dailynewsnblog
‘Nothing’s getting fixed’: What Dusty May said about leaving Michigan for the NBA originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
When the Michigan Wolverines basketball team lost Dusty May to the NBA, many were shocked due to the timing. A piece from The Athletic’s CJ Moore has started to peel back the layers of the decision by the championship-winning coach and where he stands today.
Advertisement
This all started with a phone call between Dallas Mavericks general manager Mike Schmitz and May. The conversation turned from the Wolverines’ three NBA Draft prospects to a coach worthy of a promotion at the next level.
“Would you have any interest in this job?” That’s what May had to answer with Schmitz on the other end of the line. May said it was perfect timing. The “straw that broke the camel’s back” was nothing specifically with Michigan. But that state of college athletics and inaction by the Big Ten Conference weighed on his mind.
“I was so excited for Big Ten meetings, like ‘we’re going to find some solutions,'” May told The Athletic this week. “I go there and I was just like, ‘Oh my God, nothing’s getting fixed. Ever.'”
Other Big Ten coaches were stuck playing within the rules from yesterday and not focused on tomorrow. “We’ve got to stop talking about the stuff that we can’t change,” May added.
Advertisement
What’s noteworthy about May’s exit to the NBA is that the last coach to win a title and leave was Larry Brown in 1988. Nearly 40 years have passed since a coach made the jump right after. This wasn’t planned in the slightest. However, the opportunity presented to him was the right one at the right time.
Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images
“You have to really believe and trust in who’s deciding the team for you,” May said.
After getting rid of Luka Dončić with a terrible trade to the Lakers, being able to secure the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft to land Cooper Flagg was a silver lining. The Mavs needed a coach like May, who was ready for the next step in his career. While some would say the offer came abruptly and years before he established himself at a Power Four level, his resume speaks for itself.
Advertisement
MORE: LSU basketball in panic mode with five players committed to Will Wade’s reboot
May had success at Florida Atlantic before taking Michigan back to the promised land for the first time in decades. He has never posted a losing record as a coach during his eight seasons between both programs. This included four straight trips to the NCAA tournament before taking the job in Dallas.
“There was closure, like the next step of one chapter was ending, and the next chapter was beginning,” May said. “People were laughing at us the summer before about our roster construction. And then it became, well, ‘it was a super team, and they just went out and hired a bunch of mercenaries’ to do what we did. The narrative just continued to change. So it was just a little bit of pettiness on my part.”
May is now chasing Brown in his professional career. The legendary coach who was always looking for his next job is also the only head coach in basketball history to win both a national championship and an NBA championship. If there was any sort of déjà vu mixed into this journey for May, this would be the parallel.
Advertisement
Brown left Kansas in 1988 to become the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. The year before he landed in the NBA, the Spurs took Navy center David Robinson with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1987 NBA Draft. May has the same scenario with Flagg in Dallas. If history does truly repeat itself, May can expect an NBA title in 2042.
