Just over two weeks after the Dallas Mavericks hired Masai Ujiri as the new president and alternate governor of the franchise, Dallas elected to fire head coach Jason Kidd on Tuesday.
It was less than a year after Kidd’s multiyear contract extension, agreed upon before the start of the 2025-26 season. Jason Kidd signed the deal while the franchise still had Nico Harrison as team general manager.
Harrison was fired early into last season, Ujiri was brought in, and Dallas has made steps in a different direction for the franchise. This led to a new vision and to the letting go of their head coach for the past five seasons.
Masai Ujiri Addresses Media Following Jason Kidd Firing
One day following the Mavericks’ decision to let go of Jason Kidd, team president Masai Ujiri spoke with the press on the situation.
“Tough day for us yesterday. Thank you for everybody coming out. Jason Kidd, Hall of Famer, incredible player. What he’s done for this organization, we truly respect,” Ujiri said. “This was a very, very tough decision.”
“These things are tough, and I know he’ll go on to do great things.”
Ujiri stated that the Mavericks have yet to reach out to new candidates for the head coaching job, calling it “disrespectful” to Jason Kidd at this time.
The Mavericks labeled the decision to let go of Jason Kidd as mutual.
“I think a new slate was a good way to look at this because I felt sometimes in this organization we needed clarity on where we’re going, rather than sometimes a lot of things in the mix,” Uriji added. “We needed clarity to work in one direction in how we build this team.”
Dallas showed immense success with a championship run in sight a short time ago. A Luka Doncic-led team advanced to the Western Conference Finals in 2022 and made it to the Finals in 2024.
The franchise then decided to trade Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February of 2025, resulting in back-to-back seasons without making it to the postseason.
Kyrie Irving Trade Rumors
Although President Masai Ujiri mentioned Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving as the stars of the franchise, other reports have Irving linked to a possible trade this offseason.
Marc Stein of the Steinline spoke on the DLLS Mavs Podcast on Wednesday morning, saying he expects the Mavericks to receive calls from other teams about Kyrie Irving.
“The Mavs’ phone is going to ring, whether they want it to ring or not,” Stein said. “Kyrie, even though he has missed a full season and more, he has a pretty tradeable contract.”
Before the start of the 2025-26 season, Irving declined a $43 million player option and signed a new three-year, $119 million deal to stay with the Dallas Mavericks. The deal has a player option for the 2027-28 season.
One appealing conversation for the Mavericks moving forward is the duo of Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving. Because the veteran guard sat out all of last season while recovering from a torn ACL, the NBA world is yet to see Flagg and Irving play together.
This may change, as Irving is expected to be ready for the start of next season.
Whether he will be at the 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game he was at before suffering the long-term injury is to be determined. However, seeing the two Duke alums playing together will be interesting to see if it plays out this way.
Mavericks President Addresses Media Following Jason Kidd Coaching Decision