The fact that he might be wrong, that people from other cultures and backgrounds may approach things differently, did not seem to occur to him.
I once lived in Alabama. It’s a place that consists of both very friendly people and people who harbor extreme animosity and skepticism toward strangers. There are places all over the world like this. Here, you’re either welcomed with open arms in diners called “It don’t matter family restaurant” on a hilltop in the middle of nowhere, or you’re watched and followed by the local police until they’re sure you have left town. Both true stories, by the way.
But life is more nuanced than that. It’s full of colors and moods and perceptions, of childhood trauma, hurt feelings and unfulfilled dreams. And when you look at a situation or hear a story, there are all these little things in your past, from your background and culture, which in the end determines how you perceive things.
Nuance and complexity is the enemy of easy, as we all know.
In Dallas, a GM arrived almost four years ago and decided to form a team in his own image. An image, he formed himself 20 years ago in LA with Kobe Bryant. “Mamba mentality” they called it, and it was so successful, so convincing, that the GM ended up jumping on the bandwagon himself many years later in Dallas. He seemed to believe that anyone not living up to that “idea” was not worthy of a supermax contract, despite anything they did on the court.
The fact that he might be wrong, that people from other cultures and backgrounds may approach things differently, did not seem to occur to him.
For a guy known for his social skills, he misunderstood everything. He was so deep in his own conviction that he had developed tunnel vision. Mamba mentality or nothing.
A player who’s constantly out of shape, overweight and entrenched in bad habits doesn’t fit into the Mamba mentality. That’s apparently how the GM saw Luka Dončić, and that’s the reasoning behind the trade. All this must have caused his production on the court to suffer tremendously.
But wait, how did he average 28 points this season and almost a triple double last season, while leading his team to the Finals if that was the case?
It’s because it wasn’t. The GM couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Stuck in the past, he missed the bigger picture. He didn’t see that the solution was right there on his doorstep in a 25 year old superstar, who was still getting better. All he wanted was what he was used to and already believed to be true.
When we stay inside our own worldview, when we don’t challenge ourselves and speak to people we disagree with, or only surround ourselves with people who dare not speak against us, we form an echo chamber.
That happens a lot these days on social media. We only read the news we agree with, we avoid people who may think in different ways than us and we nod to each other about how crazy the others are.
But that’s a dangerous approach. It leads to narrowmindedness and a lack of oxygen. Figuratively speaking.
We all need to be challenged on our ideas and understanding of the world once in a while. And if the GM had spent more time getting to know Luka Dončić’s culture, visited him maybe even in his home country, as Mark Cuban and Jason Kidd have done, and made an effort to follow international competitions to learn more, the horizon of thinking may just have been expanded a little.
The misunderstanding of Luka Dončić’s person is the most glaring to many of us, but with his actions and remarks, Nico Harrison has also shown that he failed to understand how the league has developed through the last 20 years, and how it works today.
By only bringing in aging stars that he knows from the past, most past their peak, he shows us that he’s stuck in the superteam mode of the 2010’s. The league is far more diverse now (and did they really work to begin with?). International stars have taken over on a lot of teams, and even though it hurts certain people that non-Americans are dominating the league and the next generation, it is a fact.
And just like Nico Harrison should have done, we owe it to ourselves and the next generations to go out there in the world and talk to people we disagree with. Throw ourselves into situations out of our comfort zone, like visiting new countries or cultures – or just neighborhoods in our own city.
You don’t have to agree to listen to other people. But if you don’t listen, misunderstandings will lead to more and more division and one-sided decisions. If we don’t challenge our own views once in a while, the result is a disconnect from the reality of others. Just like a Dallas GM, who made the objectively worst trade in NBA history and destroyed a fanbase in the process. All because of the misunderstanding of Luka Dončić.