Just over two weeks ago, a stunning trade launched an NBA executive relatively unknown outside basketball circles into the wider public consciousness. Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison’s decision to send 25-year-old Luka Dončić to the league’s glitziest franchise on Feb. 2 was largely unprecedented in sports history, and reaction was swift and deafening: crowds mourning in front of the team’s home arena with a casket, others pledging to cancel season tickets and unfollow the team on social media in droves. Power brokers around the league were bewildered. Conspiracy theories were launched about the franchise’s relatively new ownership group angling to move the team, which commissioner Adam Silver went as far as to dispel during All-Star Weekend. But Harrison has largely remained the center of the scorn. Who is this guy? And why would he do this? The move itself was so well-guarded that no one — save for select members of the Mavs’ and Los Angeles Lakers’ front offices — knew a trade for the ages was coming. Even the Utah Jazz, pulled into the deal for logistical reasons, was left in the dark about the superstar exchange until just before it was finalized. Harrison has always been able to keep a secret. Three decades ago, Harrison didn’t even tell his mother something eminently important, all because he had been asked to keep quiet. In 1992, Harrison was a defensive-minded forward who transferred from West Point to Montana State, a school closer to his home in the Pacific Northwest. Toward the end of a required redshirt year, he approached his coach, Mick Durham, with an uncomfortable question. His family couldn’t afford another year of out-of-state tuition. Could he receive a scholarship moving forward? Durham told him yes, he could, but because it was too far out from the next semester, the change couldn’t yet become official. He asked Harrison to “keep that to yourself until things sort out,” Durham remembered. Two weeks later, Harrison’s mother called the coach. “We have to know if (Nico) is going to get a scholarship or not,” she said, completely unaware of the pact between her son and Durham. “We can’t afford this.”
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