Nico Harrison Reportedly Forced to Hold Presser by Mavs' Dumont, 'Not His Idea'

Nico Harrison held just his second press conference with reporters since his shocking decision to trade Luka Dončić, though he did so without any recording devices allowed in the room.

He faced a number of difficult questions regarding the trade, and the presser reportedly wasn't his idea in the first place.

"My understanding is Nico Harrison did not want to do this closed-door roundtable," ESPN's Shams Charania reported on NBA Countdown. "This was not his idea. This is something that was enforced by the owner, Patrick Dumont."

Many of the recurring themes in the press conference were talking points Harrison previously had expressed after making the trade: Defense wins championships; Anthony Davis as the centerpiece of the return for Dončić was the sort of two-way presence they craved; winning would ultimately ease over the frustrations of a fan base who were perplexed and angry that a 26-year-old superstar in his prime had been dealt away.

One of the interesting questions was whether Harrison regretted not opening up trade talks beyond just the Los Angeles Lakers in an effort to get the best possible return.

"Again, our whole time, we wanted a two-way player," he responded. "Again, our philosophies went in with defense, and AD is at the top of the list, and when we had that opportunity, we struck. In this league, where players really run the league and you guys have seen it with other teams, they dictate where they're going to go and where they're not going to go. We had an opportunity to do this quietly, without the interference of that, and so we did it."

Time will tell if Harrison's reasons for making the trade make sense (and it should be noted, reporting after the deal went down also cited the team's reluctance to sign Dončić to a supermax deal given concerns with his conditioning and potential health concerns going forward). Perhaps the Mavericks plan to add another star this offseason. Either way, players like Dončić, who led the Mavs to the NBA Finals last year and is already a five-time first-team All-NBA selection, simply don't come around often. And they are almost never traded in their prime unless they ask out.

Davis is good, but he's a 32-year-old with a brittle injury history of his own who didn't win much before being paired with LeBron James. Both AD and Kyrie Irving have always been best-cast as the No. 2 option on a team, not as the top dog. And for all of Harrison's talk about defense winning championships, generally teams with a dynamic array of offensive stars win titles.

For that reason, Harrison doubling down on many of his old talking points fell flat. It's easy enough to see why he probably didn't want to hold the press conference in the first place.