Report: Nike Exec Nico Harrison in Contract Talks to Join Mavericks as President

The Dallas Mavericks are attempting to execute a succession plan in their front office. 

The team is negotiating with Nike executive Nico Harrison about working as the team's president of basketball operations, and they hope to hire him for that role and add Los Angeles Lakers assistant Jason Kidd as their next head coach, according to Marc Stein of the New York Times. 

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon confirmed Stein's report. 

The Mavericks moved on from Donnie Nelson as general manager and president of basketball operations last week, and coach Rick Carlisle announced a day later that he would not return to the franchise. 

Stein added that Harrison has "strong relationships" with players around the league. Other teams have pursued him for front-office positions, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon. 

Harrison played collegiately at Montana State University and professionally in Belgium. He returned to the United States and began working in pharmaceutical sales before he joined Nike as a sales rep in April 2002, according to Carol Schmidt of MSU News.  

Early in his career, he worked with the late Kobe Bryant as his marketing manager, and he also helped push Mavericks star Luka Doncic from Jordan to Nike in 2019, per Nick DePaula of ESPN. 

Harrison was named vice president of North America basketball operations for the company in May 2015.