Meet The Artist Behind The 'Fire Nico' Mural
Guess where he was when the Luka trade news broke....
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On Wednesday night, Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic attended a mandatory work event with his former employer, the Dallas Mavericks.
Doncic cried on the bench as the Mavericks played a tribute video to their former star, but he also was able to wipe those tears away quickly and drop 45 points in front of the man who traded him: Nico Harrison.
Obviously, the city of Dallas is…not vibing with Harrison at the moment. Chants of “Fire Nico” have erupted in the arena on more than one occasion.
Mavericks fans are PISSED. As! They! Should! Be!
While I’m sure chanting “Fire Nico” feels as cathartic as when my esthetician pops that zit that has been bugging me for weeks during a facial, it’s not permanent.
What *is* permanent is a mural with that phrase painted by local artist Juan Velazquez ahead of Doncic’s return to Dallas this week.
I spoke with Velazquez, who shared how he came up with the idea to create a ‘Fire Nico’ mural, where he was when the trade news dropped (you’ll be shocked), and why he’d consider becoming a Lakers fan.
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An Interview With Juan Velazquez
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. You can follow Juan on Instagram here.
When did you start painting murals?
I actually started painting murals about four years ago.
I had just came back from the military and it was during the pandemic that I actually started painting murals.
I painted a very well-known mural in Fort Worth of the soldier that died in Fort Hood, Vanessa Guillén. That's how I started my art career.
How long have you been a Mavs fan?
I've been a Mavericks fan for a while. I don't know the exact number of years. I remember the years when they lost to the Miami Heat.
I remember watching Dirk play with my dad when I was younger, so I've been a Mavericks fan for a while.
My dad's the one that actually got me into it. Of course, there's some years where I watch less game more than others, but I've always been a Mavericks fan.
Where were you when you heard about the trade? What was the immediate aftermath like among your community of Mavs fans?
Well, actually, that's a crazy story.
I was in Uvalde, Texas, where my wife lives. I live in Uvalde, too. I live in between Uvalde and Fort Worth. I work here and then I live over there.
There's not a lot of mural work over there, so most of the work that I do is here in the DFW and in other major cities of Texas.
We were in the hospital. My wife was having our baby, Valeria. She was born and then we went home.
That day that she was born is when they did the trade at night.
The next morning, she stayed up with the baby, and I was up too, but I woke up late.
I think I woke up like 10 in the morning. It was her first day back with the baby. I saw the news about the trade and it just felt horrible, you know?
Of course, I cherish the moment that I have bringing our daughter home, but I feel like that took away from that moment for me.
Instead of remembering that moment that should be a great moment for me, I just remember it as just about the trade.
How quickly after Luka was traded did you decide you wanted to paint the ‘Fire Nico’ mural?
We painted a mural of Luka first in West Dallas. That mural was literally just about just saying that we appreciated Luka, his time here, and that he's always going to be loved in Dallas.
When we painted that mural, we had a last minute decision we decided to add something in there that said #FireNico.
We got a lot of feedback from the fans that were like, “Hey, you should do a ‘Fire Nico’ mural.”
I wanted to, and I was like, “You know what? I'm going to do one when he comes back to play in Dallas again.”
I knew I had a few weeks, but I had it in the back of my mind to do this mural.
One day, I had a dream about a ‘Fire Nico’ mural, but my dream was very abstract and I didn’t really put it in a two-dimensional format of what I really wanted to do.
I opened TikTok, I saw Chris' TikTok.
He was going off. It was a video of him yelling ‘Fire Nico.’ He had this Mavericks hat that he had covered the logo with duct tape and wrote ‘Fire Nico.’
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In that moment, I knew I was like, “This is the mural that we gotta paint.”
I direct messaged him on TikTok and I said, “Hey, can you send me your number? I wanna call you, I have an idea for a project.”
I tell him like, “Hey, you know, let's do this project.” He's all for it. I said, “You know, we're gonna fundraise for the supplies and the paint to do this. The guys and food while we're painting and we're going to paint it. And I want you to be part of the video.”
I told him, “This is what we're gonna do.” The moment that I saw the hat I already knew that's what we were gonna do and I made plans to do it.
I made plans to do it. We planned to do it the day before he came to play here back in Dallas.
What has been the response to the mural? Have you gotten any flack from any Mavs fans like, “Hey man, this is too far?” Or has it been pretty much all supportive?
I think that most of the feedback that we've gotten is positive. I do believe that we're speaking for the majority.
I do think that there are some people there that, for different reasons, some of them are just very hurt by it and just seeing that reminds them of the trade that they're just like, “Move on, get over it.”
Here's the thing: They're the minority. The majority of people feel the way I feel.
99.9 percent of all the comments and feedback that I've gotten has been positive. It’s been good with the fans.
Have you considered becoming a Lakers fan like many Mavs fans and following Luka wherever he goes?
You know, I would consider becoming a Lakers fan.
I want to be a Mavericks fan. I still do. Am I Mavericks fan? I don't know.
I want to be, but I feel like the organization hasn't really done anything to try to win the fans back—if anything.
They doubled down on being wrong. They've tried to censor the fans.
I think that they would have to fire Nico and then they would have to sell the team, the owners, too.
They would have to sell the team to somebody else and then send a formal apology to win some of the fans back.
If Bravo and ESPN had a baby, it would be Impersonal Foul. This newsletter is free, but consider becoming a paying subscriber for $6/month to support the work that I’m doing.
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I don't really care about basketball, but the Vanessa Guillen mural is beautiful.
When a trade is received so poorly it spoils the day a fan's child is brought home from the hospital 😬