DALLAS — A day after the firing of Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, head coach Jason Kidd urged the team\u2019s fans to \u201cmove forward\u201d following months of having their outrage toward Harrison dominate the atmosphere at home games.<\/p>\n
Mavs fans frequently chanted \u201cFire Nico!\u201d during games at the American Airlines Center in protest of the stunning early February trade that sent homegrown superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. Those chants often occurred while a Dallas player was at the free throw line, including multiple occasions in the fourth quarter of Monday\u2019s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little disrespectful,\u201d Kidd said before Wednesday\u2019s home game against the Phoenix Suns. \u201cThe guys are playing hard, and they\u2019re trying to win. With that chant going during free throws, it\u2019s very disrespectful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got their point across as fans, but we have to move forward. I understand the healing process for the fans, but these guys are playing hard. Ever since the trade, these guys have given everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fans\u2019 animosity toward Harrison was so overwhelming that Mavs players privately complained that it felt like they had a home-court disadvantage, sources told ESPN.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people weren\u2019t really cheering us on,\u201d Mavs forward P.J. Washington said. \u201cHopefully, that changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington was at the free throw line with 7:07 remaining in the fourth quarter with the Mavs clinging to a one-possession lead when the chants first broke out Monday night. It happened again when he got fouled on a 3-point attempt with 1.2 seconds remaining and had a chance to tie the score.<\/p>\n
Washington missed the second free throw. He has refused to use the distraction of the chants as an excuse, but Washington said he wasn\u2019t pleased with the negative vibes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, everybody starts cheering now,\u201d Washington said. \u201cAnd they\u2019ll be quiet during free throws.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS — A day after the firing of Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, head coach Jason Kidd urged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,117726,120481,459,82],"class_list":["post-279513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dallas-mavericks-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-6","tag-luka-doncic-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-1121277","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}