Үндэсний аварга шалгаруулах тэмцээнд түрүүлснийхээ дараа Даллас Мавериксийн дасгалжуулагчийн албыг хүлээн авсан Дасти Мэй коллежийн спортын өнөөгийн тогтолцоонд шийдэгдэхгүй асуудлууд олон байгааг онцоллоо.
Даллас Мавериксийн ерөнхий менежер Майк Шмитц тавдугаар сарын 24-ний өглөө Дасти Мэй рүү залгаж, Мичиганы багийн гурван тоглогчийн NBA Draft-ийн төлөв байдлын талаар зөвлөлдөх үеэрээ багтаа дасгалжуулагчаар ажиллах сонирхолтой эсэхийг нь асуужээ. Мэй тухайн үед Big Ten лигийн дасгалжуулагчдын уулзалтаас дөнгөж ирээд байсан бөгөөд коллежийн сагсан бөмбөгийн өнөөгийн нөхцөл байдал, ялангуяа шилжилт хөдөлгөөний портал болон тогтсон дүрэм журамгүй орчин хэзээ ч засагдахгүй мэт санагдсан тул энэ саналыг нухацтай авч үзсэн байна. Тэрээр зургадугаар сарын 22-нд Даллас Мавериксийн дасгалжуулагчийн албыг албан ёсоор хүлээн авчээ.
Мэй коллежийн дасгалжуулагчийн ажил нь сагсан бөмбөгөөс илүүтэй захиргааны болон хөрөнгө босгох ажилд ихээхэн цаг зарцуулдаг болсныг дурдаад, NBA-д гэрээний нөхцөлүүд тодорхой бөгөөд мөрдөгддөг нь таалагдаж байгаагаа илэрхийлжээ. Тэрээр коллежийн түвшинд тоглогчид гэрээ байгуулсан ч дараа өдөр нь өөр сургуулиас илүү их мөнгө амлахад шилжин явдаг асуудлыг хамгийн том хүндрэл хэмээн тодорхойлсон байна. Хэрэв тэрээр коллежийн комиссар байсан бол хамгийн түрүүнд гэрээг хуулийн дагуу заавал биелэгддэг болгохыг зорих байснаа онцолжээ.
Түүний хувьд Мичиганы багтайгаа хамт аварга болсон нь багийг орхиход хялбар болгосон ч хоёр дараалан түрүүлэх сорилт нь сэтгэл татам байсныг нуусангүй. Тэрээр өнгөрсөн зун шилжилт хөдөлгөөнөөр Морез Жонсон Жр., Яхель Лендеборг, Адай Мара гэсэн гурван төвийн тоглогчийг элсүүлж, бүгдийг нь гараанд гаргасан нь эрсдэлтэй ч үр дүнтэй шийдвэр байсныг дурдлаа. Тэдгээр гурван тоглогч бүгд зургадугаар сард болсон NBA Draft-ийн эхний 12-т багтаж сонгогдсон юм. Мэй одоо NBA-д Даллас Мавериксийн залуу супер од Купер Флэгг болон туршлагатай удирдлагын багтай хамтран ажиллахыг тэсэн ядан хүлээж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
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When Dallas Mavericks general manager Mike Schmitz called to pick Dusty May’s brain about Michigan’s three NBA Draft prospects on the morning of May 24, he asked one question that got the ball rolling toward May leaving the school he’d just won a championship with to coach the Mavericks.
“Would you have any interest in this job?”
Schmitz’s timing was perfect, May told him. May had just returned home from the Big Ten’s spring meetings, where the league’s coaches met to discuss, among other things, the state of the game.
“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.’”
May said the Big Ten coaches were still complaining about the transfer portal and changes to the game that he saw as irreversible.
“We’ve got to stop talking about the stuff that we can’t change,” May said.
That was not the only reason May left for the Mavericks, but the timing of spring meetings and Schmitz’s call at least made him open to the possibility. May was able to think through every scenario and contemplate what was right for him for several weeks. The news broke that he took the job on June 22, almost a month after that first conversation with Schmitz.
May reflected on his decision this week as he rested in Ann Arbor, where he was recovering from hip surgery before training camp for the Mavs begins next month. He’ll be the first coach since Larry Brown in 1988 to win a national title and then coach another team the next season.
