Former Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki will rejoin the team as a special advisor, the team announced (via Twitter). His first assignment will be to aid in the searches for a new head of basketball operations and a new head coach.
Nowitzki, who retired two years ago, isn’t ready to take a full-time job with the organization, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times, but he will assist owner Mark Cuban in filling the two important roles (Twitter link).
“Mark Cuban approached me about a role as special advisor and I am happy to support my Mavs,” Nowitzki said. “Donnie Nelson and Rick Carlisle were both mentors and played huge roles in my career and the success of this franchise, and I am going to miss them. It is important for me now to join Mark and contribute as much as I can as we move forward.”
Following Carlisle’s decision on Thursday to step down as head coach after 13 seasons, Cuban met with Nowitzki, VP of basketball operations Michael Finley and some other longtime staffers to plot the team’s future, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link).
Nowitzki, 42, is a 14-time All-Star who played 21 seasons for the Mavericks and holds many franchise records. He reportedly turned down an offer to become an assistant coach under former teammate Steve Nash with the Nets before the start of the season.
Plus he’s a Euro like Doncic.
Cuban is doing this for top cover. Local fans and media less likely to criticize the process with Dirk’s face/name strewn about.
ESPN identify Kidd or Stotts as new coach
3 questions
How much upgrade for playoffs success?
Kidd has enough power to hold Voulgaris guy accountable?
Kidd has enough power to create internal tension？
Yup. PR damage control.
I wonder what really happened? Maybe someday we’ll find out.
Kidd and cuban dont get along. I can see stotts coming back as a off.cordinator
Best thing is get maasai from raptors as 1st choice. Danny ainge as 2nd choice, finely as 3rd choice.
For HC. It has to be mosley. Luka loves the guy
Finally, cubsn needs to get rid of haralabos
Sillivan2, I don’t see stotts coming here as a head coach or offensive coordinator. Not sure who the Mavs would hire but I bet it’s Cutting Edge. I wouldn’t be surprised if Becky Hammon was hired here.
This is Cuban trying to cover for this chaos
This looks eerily like the Rockets implosion this past offseason. Are the Mavs going full tank this year? Amazing for a stable, if stagnant organization to completely turn the offseason upside down. Voulgaris is apparently a complete a**hole, and since there are no secrets in the NBA any more, there will be no FAs that will want to join this shitshow/circus. Sigh…. we’re now seeing the transformation of Cuban turning into Jerry Jones. Maybe Cuban will appoint himself GM. All that matters is $$$. Bummer.
I’d like to see Cuban coach the team. We all know that deep down he wants to do it. He wouldn’t know what the hell he was doing but he would be confident about it and it would be entertaining to watch the circus.