New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri (right) addressed an introductory news conference with team governor Patrick Dumont on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
I have been to news conferences where the local team went for the splashy hire with the Super Bowl-Stanley Cup-World Series pedigree. I’m talking John Hart with the Rangers, Bill Parcells with the Cowboys and the return of Ken Hitchcock with the Stars. Of those three, only Parcells was, in any way, triumphant and he didn’t win a single playoff game with Dallas.
That doesn’t mean the Mavericks went the wrong direction Tuesday. The hiring of Masai Ujiri — successful as a GM in Denver, championship ring-winning GM in Toronto — is the best step forward this club could possibly make heading into a turbulent time. Whatever governor Patrick Dumont said in that five-hour lunch in Miami in December that produced an agreement for Ujiri to become President of Basketball Operations here, the words were well chosen.
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Ujiri seems, in fact, to be the perfect hire for the impossible job. That’s what a team with one high lottery pick on the horizon and few reasonable trade assets has to offer. Oh, and the Mavericks had one other card to play, and apparently that’s the one that got Ujiri, taking a year off from his long time in Toronto, back into the league.
“When I met with [Dumont], I said, ‘You’ve got Wembanyama the next 15 years. You’ve got Luka the next 10-12-15 years. You’ve got Anthony Edwards the next 10-12-15 years. You’ve got Shai the next 10-12-15 years. Who else? You’ve got Jokic the next 5-7 years.
‘You have to convince me I’ve got to beat all those guys [in the West]. You’ve gotta come with something in your pocket, OK?’ And, in his pocket, he had Cooper Flagg.”
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RELATED: Masai Ujiri introduced as Mavericks’ president, alternate governor
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New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri carries his son Amani, 5, on his shoulders as he departs with his family after an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri (left) and team governor Patrick Dumont arrive for an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri poses for a photos during an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Mavericks team governor Patrick Dumont (left) and new team president Masai Ujiri pose for a photo with a basketball during an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri comforts his son Amani, 5, during an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Mavericks team governor Patrick Dumont (right) listens as new team president Masai Ujiri addresses an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri lifts his son Amani, 5, as his wife Ramatu Ujiri, looks on with their children Zahara, 12, and Masai, Jr, 10, after he was introduced during a news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri (right) and team governor Patrick Dumont address an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri addresses an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri is congratulated after an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri (left) and team governor Patrick Dumont arrive for an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri lifts his son Amani, 5, as his wife Ramatu Ujiri, looks on with their children Zahara, 12, and Masai, Jr, 10, after he was introduced during a news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
New Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri (facing) hugs team CEO Rick Welts after an introductory news conference on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
The cornerstone is in place. The past is the past. That was the message Ujiri delivered over a 35-minute news conference that bordered on performance much of the time. That’s why after thanking Dumont and his family for helping him make this decision, the first thing Ujiri said was, “Listen, I hope to bring calm.”
We are 15 months removed from the Luka Doncic-for-Anthony Davis trade. Luka is long gone, his team in the second round of the playoffs even if he’s not playing. Davis is gone, too, for that matter, and one wonders if Ujiri would have seen him as a potential piece to play alongside Flagg rather than a big salary ready to be jettisoned for next to nothing because of his injury history.
But Ujiri was not interested in digging up this franchise’s past beyond the fact he recognizes there’s a championship banner hanging in American Airlines Center, and the club needs a second one.
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Speaking of Luka, he said, “He’s gone. He’s a Hall of Fame player. He will always be a Maverick. But we really have to move on. It’s not for me to criticize what anybody else is doing. It’s for me to criticize what I’m doing. If I continue harping on that [Luka trade], then I think all of you are going to be asking me what I’m doing.”
From the sound of things, Ujiri plans to study every aspect of the organization. He even mentioned the club needs to show some medical improvement in its understanding of players, an apparent reference to more fallout from the Nico Era. Interestingly, he stopped short of saying Jason Kidd would coach the Mavericks when they take the floor in October. But when pressed on that, he encouraged the media to study his history.
“I’ve done the same thing everywhere I’ve been in this position,” he said. “I went to Denver, George Karl was there for [another] three years. Went to Toronto, inherited Coach [Dwane] Casey, he was there for five years. I’m going to hear Coach Kidd out on his thoughts on everything and follow a lot of what he’s saying because some of that stuff here, I don’t know. I have to follow like a process here.”
The chance to see how Kyrie Irving at 34 fits with Flagg at 19 apparently intrigues Ujiri more than anything. He talked at length about what that might look like. Then again, Ujiri is an experienced and successful GM, so he might have been doing nothing more than driving up the price on Irving this summer.
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Regardless, Dumont, who hadn’t been on the job long enough to stop Nico Harrison from chasing a pie-in-the-sky dream with Davis, has figured out what he and what this franchise needs. There was a lot of speculation that a team with Flagg in the middle but so little else around him, and so much damage already rendered on the draft front after this season, would not be able to attract a major player to run the show.
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Dumont hired the biggest name available, a man with a track record of winning trades going either direction. He dispatched Carmelo Anthony in Denver and the Nuggets’ record shot up enough to win Karl Coach of the Year honors. Then he dealt popular player DeMar DeRozen for Kawhi Leonard and brought Toronto a championship. He has been known to deliver solid draft picks, too, and the Mavericks find out Sunday how high this year’s pick will be. It can fall to 11 or shoot skyward from the 8 position one more time.
Ujiri wanted Flagg for the Raptors last year. It did not happen. He has him now.
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His second chance and Dumont’s seem to be aligned in a twist of fate that’s just what this franchise ordered.