The Dallas Mavericks have agreed to hire Masai Ujiri as their team president and alternate governor, ending a six-month search and turning to one of the NBA’s most accomplished front-office executives to steer the franchise’s next chapter. A news conference with Mavs governor Patrick Dumont and Ujiri is planned for Tuesday in Dallas.
Ujiri built the Toronto Raptors’ 2018-19 championship team and won the NBA’s Executive of the Year award with the Denver Nuggets in 2012-13. Across his stops in Denver and Toronto, his teams went 690-504 and reached the playoffs in 12 of his 15 seasons in charge, a track record Dallas is betting will steady a franchise that has been jolted by major change over the past year.
The move comes after the Mavericks’ lead basketball executive job sat open since Dumont fired general manager Nico Harrison on Nov. 11. Dallas stumbled to a 3-8 start after the Luka Doncic trade to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025, and later traded Anthony Davis to the Washington Wizards before the February deadline, part of a turbulent stretch that also included fan backlash and a shift toward building around Cooper Flagg.
Ujiri had not worked in the NBA this season after the Raptors parted ways with him following the draft. The Mavericks had also shown preliminary interest in Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly, and the hire fits Dumont’s pattern of bringing in experienced executives to run the franchise. Dallas brought in former Golden State Warriors president Rick Welts as chief executive officer in December 2024, after Mark Cuban sold the majority share of the team to the Adelson and Dumont families in December 2023.
Ujiri’s arrival gives the Mavericks a seasoned hand at a moment when the pressure on the organization is still obvious and the margin for error remains thin. The question now is whether his record in Denver and Toronto can translate quickly enough to calm a restless market and restore order to a team that has spent the year searching for direction.
