MACAO — Mavericks coach Dusty May has talked with several NBA coaches who started out in college, and Brad Stevens is one of them. May brought up Stevens after Thursday’s practice. On Friday, he coaches the Dallas Mavericks in a game for the first time, a preseason opener against the Houston Rockets at The Venetian Arena.
The Mavericks hired Masai Ujiri to run basketball operations in early May. In June, Ujiri hired May to replace Jason Kidd, a few months after May won the 2026 national championship at Michigan.
Dusty May On Brad Stevens And The College-To-NBA Jump
Counting the coaches who made that jump is not simple for May. Many of them went through the G League or worked as NBA assistants along the way.
“It’s such a complicated question because there are a lot of NBA coaches that began in college and then maybe went the G League route or they were an NBA assistant,” May said. “But yes, I’ve spoken with several of those guys. I grew up with Brad Stevens, so I picked his brain for a number of years. But yeah, I’m aware of the lack of recent success.”
Stevens is from Zionsville, Ind. Butler made him its head coach in 2007, and he took the Bulldogs to the national championship game twice, in 2010 and again in 2011.
Two years after the second title game run, Stevens left for the Boston Celtics. He coached them for eight seasons. In 2021, he moved into the front office, and he was named NBA Executive of the Year for 2023-24.
Dusty May’s First Game As Dallas Mavericks Coach
May was born in Terre Haute and grew up in Greene County, about two hours southwest of Zionsville. After graduating from Eastern Greene High School in 1995, he spent 1996 to 2000 as a student manager at Indiana under Bob Knight. He later worked as an assistant at Florida under Michael White. In 2018, Florida Atlantic gave him his first head coaching job, and five years later the Owls were in the Final Four. Michigan went 64-13 in his two seasons there.
Rotations sit near the top of May’s list for Macao. He expects each game to teach Dallas something about its roster.
“First and foremost, establishing a style of play. Stylistically, us being really, really solid on both sides of the field, and just figuring our rotations out,” May explained. “Obviously, we’re going to learn a lot about our team each game.”
Kyrie Irving missed all of 2025-26 with a torn left ACL. On Monday, ANTA told Dallas Sports Journal he is cleared to play in Macao with no restrictions, and lineup combinations for the opener are still being sorted out.
“No, we’ll have a limited roster. Even with Kyrie, he’s going to play one game here,” May said. “We still haven’t decided which one, based on how his body feels, especially with the jet lag and things like that.”
“So, no, it’s still inconclusive at this time,” May continued. “We’re working on different lineup combinations, but as of now, we’re still working on that.”
Last week, May called the trip a fact-finding mission. Dallas finished 26-56 last season, its worst record in eight years.
May’s debut tips off Friday at 6:30 a.m. CT on NBA TV. The second game in Macao is Sunday at 4:30 a.m. CT, and the regular season opens Oct. 21 in Houston at 7:30 p.m. CT.
