Masai Ujiri’s first move as the Dallas Mavericks president was to fire the coach who took them to the Finals. Jason Kidd had sought a promotion to president of basketball operations right after Nico Harrison’s firing, but was flatly denied. After arriving, Ujiri then wasted little time, accelerating a crucial decision that had been due since the front-office upheaval began with the infamous Luka Doncic trade in February 2025. The warning signs appeared when Ujiri was non-committal at his May 5 introductory press conference, declining to verbally commit to Kidd’s future despite acknowledging his coaching record.

Dallas mutually decided to end its five-season run with Kidd, who had a 205-205 overall record. Most notably, Dallas was 22-18 in the playoffs, advancing to the 2022 Western Conference Finals and the 2024 NBA Finals. Despite that record, though, Ujiri remained initially unsure about Kidd’s future. The new president has broken his own pattern of retaining head coaches when he takes over, as he did with George Karl in Denver and Dwane Casey in Toronto. This decision is also surprising because Kidd had four years and more than $40 million remaining on his contract. So, what was Ujiri’s thought process here?

“He’s done a great job, but we are going to look at this thing from head to toe,” Ujiri said in an official statement. “That’s the right way to look at an organization and evaluate in every single way we can. As we evaluate the future of our basketball program, we believe this is the right moment for a new direction for our team.”

“We have high expectations for this franchise and a responsibility to build a basketball organization capable of sustained championship contention,” Ujiri said. “We will conduct a thorough, disciplined search for our next head coach and continue to evaluate our entire basketball operations staff to ensure we compete at the standard Mavs fans expect and deserve.” This ‘head-to-toe’ evaluation that Ujiri mentions took less than two weeks, and Kidd did not survive it…

Notably, Ujiri has signaled that this coaching change is only the beginning. The president’s mention of the “entire” basketball operations staff suggests a broader overhaul may follow, with the Mavs currently outside playoff contention and facing a critical free-agency window. This decision is solely a Ujiri-based call because owner Patrick Dumont awarded Kidd an extension in October after not allowing him to interview for the New York Knicks job. That added further skepticism around the coach losing his job this offseason, but sources told The Athletic that Dumont has insisted all along that Ujiri will have full control.

And Tuesday’s news has made that fact very apparent. Now, it is important to identify when Kidd’s problems began in Dallas. I think we all know the answer to that. But the coach had insisted that he knew nothing about Luka Doncic’s trade until “the 11th hour.” Minority owner Mark Cuban, though, had a very different tale to tell. He accused Kidd of being directly involved in the decision to trade the Slovenian. Cuban’s judgment stemmed from the fact that the coach’s frustration with Doncic’s frequent conditioning issues was well known. But was the billionaire investor right about any of it?

There’s no clear-cut answer to that. But there was a visible tension between Kidd and Doncic even months after the trade. In November 2025, Shams Charania noted that the new Lakers star hadn’t acknowledged Kidd since the exit, even when they played against each other in the Lakers-Mavs games. The tension between them stems back to 2022, when the Golden State Warriors nearly swept Dallas 4-1 in the WCF. Kidd went on record, indirectly mocking the Slovenian.

“Now, it’s about what’s our appetite come next season?” Kidd said. “Next season, are we going to be hungry? And then, are we going to train this summer to understand what it means to play until May and June?” Doncic wasn’t the fittest that season, something that he acknowledged in due course. But one can only imagine how unpleasant the locker room atmosphere would’ve been, even after they reached the Finals later in 2024. And regardless of whether the Kidd-Doncic relationship improved, the narrative stayed on. Cuban, though, didn’t hesitate to drop his perspective on the coach losing his job yesterday.

“Obviously I’m a jkidd fan,” Cuban wrote in an email to FOX 4. “So I’m surprised and disappointed. But we have to give Masai a chance to see what happens. He has been through this before.” Now, there’s enough reason to believe that Ujiri is responsible for clearing the entire ship that played a role in trading Doncic. Here’s how.

Even though Nico Harrison was fired long before the new President arrived, Kidd was the second name on that list, followed by another staffer who was also let go. On Tuesday, the franchise parted ways with Matt Riccardi, who was the team’s assistant general manager when it made the Doncic trade and was promoted to co-interim general manager alongside Michael Finley upon Harrison’s firing in November. But, in all fairness, Kidd, logically, wouldn’t have been let go, especially after the strong relationships he had built with Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving in Dallas…

The Rookie of the Year has three years remaining on his current contract, and Irving has only one more year left on his deal before he can exercise a player option in the summer of 2027. So why wouldn’t the front office want to retain a head coach whom the locker room actually appreciates? But it appears the writing was already on the wall, because the coach was completely kept out of the loop during the process that led to Ujiri’s hiring.

Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, who was on Inside the NBA when the news dropped, had a priceless reaction. “Oh, my goodness! Jason Kidd just got fired,” exclaimed Chuck. “Man, that’s a shocker there. Breaking news. It just came on my phone.”

Now, regardless of whether Kidd’s firing was related to Doncic’s trade, the Mavericks need a long-term replacement who can basically pull them out of the dump. Sean Sweeney, currently on the San Antonio Spurs staff, was Kidd’s lead assistant in Dallas for multiple years. In his role as associate head coach, Sweeney has seen the Spurs jump to 62 wins this year, a 28-win improvement from the year before. He is due for a head coaching opportunity in his career.

If the Mavericks were to explore the NCAA circuit, Todd Golden, who was recently linked to the Golden State Warriors, is one of the bigger names who may actually be attainable. He is just 40 years old, and Ujiri might fancy a fully fresh non-NBA mind at the helm in Dallas. Otherwise, the new Dallas president may turn to a familiar name in Nick Nurse, who was the head coach of the Toronto Raptors in 2019, when Ujiri was running the front office. Nurse might also seek some stability amid a tumultuous stint in Philly, something that the Dumont family may be able to offer him in Dallas.