Dallas Mavericks general manager Mike Schmitz is pictured during a portrait session on Friday, May 29, 2026 in Dallas.
Roberto Hernandez/Dallas Mavericks
Mike Schmitz didn’t just dream about climbing an NBA front office ladder. He put a timetable on it and backed it up with the necessary work.
At his core, Schmitz is a worker. A go-getter. The type of guy who makes a list of goals in his 20s and checks off his most ambitious dreams by the age of 35.
Assistant general manager by 30. General manager by 35.
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That plan was more than a decade in the making. He reached the first goal at the age of 32 — a little behind schedule. But when Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri hired him as the youngest general manager in the NBA on May 8, a few days before his 36th birthday, Schmitz was right on time for his dream job.
“The timelines, maybe looking back, were a little arbitrary, round numbers,” Schmitz told The Dallas Morning News. “But I always believe in setting goals for yourself and focusing on the steps it takes to get there and kind of getting lost in the work.”
Former colleagues describe him as a disciplined, passionate and intelligent basketball executive with a relentless work ethic and keen eye for discovering talent. Schmitz’s foresight allowed him to accurately predict the impact several of the league’s brightest stars would have on the league: Victor Wembanyama. Luka Doncic. LaMelo Ball. Those qualities are the driving forces in his unique journey from the NBA Development League — the predecessor to today’s G League — to a career in media with DraftExpress, Yahoo Sports and ESPN, ahead of his rapid ascension to one of the most powerful positions in the Mavericks’ front office.
Schmitz took the job just over six weeks before Tuesday and Wednesday’s two-round NBA draft, giving him a short runway to evaluate which prospects are best suited for the Mavericks’ three selections at Nos. 9, 30 and 48. He grew up in Phoenix, but the weeklong draft combine in Chicago felt like a homecoming. Reunions with old colleagues and friends. Meetings with agents, prospects and their families. The sharing of knowledge and information. Sitting in the bleachers evaluating the NBA’s future stars, long before they raise trophies and banners.
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This state of constant motion is where Schmitz is most comfortable.
“Since I was a kid, I couldn’t sit still,” Schmitz told The News. “I was always running around the neighborhood with friends. I was the type of guy who’d be out in the Arizona heat for 18 hours a day, playing basketball. I always had a lot of energy as a human. I just enjoy doing things. … I’ve just never been a very static person. Obviously, there’s times where you want to slow down and kind of find your inner balance. I always had a lot of energy.”
The job of an NBA general manager, especially one tasked with leading the Mavericks back to playoff contention, requires more energy than what you get from a case of Celsius. Perhaps more important is that Schmitz has patience and diligence as the franchise enters the second year of the Cooper Flagg era and the first under Ujiri, the new team president and alternate governor.
Ujiri and Schmitz’s relationship goes back at least 10 years, when the Toronto Raptors team president and the contributor for Draft Express spent time scouting players in small gyms all over the world, from South America and Europe to Asia and Africa. Just a few weeks ago, during his second news conference with the Mavericks, Ujiri was asked about his decision to hire Schmitz from Portland, where he spent the previous four seasons.
“That guy standing over there? That guy?” Ujiri said with a wide smile. “Mike Schmitz is an incredible hire for us. I appreciate Portland letting us have him…Whether that’s in Uganda or Russia or Serbia or South America, we’ve been all over the world together. I truly appreciate that because you see the basketball mind, you see the strategy, you see the people relationships.”
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Humble beginnings
Will Voigt was one of the first to witness Schmitz’s work ethic and keen sense for discovering talent.
As the former head coach of the Bakersfield Jam, known in today’s G League as the Motor City Cruise, Voigt hired Schmitz fresh out of Arizona in 2012 as a “very low paid” video coordinator intern. While the role often entails creating and editing video for players and coaches to use to scout opponents, Schmitz was thrown into the deep end.
“We treated it like it was the NBA,” said Voigt, the associate head coach at BYU. “We had to do that with no resources and a quarter of the manpower.”
Schmitz spent just one year with the Jam from 2012-13, but used what he learned to position himself for the future.
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In 2012, he sent a cold email to DraftExpress founder Jonathan Givony, offering to make free player evaluation videos.
