11-13-2025, 04:50 PM
(11-13-2025, 04:32 PM)RasheedsBigWhiteSpot Wrote: Has it been pointed out that in one email exchange with a fellow GM, Nico placed Jrue Holliday on the same tier as Jokic?
Furthering that discussion, there are some who at best, feel Nico was xenophobic against Europeans, or, at worst, racist against white players.
Think about it: the Mavs went from being one of the most diverse teams in the league to Nico trading the last two Euros (Luka and Maxi) in the same deal.
One struggles to find a reason why Nico would somehow put AD on the same tier as Luka, and then his justification suddenly appears.
Was he undervaluing Jokic or overvaluing Jrue? Haven't seen the email exchange you're referring to, so I have no idea, but it sounds like it may be possible he was just REALLY overvaluing Jrue by putting him in the same tier as Jokic. Either way it's not good talent evaluation since they clearly aren't in the same tier, but I don't know if it constitutes xenophobia.
To me it seems like his main bias was favoring players he had past relationships with over those he didn't know as well, and it seems like most of those came from his time at Nike which would be limited to (mostly) American athletes. He worked with them while they were in their primes signing shoe deals and I would wager that was how he thought of them (in their primes) even if they were starting to slide out of that.
In the end it obviously was not a good fit regardless of why he did the things he did, and I'm glad he's gone.