Mavericks Fire Staff Member After Two Seasons in Dallas

The 2025-26 season is already over for the Dallas Mavericks, well before they wanted it to end. They entered the season with self-proclaimed championship expectations, and ended it losing 30 more games than they won.

Outside of the infamous Luka Doncic trade, nothing has tanked this team more than injuries. Former general manager Nico Harrison let his ego get in the way years ago when he fired Casey Smith, a renowned athletic trainer, because he had too much of a voice in the organization. Since then, injuries have completely hampered them.

In the last two years alone, Luka Doncic suffered a serious calf injury that led to his trade, Kyrie Irving tore his ACL, Jaden Hardy sprained his same ankle four times in the span of a few months, Anthony Davis suffered multiple major injuries, Daniel Gafford suffered an ankle injury before this season that lingered all year, and P.J. Washington has had so many injuries that it's hard to keep track.

That all pales in comparison to what happened with Dereck Lively II. In January of 2025, he went down with a foot injury that was initially misdiagnosed as a sprained ankle. He was ramping up to return to play a few days later before they found a stress fracture in his foot. He had surgery to repair that, would miss a few months, returned late in the season, had a procedure to remove bone spurs from the foot in the offseason, played just 7 games this season, then needed season-ending foot surgery in December. If you're counting, that's three foot surgeries in a year for a 7-footer.

There was a major disagreement between two of the Mavericks' medical personnel figures surrounding the initial ankle misdiagnosis, per ESPN's Tim MacMahon: Johann Bilsborough (director of player health, performance, and innovation) and Keith Belton (former athletic performance director) about the health of Lively. Belton, who wasn't even licensed to work in the NBA, was fired last season. Now, the Mavs have dismissed Bilsborough.

The Mavericks have parted ways with director of health and performance Johann Bilsborough, sources told ESPN.
— Tim MacMahon (@BannedMacMahon) April 13, 2026

Dallas Mavericks Fire Johann Bilsborough

According to those familiar with the situation, the Mavericks fired Billsborough to get "a fresh start and new ideology in the team's health and performance group," per ESPN's MacMahon.

MacMahon also reported that the new hire will likely be made by the new president of basketball operations/general manager, which they hope to have in place by mid-May.

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