{"id":1934547,"date":"2026-05-14T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T07:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1934547"},"modified":"2026-05-14T10:00:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T07:00:03","slug":"masai-ujiris-mavericks-rise-from-no-cell-phone-to-leading-the-cooper-flagg-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1934547","title":{"rendered":"Masai Ujiri\u2019s Mavericks rise: From no cell phone to leading the Cooper Flagg era"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As David Thorpe prepared to head to Atlanta for the Final Four in 2002, he received an email from a young man he met in Boston a few years earlier. Masai Ujiri, who had been playing professional basketball in low-level leagues across Europe, wanted to get into coaching.<\/p>\n

Thorpe, a professional skills trainer for more than 25 years and a partner in the media company TrueHoop, wrote Ujiri back and asked if he could meet in Atlanta. Once Ujiri was there, Thorpe took him to dinner with longtime Florida State men\u2019s basketball coach Leonard Hamilton. Thorpe also lent Ujiri a piece of hardware that wasn\u2019t as ubiquitous as it is now: his cell phone.<\/p>\n

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In the ensuing weeks, Thorpe\u2019s phone kept buzzing with messages from people in the basketball world Ujiri had connected with. All of them wanted to have follow-up conversations with Ujiri but didn\u2019t know how to reach him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew right then he was a very charming guy,\u201d Thorpe said of Ujiri. \u201cVery sweet. Very thoughtful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the new president and alternate governor of the Dallas Mavericks<\/a>, Ujiri\u2019s talent for relationship-building has helped him reach the top of the basketball world. Born in England and raised in Nigeria, Ujiri started out as an unpaid scout with the Orlando Magic in 2002. He parlayed that into a paid scouting position with the Denver Nuggets in 2003 and then was named the team\u2019s general manager in 2010.<\/p>\n

Ujiri left Denver for Toronto in 2013, fresh off winning the NBA\u2019s Executive of the Year award with the Nuggets, and then helped turn the Raptors into a source of national pride in Canada. The Raptors made the playoffs eight times in his 12 years in charge and won their only championship in franchise history in 2019.<\/p>\n

Ujiri\u2019s success in his two previous stops made him a candidate for the coveted president of basketball operations job in Dallas. Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont first met with Ujiri in December during a five-hour lunch in Las Vegas. Last week, the Mavericks announced that they were hiring the 55-year-old Ujiri. In addition to giving Ujiri full control of basketball operations, the Mavericks named him their alternate governor \u2014 a sign of the power Ujiri will wield in Dallas.<\/p>\n

Ujiri will have ample resources at his disposal as he crafts the Mavericks\u2019 roster around reigning Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg. The NBA Draft will be Ujiri\u2019s primary focus for the next few weeks. The Mavericks have two first-round picks (the Nos. 9 and 30 selections). There is pressure to identify building blocks to put next to Flagg, because after this year, Dallas won\u2019t have full control of its own first-round pick again until 2031.<\/p>\n

By then, Flagg will have completed his sixth NBA season.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m going to do anything in my power \u2014 anything in my power \u2014 to make that kid and his family great,\u201d Ujiri said. \u201cThose talents, they don\u2019t come often.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ujiri understands how competitive the Western Conference is. Oklahoma City\u2019s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, San Antonio\u2019s Victor Wembanyama and Denver\u2019s Nikola Joki\u0107 are likely to finish in the top three in some order in this year\u2019s MVP race. Former Maverick Luka Don\u010di\u0107 was in the mix for the award until he hurt his hamstring in April. Minnesota\u2019s Anthony Edwards \u2014 who\u2019s seeking to make his third straight trip to the Western Conference finals \u2014 isn\u2019t going anywhere anytime soon.<\/p>\n

What Flagg showed during his rookie season convinced Ujiri that the 19-year-old forward can one day compete with the rest of those heavyweights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one difficult thing to find anywhere \u2014 anywhere \u2014 in sports is a generational player,\u201d Ujiri said. \u201cWe have one. We have planted a flag here. We have one player here who can turn everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In 2016, the Toronto Raptors had two first-round picks. They chose Jakob Poeltl, an Austrian center, with the No. 9 selection. With their late first-rounder, the No. 27 pick, the Raptors went with a wing player from Cameroon who had only started playing organized basketball a few years prior.<\/p>\n

His name was Pascal Siakam.<\/p>\n

Siakam got G League reps as a rookie. By his third season, he had become a mainstay in the Raptors\u2019 starting lineup. His nonstop motor and devastating spin move helped him win Most Improved Player in 2019. Now a four-time All-Star, Siakam is considered one of the best forwards in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

During Ujiri\u2019s time in Toronto, the Raptors were consistently able to develop these unlikely success stories. In 2016, Toronto signed Fred VanVleet as an undrafted free agent. The next year, Toronto drafted OG Anunoby with the 23rd pick.<\/p>\n

