Sometimes you say something on national television that follows you forever. Nico Harrison said one of those things in February 2025, and now that Jason Kidd is gone too, the receipts are everywhere.
The quote came at the press conference defending the Luka Doncic trade. Harrison, then the Mavericks general manager, was sitting next to head coach Jason Kidd. A reporter asked about how the franchise would view the trade ten years down the road. Harrison’s answer became a meme within hours and a prophecy within months.
“The future 10 years from now, I don’t know,” Harrison said. “They’ll probably bury me and J by then, or we bury ourselves.”
Harrison was fired in November 2025, nine months after he traded the best player in franchise history. On Tuesday, the Mavericks announced they were parting ways with Kidd. That makes it 15 months from the Doncic trade to both the architect of the deal and the coach who stood next to him at the press conference being out of the building.
Buried, in other words.
Mavericks fans are having a field day. Twitter has spent the last 24 hours circulating the original clip of Harrison saying the quote, often with Kidd’s face visible next to him. The reaction at the moment of the original quote, with Kidd offering a thin smile and clearly trying to figure out where the press conference was going, hits very differently now. He looks like a guy realizing his contract was tied to a sinking ship.
The full picture from that day in February 2025 is brutal in hindsight. Harrison stood up and defended one of the worst trades in NBA history. He insisted defense wins championships. He said the move was about long-term flexibility. He praised Anthony Davis, who would spend the next season hurt before being shipped to Washington. He had Kidd sitting next to him as a co-signer, and now both of them are gone.
The Mavericks tried to soften the Kidd announcement by calling it a mutual decision. It does not appear to be. Reports out of Dallas indicate Kidd wanted to be promoted to president of basketball operations after Harrison was fired. New owner Patrick Dumont informed him months ago that he would not be considered for the front office. Kidd was also frozen out of the search that brought in Masai Ujiri from Toronto. Once Ujiri was hired, the writing on the wall was clear.
Kidd’s five-year tenure in Dallas finished 205-205 in the regular season. He coached the team to the Western Conference Finals in 2022 and the NBA Finals in 2024. He also presided over the 26-56 disaster of last season, the year that effectively ended the Harrison era and started the rebuild.
The Doncic trade is still the line of demarcation. Before the trade, the Mavericks were a Finals team built around the best young player in the league. After the trade, they are a 26-win team starting over with Ujiri, an unknown head coach, and a roster that does not have a clear identity.
Harrison said they would bury themselves. Fifteen months later, the eulogies are practically written. The only question left is whether Ujiri can build something new on top of the wreckage before this becomes a permanent reset.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