Months ago, he would have never predicted this would be his reality. When May left for the Big Ten spring meetings, he said he believed he’d be Michigan’s coach for the 2026-27 season. He had no intentions of looking elsewhere; the Mays had even begun renovations on their home in Ann Arbor.
“For all the people that said that I had one foot out the door,” he said.
But May said he has always had a desire to coach in the NBA, and he expected if he kept winning, as he did in his two seasons at Michigan, he would get an opportunity. Once he started the evaluation process after Schmitz’s inquiry, it occurred to him that he may never get an opportunity like this one, with a young superstar like Cooper Flagg, a team president in Masai Ujiri, who built a champion with the Toronto Raptors, and a general manager in Schmitz, whom he had known for years.
The other factor that made it easier for May was how much of a college coach’s time is spent on fundraising and administrative duties that took him away from focusing on his team.
“I just spent so much more of my time doing everything but coaching,” he said.
How many college basketball players will make more money than LeBron?
May’s favorite parts of the job were the actual basketball and the people side, building relationships with his players. The NBA offered an opportunity to shift more focus there. Another of his favorite aspects of coaching in college was the ability to choose your team, serving as your own general manager.
“You have to really believe and trust in who’s deciding the team for you,” May said of any NBA jobs he’d consider.
The Mavericks fit that criteria.
When Dallas offered him the job, May told Michigan’s administration he was thinking about it. Then the next day, he said he was leaning towards taking the job.
Their response: “What can we do?”
“I don’t think there is anything,” May told Michigan.
The fact that he won a national title in just two seasons at Michigan made it easier to leave, but …
“The other side was I was excited (for next season at Michigan),” he said. “You talk about, ‘You’re not defending anything’ or ‘Each season’s its own,’ but it would have been fun trying to do it again.”
If there was a pull toward Michigan in those weeks of contemplation, that was it: the challenge of trying to go back-to-back and trying to pull it off with a younger team. May also took pride in the fact he felt he built a sustainable program.
“Each year, I feel like it gets easier and the program starts to sell itself a little more,” he said. “So I felt like going into year three at Michigan was significantly easier than going into year one to identify and acquire high-level talent that you can get.”
The issues the college game has, however, do not appear to be going away. That was reaffirmed when May left and Michigan’s previously committed players, even those who had signed contracts, essentially became free agents. (New coach Mike Boynton was able to retain everyone except backup guard LJ Cason, who transferred to Miami.)
“Even when you sign, you’re not really signed; to me is the biggest issue,” May said.
Now that he’s out, May was asked what changes he would make to the sport. What if he could be college basketball commissioner?
First, he said, he would hire the best attorney to tell him what’s legal and what could realistically hold up in court. Then …
“Collective bargaining in some way, shape or form needs to happen,” he said. “And number two, figure out a way to make contracts binding.
“Like, you can’t have a kid sign at this Big Ten school on a Friday and then go on an official visit the next day and sign at another Big Ten school for twice the money on Tuesday. It just can’t be like that. If they are gonna sign rev-share contracts and they’re gonna sign NIL contracts, let’s at least make those binding.”
May likes that in the NBA those contracts are binding and rules are clear. Still, May’s success in college came from adapting; he embraced the player movement era and figured out how to blend talents and personalities, depending on the personnel.
At Florida Atlantic, May won by playing smaller. At Michigan, he tried to go big, making the bold decision last summer to recruit three post players out of the portal: Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara, and then starting all three.
There were doubts about how exactly that would work. All three were selected in the top 12 of the NBA Draft in June, one day after he took the Mavs job.
The ESPN broadcast cut to May when Mara, the final of the three, went 12th to the Oklahoma City Thunder. May clapped his hands three times and then mouthed, “hell yeah.”
“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.”
Many eyes are on him now to see how he’ll perform, including other college coaches who might consider the jump, but also athletic directors who might have an opening in the next few years. If May ever decided to return to college, he would be extremely coveted, just like Rick Pitino and John Calipari were after taking their shots in the NBA in the late 1990s.
May was asked if he’d ever consider a return.
“I hope not, because that would mean I did sh—y here,” May said, laughing. “I’d like to win and stay.”
