viral Facebook video showed a Mavs fan screaming
“Fire Nico” directly at Harrison near the team tunnel, capturing the GM’s uncomfortable reaction before security intervened. Instagram posts from Mavericks games highlighted the unrest as well. For example, a Dallas news station’s Instagram account showed a fan wearing a custom “Fire Nico” shirt at a home game, noting that some supporters were literally wearing their displeasure on their sleeves. Even Dallas-area student sections got in on the social media moment, as clips of the SMU “Fire Nico” chant went viral on TikTok and Twitter, drawing comments like “Dallas fans are everywhere with this energy.” Across all these channels, fans amplified one another’s messages, making it clear that the call to fire Nico Harrison had united a large segment of the fan base.
The Team Response
Throughout 2025, journalists and even Mavericks personnel regularly cited the
fan backlash as an unavoidable factor in the team’s turmoil.
The Dallas Morning News wrote that Harrison’s legacy would be defined by
“immediate backlash from fans” over the Dončić trade, noting how chants of “Fire Nico” became
“a universal swan song anytime the Mavericks found themselves in an unfortunate position”. That outlet observed that fans chanted it at the first game after the trade, during Dončić’s return to Dallas, and even as the team’s fortunes faded nine months later. By November, national analysts agreed
“the writing was on the wall,” given the toxic fan atmosphere.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon documented how
“‘Fire Nico!’ chants have frequently been heard in the American Airlines Center since the stunning trade”, intensifying as losses piled up. After one early-season defeat, MacMahon described
“many Mavericks fans venting their frustration…in familiar fashion, chanting for the termination of Nico Harrison as the final minute played out” of the game. It was clear that this was no longer a fringe sentiment but a regular occurrence “familiar” to anyone following the Mavs.
Notably, players and coaches also publicly recognized the fans’ sentiments. Following a February game full of boos and “Fire Nico” calls, veteran Maverick Kyrie Irving told reporters he understood why people were so emotional: “To see the emotions come out like that over basketball just shows…they want to see [their favorite players] forever…. I understand where people are coming from”. His teammate Klay Thompson echoed that perspective, admitting “I’d probably voice my opinion too” if he were a fan upset by a trade. Thompson noted that while the players can’t get deflated by criticism, “it’s the nature of the game…we deserve a lot of criticism. We’re the ones out there… I was a fan for 20 years… I would’ve definitely criticized players”. This empathy from star players lent legitimacy to the fans’ grievances and indicated that the team’s locker room was aware of how badly the relationship with supporters had been damaged.
Even head coach Jason Kidd, who generally focused on on-court matters, commented on the chants. After fans resumed the
“Fire Nico” chorus in October 2025 when Dallas started 0–2, Kidd told the media:
“I think they have a right to vent… I understand the frustration. We all want to win… Fans have a right to express themselves”. He pleaded for patience as the retooled team found its footing, but acknowledged the anger was real and justified. Such remarks indicate that the coaching staff also felt the pressure, knowing that fan tolerance for a rebuild was low following the controversial trade.
Over the past nine months, Mavericks fans have mounted a sustained campaign, both online and in-person, that has kept the spotlight squarely on Nico Harrison’s tenure, which has been marred by controversy. Through trending hashtags, passionate Reddit threads, public protests, game-night chants, and even creative expressions like billboards and custom merchandise, the MFFL community made their dissatisfaction heard loud and clear. This ultimately demonstrates the significant impact a fan base can have on its team. While poor on-court performance provided the formal justification for the firing, it was the fans’ unwavering voice, as expressed through their protests, chants, and demands for accountability, that set the stage for this front-office change. As the dust settles, the saga of Nico Harrison’s firing stands as a testament to how fan sentiment can directly impact a franchise’s direction in professional sports.
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