Dallas GM Nico Harrison Admits He Underestimated Mavs Fans' Love Of Luka Doncic

Nico Harrison just made a shocking admission while discussing his blockbuster Luka Doncic trade ... saying he didn't realize how much fans in Dallas loved the 26-year-old NBA superstar!

The Mavericks general manager, who executed the Doncic for Anthony Davis trade in early February, met with media in Big D on Monday ... where he fielded questions about the crazy controversial move which saw the 5x NBA All-Star shipped to Los Angeles.

Harrison was asked whether he knew how beloved Luka was ... and to his credit, Harrison copped to not fully understanding.

"I did know that Luka was important to the fan base. I didn't quite know it to what level," Nico explained ... before saying injuries were like the perfect crap storm after the trade went down.

"Really the way we looked at is if putting a team on the floor that's Kyrie [Irving], Klay [Thompson], PJ [Washington], Anthony Davis and [Derek] Lively, we feel that's a championship caliber team, and we would've been winning at a high level, and that would've quieted some of the outrage."

Of course, that didn't happen.

AD was hurt less than one-half into his Mavs debut. Then Ky went down a few weeks later with a torn ACL -- effectively ending the season for the team.

The Mavs -- who were 26-23 with Luka and 13-20 without him -- ultimately missed the playoffs.

Now, team ownership will have to decide whether they keep the man who shipped away their top player ... or whether they send Harrison to the unemployment line.

Nico, as you might've expected, believes he's done more than enough to keep the gig.

“I think I’ve done a really good job here," Harrison explained, pointing to all the injuries, and saying ... "You'll see next year when our team comes back, we're gonna be competing for a championship.”