The Dallas Mavericks will play their first home game since the organization traded Luka Dončić Saturday, and general manager Nico Harrison will be on alert.
The trade took the entire sports world by surprise, and Mavs fans have made their displeasure known.
The anger is understandable. A 25-year-old global superstar who led the NBA in scoring last year and helped the Mavs to an NBA Finals appearance was traded away.
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Protests took place outside American Airlines Center Sunday, with one group of fans even bringing a casket to signify their fandom dying.
But other fans have apparently taken it to an unacceptable level and have made death threats against Harrison.
According to ESPN, that has led to “beefed up” security for Harrison for Saturday’s game.
“This is a heartbroken fan base. There have been some very unfortunate developments regarding that anger. Nico Harrison has been subjected to death threats. There have been racial epithets included in some of those. Certainly, security is going to be beefed up. There will be protests outside the arena,” Tim McMahon said on Friday.
“Nico Harrison is not going to be in his normal seat. There’s no reason to subject him to that kind of security risk. That has been an unfortunate part of this storyline. Obviously, the fans’ anger, they have every right to feel like they got a generational superstar ripped away from them, but, certainly, lines have been crossed.”
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Harrison cited defense as a primary reason for the trade, while also noting the risk Dončić, eligible for a $345 million contract, could have left the team next year.
“We really feel like we got ahead of what was going to be a tumultuous summer, him being eligible for the supermax and also a year away from him being able to opt out of any contract,” Harrison said earlier this week. “And so we really felt like we got out in front of that. We know teams, they’ve had it out there, teams have been loading up to try to sign him once that comes available.”
The Lakers acquired Dončić, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris, while the Mavericks got Anthony Davis, Max Christie and Los Angeles’ 2029 first-round pick. To complete the deal, the Utah Jazz acquired Jalen Hood-Schifino and two second-round picks.
In the Mavs’ first game without Dončić, they lost by over 40 points, but neither Kyrie Irving nor Davis played.
Dallas will host the Houston Rockets at 3 p.m. ET Saturday.
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