Dallas Mavericks president Masai Ujiri says removing Jason Kidd after five seasons was his decision alone, made as the organization starts a clean slate. Ujiri also rejected any link to the February 2025 Luka Doncic trade.
Dallas has a new reality, and Masai Ujiri made sure there was no ambiguity about who started it.
When the Mavericks announced Tuesday night that they were parting ways with Jason Kidd, Ujiri followed a day later by saying the move was difficult, and his alone. Five seasons with Kidd as coach ended with Ujiri taking ownership of the decision.
“It was a very, very tough decision,” Ujiri said Wednesday. “What he’s done for this organization we truly respect, so this was a very, very tough decision.”
Ujiri framed it as responsibility, not reaction. “I have to be accountable with a decision like this,” he said. “I also have to be very active in how I look at the organization from top to bottom.”
That “top to bottom” language landed right alongside a timeline that already felt personal. Ujiri took over as team president and governor two weeks ago, and he said the organization needed a clean slate.
Crucially, he also insisted the firing had nothing to do with the trade of Luka Doncic. Ujiri said the move had no connection to the February 2025 deal and anyone connected to it.
The question of Kidd’s future had hovered even before the departure was official. When Ujiri was asked about Kidd’s outlook at his introduction on May 5, he did not make promises. He said he would speak with Kidd while evaluating all aspects of the team.
When the Mavericks communicated Kidd’s exit on Tuesday night, they described it as a mutual decision. In his comments Wednesday, Ujiri put the spotlight back on himself—while keeping his respect for Kidd very much in view.
Kidd’s tenure was inseparable from Dallas’s most recent peaks. Under him and Doncic, the Mavericks made two deep playoff runs and reached the NBA Finals in 2024, two years after losing to Golden State in the Western Conference finals.
But the franchise’s last stretch has been defined by what happened after those high points. During the 2024-25 season, Dallas traded Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, receiving Anthony Davis as the centerpiece. That deal backfired badly on the franchise. Dallas missed the playoffs in 2024-25. and again in 2025-26—when Davis was traded.
Kidd, a Hall of Fame point guard who led Dallas to its only championship as a player in 2011, leaves with an even regular-season split. He finished with a .500 coaching record (205-205) with the Mavericks.
In the wake of the announcement, the clearest message from Ujiri was the one that cuts through the noise: this was not a shuffle tied to February 2025 or to the aftermath of Doncic’s exit. It was a reset, decided at the very top, after five seasons that brought both celebration and disappointment.
Dallas Mavericks Masai Ujiri Jason Kidd Luka Doncic Anthony Davis NBA playoffs NBA Finals 2024