The Dallas Mavericks have agreed to hire Masai Ujiri as their new team president and alternate governor after a six-month search process.
Ujiri is tasked with reshaping the Mavs into championship contenders and also repairing the work done by his predecessor, Nico Harrison.
Harrison is infamously known for shipping off the Mavericks’ former star guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for forward Anthony Davis, who only played 29 regular-season games with the Mavericks.
This is a big deal for the Mavs, who are now handing the reins of a young and talented team to a widely experienced executive who played a pivotal role in leading the Toronto Raptors to a championship during the 2018–19 season.
Ujiri has been an NBA executive for 15 years, first starting off as the general manager and executive vice president in charge of basketball operations with the Denver Nuggets in 2010.
In his third and final season as the Nuggets GM, Ujiri was named NBA Executive of the Year in 2013 after leading the Nuggets to a historic, team-high 57 wins.
His 2013 success with the Nuggets led the Toronto Raptors to hire Ujiri as their new GM and executive vice president in 2013, a position Ujiri held for 12 years until mutually parting ways with the team in 2025.
Under Ujiri, the Raptors were consistent playoff contenders in the 2010s and famously beat the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals to secure their first and only NBA championship.
The Dallas Mavericks will hold a press conference Tuesday with Mavs governor Patrick Dumont and Ujiri.
“The Dallas Mavericks are committed to being a world-class organization with a strong culture and focused on winning championships. Masai Ujiri is one of the great basketball leaders of this generation, and his addition to our franchise is a critical step in meeting our goals,” Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont said in a press release.
“We are honored to have him join the Mavs family. We welcome his energy and determination, along with his leadership, experience, and many accomplishments as a basketball executive. We are very excited about the future of our team.”