Dusty May had a list of reasons for leaving Michigan.
The current state of college basketball — and college athletics as a whole — was a factor, but it wasn’t the overriding one that led to his departure two months after guiding the Wolverines to their first national title since 1989.
May explained his decision to make the jump to the NBA after two successful seasons at Michigan on Monday, when he was introduced as the new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks.
When asked if the college basketball landscape — with the explosion of NIL and the transfer portal in recent years — was a big reason he took the Mavericks job, May replied: “I wouldn’t say a big reason.”
“The big reason is the people in this facility, first and foremost,” May continued. “It’s much more complicated than it used to be. I love teaching, I love coaching, I love being a part of a team. And in college basketball, you don’t get to do near as much of that as you used to.
“So, there are some things that I’m not going to miss about college basketball. But I wouldn’t be here without our players, without our staff. I had an unbelievable 25, 27 years, whatever it’s been in college athletics, but (I’m) excited for this opportunity. … I think we all know as people the things you love to do, you typically do them well. I’m excited to dive in spending more time on the things that I enjoy doing every day and work with passion on.”
Still, May thrived in today’s college basketball climate. After he coached Florida Atlantic to a Final Four in 2023, he retained all his top talent, something that’s nearly impossible for mid-majors to do nowadays.
Then when he arrived at Michigan and inherited a depleted roster following the worst season in program history, he utilized the transfer portal to perfection and built a national title team in two years.
While there are some things May, 49, dislikes about the state of college athletics, he believes it will help make the transition to the NBA smoother. And just as May felt his tenure at FAU prepared him for Michigan, he thinks his time in Ann Arbor will serve him well in Dallas.
“I feel like the last five years of the NIL era is a segue into the NBA, where we weren’t coaching professional players per se, where they’re under contract, but they were getting paid,” said May, who added how stylistically similar modern basketball is at the college and NBA levels.
“The same problems, not at the same scale, but similar problems, similar issues, similar challenges. So, the game is closer than ever.”
May noted his first conversation with the Mavericks’ revamped front office came in May at the NBA Draft Combine, where he was on hand to show support for lottery picks Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara. At that point, May had “full intentions of being back at Michigan, no matter what.”
But when new president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and new general manager Mike Schmitz floated the idea of the open position at Dallas, it piqued May’s interest.
“Whenever we were talking about our guys — we had three guys in the lottery — it was mentioned would I have any interest in this job?” May recalled. “My eyes went up and instantly I said, ‘This one checks all the boxes.’”
May highlighted the camaraderie and alignment within the franchise’s front office, a roster that features a young star in Cooper Flagg and championship-winning veterans in Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson, and the quality of life in Dallas among his criteria.
Having a major airport nearby so his wife could visit their three sons regularly without having a layover also mattered to May, who quipped that a “no-tax state doesn’t hurt.”
“It was very difficult to leave the situation we were in (at Michigan),” May said, “but it was very simple because it was the Mavericks and the people that were here (that I’m) going to work with every single day.”
Here are other notable quotes from May’s introductory press conference with the Mavericks:
On when the NBA became a dream for May: “I’ll make a long story short: I was probably 25, I was incredibly ambitious, and I was trying to get to the top quickly. Once (wife) Anna and I started having children, my entire perspective changed. I simply wanted to enjoy who I worked with, enjoy who I coached and try to be the absolute best coach I could be. This is all too big of a dream. I did start preparing for this years ago, trying to figure out if I can do this well. But as far as dreaming about coaching in the NBA, I never dreamed about coaching in the NBA, of coaching in college, of coaching anywhere other than just being a coach in high school in my state (of Indiana). No, this wasn’t a dream, but I’ve been preparing for this, to go against the best, for a long time.”
On Lendeborg joking that Johnson is May’s favorite of Michigan’s three lottery picks: “Well, I’m on ‘Rez’s team, so he’s definitely my favorite. Those guys had some friendly banter with all of that, but the beautiful part of it is there was never any envy, there was never jealousy. These guys were each other’s biggest fans, and that’s one thing that we want to bring here to the Dallas Mavericks, where we are each other’s biggest fans and each other’s promoters. It creates a really healthy environment when we’re not competing against the guys that we’re in the locker room with; we’re competing together against everyone else. I’m going to put it out into the public space, ‘Rez is my favorite.”
On input May had in drafting Johnson with the No. 9 overall pick: “I had no idea we were drafting ‘Rez. Masai texted me right when they decided to make the selection, and I didn’t even see the message. I thought I missed it. So, my phone started buzzing, people were sending me messages, and I still didn’t know who it was. Then I saw Morez’s agent and he tipped his cap. As far as the selection process, these guys are incredibly thorough. Even before this job looked like it was going to happen, they were asking me questions for days about all of our guys, about teams we competed against, guys in our league. So, that’s it. The information — I was honest and transparent, especially for our guys, because they need to be in the best situations for them. I was just happy that we got one of the three.”
On filling out the coaching staff and whether May will bring anyone from the college level: “There’s going to be a little bit of a college flavor. There’s certainly going to be NBA experience. There’s going to be some retention. I don’t know exactly what any of it looks like yet. Obviously, the biggest difference is the size of the staff in the NBA and the amount of manpower we have to get things done. We’re going to be very intentional and thorough in making sure everyone fits well together, each guy complements each other, and we all have the same value system. We’re going to be a group that is here for the players, 100%, and it’s going to be a complete team ego with our staff and our team.”
jhawkins@detroitnews.com
@jamesbhawkins
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Dusty May shares reasons for leaving Michigan, taking Mavericks job
Reporting by James Hawkins, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By James Hawkins, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
