How To DESTROY A Franchise in 9 Months: Gilbert Arenas & Matt Barnes React to Nico Harrison Firing

All The Smoke

The Black Effect and iHeartPodcasts

Basketball, Society & Culture, Sports

4.8 • 7.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gilbert Arenas joins Matt Barnes on ALL THE SMOKE: Unplugged to react to the shake-up in Dallas as the Mavericks part ways with GM Nico Harrison after a turbulent start to the season.

Is Nico the scapegoat for deeper issues inside the organization? What role did ownership and front office politics play in this move? And how does Luka Doncic's early success with the Lakers play into the latest moves.

PLUS: The guys dive into the latest NBA betting scandals involving Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier, and more.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast. Welcome back to Unplug. This episode is presented to you by Draft Kings. Crown is yours. We've had some crazy NBA news dropped this morning, so I had to call my guy to help me break it down. Welcome to the show. My God. Baby, how you doing? How you doing? Yeah. I know.
0:21.6	Mavericks.
0:22.6	I know, right?
0:23.6	You know, the Mavericks went from the finals a year and a half ago to the worst record in the Western Conference right now.
0:33.6	But let's keep it real.
0:36.6	They're missing two of the best players in the game.
0:39.8	And Kyrie and Anthony Davis.
0:42.0	Obviously, Nico Harris was just fired.
0:45.5	What are your thoughts on just this whole debacle that's kind of been what Dallas is,
0:52.0	the last?
0:53.5	I'm trying to figure out who personal feelings got hurt.
0:57.7	Okay.
0:58.2	Right?
0:59.7	You know, Nico's a, you know, he's, he's been around the game long enough to know there's a special talent in Luca.
1:07.3	He's been under Rob.
1:09.4	He's been with Cole. He's been with Cobe, M.J.
1:12.3	So, listen, we can blame him.
1:17.9	We can blame him if we want to.
1:19.9	It's easy.
1:20.7	This is where I'm going.
1:21.7	You know, but to me it seemed like this happened.
1:26.1	You get a new owner. The owner wants Luca to bend the knee
	...

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