Harrison, along with new Mavs CEO Rick Welts, held an hourlong session Tuesday morning with a select group of Dallas-based media in which the trade of Doncic, 26, for a package headlined by 32-year-old perennial All-Star power forward Anthony Davis dominated the discussion.
"There's no regrets on the trade," said Harrison, whose only other media availability since the trade was a brief pregame session the following day in Cleveland. "Part of my job is to do the best thing for the Mavericks, not only today, but also in the future, and some of the decisions I'm going to make are going to be unpopular. That's my job, and I have to stand by it."
Well, the beauty of Dallas is it is a passionate fan base," Harrison said. "For us to reach our goals, we need that fan base. And to be honest with you, every trade I've made since I've been here has not been regarded as a good trade, and so sometimes it takes time. When I traded for Kyrie, it was met with a lot of skepticism and it was graded as a terrible trade and you didn't see it right away, but eventually everyone agreed that that was a great trade. When I traded for [Gafford] and [Washington] again, it was like, 'Oh, he gave up way too much. These guys aren't going to help us.' Now that trade, you saw the evidence a lot sooner. So I think a lot of times trades take a little bit of time.
"But our philosophy, like I said, going forward is defense wins championships and we're built on defense. And this trade cements us for that."
Did Harrison not believe that the core of last season's Finals team, with Doncic as the centerpiece, could contend for a title?
"I'll say this again: Defense wins championships," Harrison said.
The Mavs had the NBA's top-ranked defense for the final 20 games of last season. The Boston Celtics eliminated the Mavs in five games in the Finals, but defense wasn't Dallas' biggest problem in that series. The Mavs allowed 109.2 points per 100 possessions in the Finals, a defensive rating that would have ranked second in the league last regular season.
Harrison gave up control of the Mavs' first-round picks from 2027 through 2030 while making that series of successful trades, as well as the sign-and-trade deal for forward Grant Williams that didn't work out well. He has said that he believes he built a team for a "three- to four-year time frame" to contend with titles, although injuries ruined the Mavs' hopes this season.
"We believe in the move we made," Harrison said when asked how the logic of a time frame that ends as the team enters a stretch when it doesn't control its first-round picks is in the franchise's long-term best interests. "You obviously don't, and that's fine. You're entitled to your opinions, but we're excited. ... I think once we win, then that will change your mind."
Cuban was not consulted in the decision to trade Doncic, who had said that he planned to sign a five-year, $345 million supermax extension this summer to stay in Dallas long term. Neither was Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki, who has also publicly criticized the deal.
"First of all, nobody really knew about this trade," Harrison said. "It was very hush-hush, but you can't look for advice from people who aren't in the building at a constant basis. They're not going to understand what the team is going through day in and day out."