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Ujiri\u2019s background in scouting helped the Raptors find roses buried in the rubble. But the way Thorpe sees it, the success of Siakam and others in Toronto was as much about the fertile environment they were planted in as it was their talent level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s about talent evaluation,\u201d Thorpe said. \u201cI think it\u2019s about creating an atmosphere that allows players to reach their potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Masai Ujiri celebrated an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. He hopes to do the same with the Dallas Mavericks as president and alternate governor. (Lachlan Cunningham \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As he did in Toronto, Ujiri is going to have to create that environment in Dallas, where the situation grew toxic after the Don\u010di\u0107 trade. Former general manager Nico Harrison enraged fans with clipped and clumsy answers as his rationale for trading Don\u010di\u0107. Harrison also hurt the Mavericks by making bad hires in important areas of the organization. The Mavericks fired their head of communications before the start of last season. The day after Dallas\u2019 regular-season finale in April, Dallas parted ways with Johann Bilsborough<\/a>, its director of player health, performance and innovation, after a second straight injury-riddled season.<\/p>\n

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How Did We Get Here?<\/div>\n
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\u201cI think one of the things we have to figure out is how to get better here medically in what we do,\u201d Ujiri said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the things I try to study: the fast game in the NBA. How do you put players around a player like Cooper Flagg? How do you innovate in this way? The things you do to help young players off the court mentally. We don\u2019t pay enough attention to this in the NBA. And, really focus on them and help them through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ujiri made his first big move last week, when the Mavericks hired Mike Schmitz as general manager<\/a>. Schmitz got his start working for the independent scouting service DraftExpress. He was an ESPN analyst for five years and then became the Portland Trail Blazers assistant general manager in 2022. Although Portland\u2019s draft success was mixed in Schmitz\u2019s four years there, he helped drive the decision to trade for Deni Avdija, who was named an All-Star this past season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known him for many, many years,\u201d Ujiri said of Schmitz. \u201cIncredible scout. Incredible leader. Just digs deep into work, data and what you want to know about: really scouting players, team building, all those things, you know? Treating people well. Staff organizing. Managing people. It\u2019s a whole package.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ujiri and Schmitz are at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago this week. While a healthy Kyrie Irving is set to return next season, the Mavericks still need to add guard creators. Ujiri and Schmitz will be gathering information on this year\u2019s class of backcourt prospects and players at other positions.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s one of the deepest drafts in recent years. So honestly, I\u2019m going to leave my comments to that guy,\u201d said Ujiri, pointing to Schmitz. \u201cThis is his time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the 12 years Ujiri spent in Toronto, he earned a reputation for being bold. Early in his tenure in 2014, a charged-up Ujiri cursed the Brooklyn Nets, the Raptors\u2019 first-round playoff opponent, at a fan rally.<\/p>\n

In 2019, when Ujiri felt the Raptors were bumping up against a ceiling they were unlikely to break through, he traded a beloved player, DeMar DeRozan, to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard, even though the enigmatic forward had only played nine games the previous season and had one year remaining on his contract.<\/p>\n

That trade, of course, resulted in a championship. Leonard averaged 30.5 points per game during the 2019 postseason and then bolted for the LA Clippers that summer in free agency.<\/p>\n

Ujiri has proven he\u2019s unafraid to roll the dice, but there\u2019s plenty of evidence he\u2019s a measured decision-maker, too. Ujiri kept the Raptors\u2019 DeRozan-Kyle Lowry core intact for five years before pivoting. And when Ujiri was asked about Mavericks coach Jason Kidd\u2019s future earlier this month, he pointed out that he\u2019d retained George Karl and Dwane Casey \u2014 coaches he inherited in Denver and Toronto \u2014 and those decisions panned out pretty well.<\/p>\n

Ujiri\u2019s track record indicates he knows when to strike in opportunistic moments and also understands when he needs to sit back and do nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has both those sides,\u201d said Kiki VanDeWeghe, who gave Ujiri his first full-time NBA job with the Nuggets in 2003, \u201cand he\u2019s not afraid to pull the trigger on certain things that certain people think are a little risky. I think it all goes back to the work he puts in to justify it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Nuggets, we talked about preparedness. You go back to the old John Wooden statement: \u2018Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.\u2019 Let\u2019s be as prepared as we possibly can, keep our powder dry. When the right situation comes up, we\u2019ll recognize it and be able to pull the trigger. Masai typifies that kind of attitude. It\u2019s a combination of patience, but then being ready and not hesitating when the opportunity presents itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ujiri\u2019s profile has risen dramatically since he asked to borrow Thorpe\u2019s cell phone during the Final Four 24 years ago. When Ujiri came to Dallas last week to be formally introduced, he was accompanied by his in-house content team.\u00a0Ujiri has used his success to give back. His nonprofit, Giants of Africa, puts on basketball camps, builds courts and provides education opportunities on the continent Ujiri spent much of his childhood on. Ujiri commits a lot of his time to Giants of Africa, but he still had the desire to run an NBA team after parting ways with the Raptors last summer.<\/p>\n

Ujiri wants to win another championship in Dallas. He added that he also wants to \u201cbring calm\u201d<\/a> to a place that has been in a state of upheaval over the past 15 months post-Don\u010di\u0107 trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t cry forever,\u201d Ujiri said. \u201cI know there has to be a healing process. We\u2019ve gone through that here a little bit. But we have something shiny here. And we are going to win here in Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Vorkunov contributed to this report.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As David Thorpe prepared to head to Atlanta for the Final Four in 2002, he received an email from a young man he met in Boston a few years earlier. Masai Ujiri, who had been playing professional basketball in low-level leagues across Europe, wanted to get into coaching. Thorpe, a professional skills trainer for more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1934547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1934547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1934547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1934547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1934547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}