<\/p>\n
Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd leaves the court after being ejected during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic at American Airlines Center on Friday, April 3, 2026, in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Masai Ujiri had a busy offseason between the draft and free agency.<\/p>\n
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On Tuesday, he added a coaching search to the to-do list.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
His noncommittal remarks about Kidd\u2019s future<\/a> painted a hazy future for the Hall of Famer, who won Rookie of the Year with the Mavericks in 1995 and helped them win the 2011 NBA championship as a player. Kidd led the team to the Western Conference finals in 2022, his first season as head coach, and the\u00a0NBA Finals in 2024, but he couldn\u2019t duplicate that success.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s done a great job,\u201d Ujiri said during his introductory news conference. \u201cWe are going to look at this thing from head to toe. That\u2019s the right way to look at an organization and evaluate in every single way that we can. I talked to him and I\u2019m going to hear his thoughts on where he sees this.\u201d<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont has entrusted Ujiri with full autonomy of basketball decisions, given his extensive experience and previous success, which was one of the primary goals of the hire.\u00a0Kidd gained a significant amount of influence with Dumont following the firing of general manager\u00a0Nico Harrison on Nov. 11. Multiple people familiar with\u00a0Kidd\u2019s thinking said the former Mavericks coach had a strong desire for the president of basketball operations job but was informed \u201cearly in the process\u201d that he would not be considered for the role.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Instead, Dumont reached out to Ujiri as early as December<\/a>, when the two met for the first time during a five-hour lunch in Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Mavericks endured their third losing season under\u00a0Kidd this past year, finishing 26-56. He went 205-205 overall with a winning record in two of his five seasons. In three-plus seasons as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks and a brief stint with the Brooklyn Nets, Kidd compiled a 388-395 career record and went to the playoffs in five of his 10 seasons as a head coach.<\/p>\n Kidd had four years left on his deal with the Mavericks, a person familiar with his contract told The Dallas Morning News, which amounts to\u00a0about $40 million, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Related:<\/strong> Full timeline of Jason Kidd\u2019s Mavs tenure: Wild trades, up-and-down results and more<\/a><\/p>\n His tenure lasted six months longer than\u00a0Harrison, who was hired with the head coach in June 2021<\/a>, when Mark Cuban was still the Mavericks\u2019 owner. The team has undergone a near-complete turnover since Cuban sold his majority stake to the Adelson and Dumont families, parting ways with superstar Luka Doncic, Harrison and now Kidd.\u00a0Matt\u00a0Riccardi, who served as the Mavericks\u2019 co-interim general manager, is also leaving the organization<\/a> after four seasons with his hometown team, a person familiar with the move told The News. The decision was mutual, the person said, as it was with\u00a0Kidd.<\/p>\n \u201cJason has had a meaningful impact on the Dallas Mavericks, both as a Hall of Fame player and as the head coach who helped lead this franchise back to the\u00a0NBA Finals,\u201d Ujiri said in a prepared statement Tuesday. \u201cWe are thankful for Jason\u2019s leadership, his professionalism and his commitment to the team. In my short time here, I\u2019ve developed an enormous amount of respect for what he has built. He will always be an important part of the Mavericks family.\u201d<\/p>\n Kidd and Ujiri\u2019s paths crossed 12 years ago, when Kidd\u2019s Nets faced Ujiri\u2019s Toronto Raptors in the first round of the 2014 playoffs. The former Raptors president infamously shouted, \u201cF— Brooklyn,\u201d at a fan rally before Game 1. Kidd was asked after the game about Ujiri\u2019s comment and said he could \u201ccare less\u201d about what the former Raptors GM said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cYou gotta tell me who the GM is,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cI don\u2019t even know who that is. I could care less what they think about Brooklyn. We have a job to do, and that\u2019s to play the game of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n Future for Kidd, Mavericks<\/p>\n The Mavericks will immediately begin a comprehensive search for the 11th head coach in franchise history. The search will mark the sixth coaching change in the\u00a0NBA since the regular season ended. The Magic, along with the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers, are also in need of head coaches. Milwaukee hired Taylor Jenkins to replace Doc Rivers, and the New Orleans Pelicans recently hired former Mavericks assistant\u00a0Jamahl Mosley<\/a>, who was fired by Orlando after its first-round playoff exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ujiri will hold a media availability Wednesday morning to address his second major decision since taking the helm of the Mavericks. Four days after he was hired,\u00a0Ujiri named Mike\u00a0Schmitz the team\u2019s new general manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cAs we evaluate the future of our basketball program, we believe this is the right moment for a new direction for our team,\u201d Ujiri said. \u201cWe have high expectations for this franchise and a responsibility to build a basketball organization capable of sustained championship contention. We will conduct a thorough, disciplined search for our next head coach and continue to evaluate our entire basketball operations staff to ensure we compete at the standard Mavs fans expect and deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n Kidd, a member of the Naismith Basketball\u00a0Hall of Fame<\/a>,\u00a0is suddenly on the market one year after the New York\u00a0Knicks\u00a0aggressively pursued him for their head coach opening last summer. The Mavericks\u00a0denied New York\u2019s request<\/a>, and\u00a0Kidd was rewarded with a contract extension.<\/p>\n But the Mavericks missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season as Kidd tried to steer the team through\u00a0injuries, the midseason trade of Anthony Davis and inconsistent lineups. Despite the chaos, the Mavericks were competitive on most nights, finishing tied for the highest amount of clutch games in the NBA with 45. That was largely\u00a0thanks to a sensational rookie season from Cooper\u00a0Flagg, who credited his head coach for helping his development<\/a>, which included spending time at point guard,\u00a0Kidd\u2019s position.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n His staff, which included a pair of former head coaches in Frank Vogel and Jay\u00a0Triano, along with assistants Popeye Jones, Phil Handy and Mike Penberthy, will likely be on\u00a0the market as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd leaves the court after being ejected during the second half of an…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":808921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[62,328838,328839,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-809144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-sports","tag-tp-dallas-mavericks","tag-tp-jason-kidd","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116605276786478743","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n Season<\/strong><\/td>\n W-L<\/strong><\/td>\n Finish<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2021-22<\/td>\n 52-30<\/td>\n 4th in West, eliminated in Western Conference finals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2022-23<\/td>\n 38-44<\/td>\n 11th in West, entered lottery<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2023-24<\/td>\n 50-32<\/td>\n 5th in West, Eliminated in NBA Finals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2024-25<\/td>\n 39-43<\/td>\n 10th in West, eliminated in Play-In Tournament and entered lottery<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2025-26<\/td>\n 26-56<\/td>\n 12th in West, entered lottery<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n