“I basically said to him, ‘Hey, I’m going to have 30 videos on 30 prospects and if you want them, I’ll send them over to you for free.’ ” Schmitz told The News. “I think he heard ‘free’ and jumped all over it, and so that started that relationship.”
The gesture was low risk with the chance for a high reward, but Schmitz had no idea it would serve as one of the foundational moves to launch a media career that preceded two jobs in NBA front offices.
Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts (from left), team president Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz attended the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery on May 10, 2026 at Navy Pier Festival Hall in Chicago, Illinois.
Brandon Colston/Dallas Mavericks
The worldwide leader
ESPN insider Bobby Marks watched Schmitz’s rise from afar, admiring his scouting expertise until they became colleagues at Yahoo Sports in 2015.
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They worked together for two years, along with Givony and former NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, until all four joined ESPN in 2017. They spent several nights together breaking down prospects, most notably during studio shows at the NBA draft. “We would finish doing draft coverage during the week on Thursday night and I’d be like, ‘What are you doing tomorrow? ‘ ” Marks told The News.
“’I’m going to Serbia,’ he said Schmitz responded.
“’What? Don’t you want to take a couple days off? ‘ Marks said.
“’No, we’ve got U-16s (under 16),’ Schmitz said.
“And I think why Mike is so good at what he does is that he basically has a catalog of these guys from when they were 12 or 13 years old,” Marks said.
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Schmitz’s foresight and desire to travel to 50 countries over the last decade made him one of the early evaluators highlighting Wembanyama, Doncic and Ball, and it led to him being one of the driving forces behind Portland acquiring Deni Avdija in a 2024 draft-night trade with the Washington Wizards.
Cristina Daglas, former executive editor at ESPN, oversaw the network’s NBA coverage and admired the way Schmitz could disseminate the most complex information about a player to make it more simplistic.
“He could talk about the prospects in a way that was really relatable,” said Daglas, head of research and identity for the Wizards. “He could take the complicated nature of some of that evaluation and make it something that was easily digestible soundbites for TV. He was confident in his evaluation.”
Schmitz said his media career helped with improving his public communication. The constant reps of being on live television in front of a national audience forced him into the habit of thinking quickly and relying on his preparation to guide his words. He describes himself as the “young guy who always had a chip on my shoulder to prove myself,” which has followed him at every stop.
“I think there was an internal confidence he had that served him well at all of those stops,” Voigt said. “And I think a lot of it comes because he does the work.”
Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz attended the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery on May 10, 2026 at Navy Pier Festival Hall in Chicago, Illinois.
Brandon Colston/Dallas Mavericks
The tall task ahead
Schmitz hasn’t had much time to soak up his biggest professional accomplishment. Since Day 1, his main goal has been to bring the Mavericks back to the postseason for the first time since 2024.
“I think there’s a moment where you exhale and feel like, ‘OK, this is pretty cool,’” he said at the draft lottery, “but the way I’m wired, I’m ready to go. Next play. Let’s get to work and do this thing at a really high level.”
Like most jobs that require relocation, Schmitz had to find a way to transition as soon as possible. He checked off the first item on his personal to-do list by finding a new home for his wife, who is expecting their first child. He’ll gladly accept any Tex-Mex recommendations from North Texans who know the area well. He juggled those responsibilities with the combine, predraft workouts and getting to know as many people within the Mavericks franchise as possible.
Several decisions lie ahead for Ujiri and Schmitz, from orchestrating a successful draft to navigating free agency and the trade market. It’s possible the team’s core as constructed could be completely different by the time training camp begins in the fall. The Mavericks also need a new director of health and performance after firing Johann Bilsborough, and above all else, they still need a head coach.
Ujiri is confident Schmitz is the right man to build a roster around the Mavericks’ generational lifeline in Flagg.
“He’s an incredible scout and leader,” Ujiri said. “He digs deep into work, data and what you really want to know about scouting players, team building, all of those things. Treating people well. Staff organizing. Managing people. It’s a whole package of things you want, and it’s very important that we set a tone now in this organization because the fans want organization, [media], everybody deserves that.”
Schmitz appears ready to embrace the challenge.
“We do this to win and we do this to win for a long time,” Schmitz said. “And that’s why we’re here. We’re not gonna skip any steps to do it and we’re gonna have the right approach and the right process.”