Univ. of Michigan men’s basketball coach Dusty May is “finalizing a deal” to become coach of the Mavericks, an “axis-shifting move that significantly alters the college and NBA landscape,” according to sources cited by Thamel, Schefter & Charania of ESPN.com. May is the first college coach to take an NBA job since former Michigan coach John Beilein took the Cavaliers job in 2019. The last to leave college immediately after winning a national title was Kansas’ Larry Brown in 1988. During Michigan’s championship parade in April, AD Warde Manuel announced May had agreed to a new deal that would keep him at the school for “many years to come.” That deal was not signed at the time of Manuel’s proclamation, and “no deal announcement emerged in the subsequent months” (ESPN.com, 6/22). The DALLAS MORNING NEWS notes new Mavs President of Basketball Operations Masai Ujiri “led the coaching search with the assistance” of new GM Mike Schmitz. May follows Ujiri’s “track record of hiring coaches without previous NBA head coaching experience,” but it is the first time he has hired a candidate from the college ranks. Both 76ers coach Nick Nurse and Raptors coach Darko Rajajovic were lead assistant coaches before Ujiri hired them for the last two Raptors coaching vacancies (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 6/22).
Report: Mavericks nearing deal with Michigan’s Dusty May
