Patrick Dumont strode through the American Airlines Center two hours before tip-off Monday flanked by four hulking security guards.

It felt like a show of force with all the muscle surrounding the Dallas Mavericks’ governor, like Dumont was on hand for his team’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks to lower the boom on someone. But before he did that, Dumont expressed remorse in a courtside chat with Nicholas Dickason, an 18-year-old Dallas native, about the Mavericks’ decision in February to trade Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, a move that deeply wounded the team’s fan base.

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Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison presented the trade idea to Dumont, who signed off on it.

Two hundred and eighty-two days later, after unrelenting chants of “Fire Nico” poured down from the rafters at Mavericks home games, missing the playoffs, three injuries to the star Harrison traded Dončić for, a shocking stroke of good luck in the draft lottery and then a disappointing start to this season, Dumont was ready to move on from his GM.

By the time Dumont flew to Dallas on Monday morning, plans to fire Harrison were already in motion, league sources said. There were more “Fire Nico” chants in the Mavericks’ loss to the Bucks on Monday night. Word began to circulate early Tuesday that Harrison was done. The Mavericks made it official in an 11:24 a.m. news release.

It’s a humbling time for Dumont, his wife, Sivan, and her mother Miriam Adelson — the ownership group that purchased majority shares of the Mavs from Mark Cuban for $3.5 billion in 2023 and was in control when the team reached the NBA Finals in 2024. Not even two years later, Dončić is averaging 37.1 points per game with the Lakers, the Mavs are in turmoil, and Harrison is out of a job.

In the immediate aftermath of the trade that is widely considered one of the worst in league history, Dumont had expressed almost blind faith in Harrison.

“In Nico we trust,” Dumont famously said at the time.

So how, in a nine-month span, did Dumont decide he was ready to unceremoniously dump Harrison?

Injuries to key players were undoubtedly a factor. But Harrison hurt his own standing by making bad hires; creating and fanning the flames of a public relations c