The Dallas Mavericks introduced new head coach Dusty May, who is taking over for Jason Kidd. The Mavericks and Kidd mutually agreed to part ways after five seasons together that included a run to the NBA Finals. May won a national championship in his second season at Michigan, but has never been a college head coach before. May is excited to join the Mavs front office. “Masai (Ujiri), Mike (Schmitz), Patrick (Dumont), everyone was aligned on doing this together and building a foundation to get the Mavericks back on a championship level, and it started with last year’s draft. It continues with this year’s draft and also with the group we have. I’ve spoken with all the players. I’ve met several of them. And these guys are going to be easy to root for. They’re winners. They’re great citizens, great human beings. And so it’s just, it’s an exciting time to be a part of this organization. It’s very difficult to leave the situation we were in, but it was very simple because it was the Mavericks and the people that were here and going to work with every single day,” May said. Ujiri said he was really looking forward to working with May. “One thing with Coach Dusty is how collaborative he is. And, honestly, it’s the people he wants to bring in. You know, he asks us questions, and we give him the best advice we can,” Ujiri said. “But he’s done this at the highest level, you know, bringing in people that you trust, hard workers.” The Mavericks selected one of May’s former players, Morez Johnson, Jr., with the ninth overall pick in the NBA draft last week. Two other starters were top 15 picks in the draft as well. Johnson attended May’s introduction, sitting close to NBA Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg. May said he did not decide to leave Michigan until after NBA combine. “At that point, I had full intentions of being back at Michigan no matter what, and we had a great conversation, had nothing to do with this position,” May said. “It was mentioned that ‘would I have any interest in this job,’ and my eyes lit up… I said, ‘There’s certain criteria for any job that we coaches have. Mine’s always been a little bit different, but this job checks all of them.'” May said he was excited to work with former NBA champion point guard Kyrie Irving. “Kyrie knows what it takes to win a championship. So as a first-time NBA coach, I’m going to lean on him in a lot of areas. And someone as intelligent as he is is going to bring a lot to the table for all of us. And so, you know someone he’s one of the greatest point guards to ever play our game. I mean, he’s a jazz musician, and so I can’t wait to be around him every day and, just help him on his journey,” May said. May previously coached at Florida Atlantic, where he reached the 2023 NCAA Final Four. May began his college coaching career as an assistant at Murray State in 2005-06. He then served on staffs at UAB, Louisiana Tech and Florida before getting his first head coaching job at FAU. He took over at Florida Atlantic in 2018 and had four consecutive seasons of finishing just over .500 — before striking gold in the 2022-23 season, going 35-4 and taking the Owls on that improbable Final Four run. He went 25-9 at FAU the following season, then went to Michigan and brought the Wolverines back to prominence. Michigan went 27-10 two seasons ago before the run to the championship. May won the Big Ten twice in two seasons. May plans to hit the ground running in Dallas. “We have some veterans that have done it before in pivotal moments, and we have some young guys that are on the cusp of breakthrough seasons and taking a lot of pride in being a part of the team. So I felt like we’ve all overachieved. And so if we’re all committed to play an incredibly unselfish basketball, competing at the highest level and really, really sharing the success and caring about each other, then we’ll surpass all expectations. But it’s going to take some health and other things. But I know one that will put a staff together that’s going to be in there every single day, serving our players, helping them with a plan to be the absolute best they can be,” May said. May’s record in his last four college seasons was 124-26, an .827 winning percentage that was third best in all of major college men’s basketball over that span behind Houston’s Kelvin Sampson (.861) and Duke’s Jon Scheyer (.832), who coach at national powers. The Indiana native was a student manager for the Hoosiers and coach Bob Knight while he was in school there from 1996-2000. He gained experience in scouting, video operations, and player development while with the Hall of Fame coach, who died in 2023. “I played Division II one year and didn’t have a great experience. And at that point in my life, I just wanted to be a high school coach in Indiana like my coach. So I went to work for Coach Knight, with all intents and purposes, of just being a high school coach. While I was there, I learned that you could actually not play major basketball and still be a coach in college,” May said. “But immediately after becoming a head coach, I instantly started referring back to the lessons that I learned from him the day-to-day. And I think it’s a lot like your parents, you know, your kids, hopefully, take what you said later on when it’s time to apply those things.” May credits his players for his coaching success. “I’ve worked for great coaches, and I wouldn’t be here without them. I’m a piece of all of them, but it’s incredible how much I’ve learned from each and every player. You know, even our three draftees and I. And so I learned something. I learned significant amounts about playing the game, about how they, you know, operate from each of them. And I feel like it’s just a combination of being around so many driven, successful people.” May said. The Mavericks did not say who would coach the summer league roster this year. AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami and AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins in Arlington, Texas, contributed to this report. ...read more read less