Dusty May Opens Up on His Decision to Leave Michigan Basketball for the NBA

Michigan basketball is no stranger to this situation. It wasn’t that long ago that program legend John Beilein left Michigan to go coach the Cleveland Cavaliers.

That lasted less than one full season as Beilein resigned in February.

Six years later, they’re in the same situation. In April, Dusty May and the Wolverines were covered in maize and blue confetti. They were national champions.

Dusty May and Warde Manuel both dismissed any NBA rumors, and it looked as if the Wolverines were fully loaded to make another run at a championship in 2026.

Then May shocked the basketball world by agreeing to become the head coach of Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks on June 23.

May recently talked about the reasoning behind his decision, giving some insight into why he’d leave Michigan, but also the state of college sports.

A Different World

College sports are different than they used to be. That’s not news to anyone who has not lived under a rock since the turn of the decade.

NIL, transfer portal, you know all the talking points by now. It’s a pretty common trope from coaches that make the job from college to the pros to talk about the state of college sports as a reason why.

As it turns out, Dusty May is no different. May told CJ Moore of The Athletic that he was excited to start working toward solutions during the Big Ten conference meeting.

Instead, May left feeling like he had been defeated.

“I go there and I was just like, 'Oh my God, nothing's getting fixed ever,” May said.

May has a point. It’s hard to envision a path forward for college sports. With the way the transfer portal and NIL have run together over the last couple of years, there is no structure.

College athletics are in a weird place, where players act like professionals, are paid like professionals, but are still students at their respective schools.

That makes for some interesting discussion surrounding where the future is going to lie. Part of the romanticism for college sports is the players playing under the guise of the term “student athlete.”

Now, we’re going from “student athlete” to “union member” as the players will likely have to adopt a model similar to the NFL or NBA in their respective sports.

Apr 6, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan Wolverines forward Morez Johnson Jr. (21) celebrates after defeating the Connecticut Huskies in the national championship of the Final Four of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

That’s something for down the road, and it’s something that is not going to be fixed in the near future as May pointed out.

“Collective bargaining in some way, shape or form needs to happen,” May said to The Athletic. “And number two, figure out a way to make contracts binding. “Like, you can’t have a kid sign at this Big Ten school on a Friday and then go on an official visit the next day and sign at another Big Ten school for twice the money on Tuesday. It just can’t be like that. If they are gonna sign rev-share contracts and they’re gonna sign NIL contracts, let’s at least make those binding.”

Coaches Are Different

Coaches are different creatures. We’ve heard the stories of Jon Gruden, formerly the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, sleeping in his office. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to.

He loved the grind. Coaches love their craft. It’s what they do best. They eat, sleep, and breathe their sport.

In college, coaches used to just be able to coach with the minor inconvenience every so often that was thrown in by having to recruit players.

That’s all changed under the new model.

Now, coaches have to coach their team, recruit next year’s team, try and keep their current team intact, and also keep tabs of who is potentially going to enter the transfer portal.

That’s just on the field or court. Off the field or court, they have to focus on fundraising, ensuring boosters are happy, keeping the fan base engaged, all while trying to ensure their team is going to compete at the highest level.

That’s a lot, isn’t it?

"I just spent so much more of my time doing everything but coaching," May said.

May is not the first coach to talk about leaving due to the lack of ability to focus on his craft. Chip Kelly left the college ranks to go be an offensive coordinator, a technical demotion, in the NFL.

Jeff Hafley left Boston College to go be a defensive coordinator in Green Bay. It’s not uncommon, and it may become more common as time goes on.

A Perfect Storm

Of course, May was not going to leave Michigan for just any old job in the NBA. The situation, fit, and timing had to be right for May to make the jump. May admitted he always had a desire to coach in the NBA, and as it turns out, the perfect storm arrived when the Dallas Mavericks parted ways with Jason Kidd.

The Mavericks had become the butt of a lot of jokes in the wake of the Luka Doncic trade and the comedy of errors that have surrounded them since moving Doncic to the Lakers for 30 cents on the dollar.

One shining light that came out of that trade, however, was the lottery luck that allowed them to take Cooper Flagg with the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

Flagg was one of the biggest reasons May wanted to make the jump. A roster with young talent that he could build around, while also adding someone he was familiar with in the draft, former Michigan forward Morez Johnson, made the opportunity too good to pass up.

Michigan was aware that May was leaning toward taking the job with the Mavericks, and asked what they could do to keep him.

“I don’t think there is anything,” May told Michigan, according to The Athletic.

Thus, the perfect storm had risen. A national championship winning coach was out the door before coaching for a chance to defend his title in the same way that Larry Brown did in 1988.

May is not the first coach to make the leap because of the new state of athletics.

He won’t be the last either.

Appearing on Big Ten Network last night, Kyle Whittingham graded #Michigan QB Bryce Underwood through a week of fall camp.

His grade will excite fans. 👀

STORY: https://t.co/ToADGVIJ4i pic.twitter.com/84R3U24TVQ
— Trent Knoop (@TrentKnoop) August 13, 2026

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