All Badgers

Former Wisconsin Badgers star now in charge of helping clean up Dallas Mavericks mess

A former star for the Wisconsin Badgers is facing perhaps the biggest challenge of his basketball career: Trying to clean up the mess that is the Dallas Mavericks.
Lorin Cox|
May 15, 2018; Chicago, IL, USA; Dallas Mavericks Assistant Vice President of Basketball Operations Michael Finley during the 2018 NBA Draft Lottery at the Palmer House Hilton. He was a star for the Wisconsin Badgers in the early 1990s.
May 15, 2018; Chicago, IL, USA; Dallas Mavericks Assistant Vice President of Basketball Operations Michael Finley during the 2018 NBA Draft Lottery at the Palmer House Hilton. He was a star for the Wisconsin Badgers in the early 1990s. | Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images

In this story:

Wisconsin BadgersDallas Mavericks

A former star for the Wisconsin Badgers is facing perhaps the biggest challenge of his basketball career: Trying to clean up the mess that is the Dallas Mavericks.

This week, Michael Finley was named co-interim general manager for the NBA team he spent a decade playing for in the late 90s and early 2000s.

The Mavericks fired general manager Nico Harrison on Tuesday, less than a year after he traded away superstar Luka Doncic in a widely criticized trade that made him the laughing stock of basketball fans.

Finley was Harrison's right-hand hand, serving as assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel. He reportedly voiced the strongest opposition to the Doncic trade at the time, according to NBA insider Mark Stein.

He joined the Mavericks front office in 2017, seven years after the end of his professional playing career.

Sign Up For the Wisconsin Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Wisconsin Badgers Newsletter

Finley played for the Badgers from 1991 to 1995, setting the program record as the all-time leading scorer with 2,147 points.

He is the only player in school history to average over 20 points per game in three different seasons, and he was inducted into the UW Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.

Wisconsin retired his No. 24 jersey back in 2022, and he has been around the Badgers multiple times in the last few years.

Most recently, he was spotted visiting with John Blackwell during his pro day in May while he explored his options for the NBA Draft.

Now, Finley is tasked with rebuilding a roster that lost one of the best players in the sport and is trying to form a nuclus around No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg.

The Mavericks will pursue a permanent general manager to replace Harrison, but Finley's stint as a co-interim will give him the opportunity to prove he's the right man for the job.

More Wisconsin Badgers News:

Published | Modified
Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

Home/Basketball