Nico Harrison was the rare lead NBA executive that just kept on giving…out advantages to other teams. We all know he, at the very least, helped oversee the departure of Jalen Brunson from the Dallas Mavericks. But he’s also responsible for the New York Knicks landing their award-winning Vice President of Sports Medicine.
Casey Smith arrived in The Mecca ahead of the 2024-25 campaign. He and the rest of the crew then proceeded to win the NBA’s Athletic Training Staff of the Year award for last season. It was well-deserved looking at the organizations’ aggregate availability.
As luck would have it, for New York anyway, Smith was only available to the Knicks thanks to Harrison’s disastrous reign in Dallas. According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, Christian Clark, and Joe Vardon, good ol’ Nico got rid of Smith because, well, he was on a power trip.
“Casey Smith, the Mavericks’ long-time director of health and performance, was let go weeks before the start of the 2023-24 season,” The Athletic’s report reads. “Smith was widely respected throughout the NBA and had strong relationships up and down the Mavericks’ roster. But he wasn’t retained, team sources said, in part because he sometimes pushed back on Harrison’s rigid way of doing things.”
The words you’re looking for, Knicks fans, are “thank,” and “you,” and “Nico.”
The Knicks’ training staff is killing it with Casey Smith
Last year, the Knicks ranked among the 10 teams that lost the least amount of value to injuries, according to BBall-Index. That’s a big deal considering Jalen Brunson missed more than 15 games for just the second time of his career.
OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart missed a combined 11 games. Last season was also just the second time in OG’s career he missed fewer than 10 contests, and it hadn’t happened since he was a rookie, in 2017-18, playing a much tinier role.
Meanwhile, after missing an average of over 26 games through the previous five seasons, Karl-Anthony Towns sat out just 10 during his inaugural campaign with the Knicks.
Attributing all of this to Smith takes the victory lap too far. But from the way New York is meticulously managing the workload of Mitchell Robinson to the run of excellent availability being enjoyed by KAT and OG, Smith and the rest of the training staff are clearly responsible for a good chunk of the Knicks’ most recent success.
Nico Harrison is a apparently one of the Knicks’ biggest x-factors
Look, we all know how firings work in the NBA. People spill the tea after somebody—be it a coach, executive, or player—gets shown the door. Much of what we read and hear can be sensationalized, or conveniently framed.
Benefit of the doubt must be given to those who deserve it. Harrison doesn’t deserve it.
Murmurings of his tumultuous rule bubbled to the surface long before the Luka Doncic trade. His conflicting views with Casey Smith also align with Harrison supporting or urging Anthony Davis to play through his current calf strain.
Based on what we know and can surmise, then, the Knicks are indebted to Harrison. He helped pave the way for them to add Brunson. He ensured Luka Doncic stayed in the Western Conference when trading him. And apparently, he also gifted the Knicks a key figure for a training staff now viewed as one of the NBA’s best.