Mavericks hire Masai Ujiri as president, alternate governor - ESPN

The Dallas Mavericks have agreed to hire Masai Ujiri as their team president and alternate governor, landing a lead basketball executive with proven champion experience after a six-month search process, the team announced Monday.

Ujiri was the architect of the Toronto Raptors' 2018-19 championship team, the highlight of his 15-year tenure as a lead basketball executive in the NBA. He also won the Executive of the Year award in 2012-13 with the Denver Nuggets.

A news conference with Mavs governor Patrick Dumont and Ujiri is planned for Tuesday in Dallas.

«The Dallas Mavericks are committed to being a world-class organization with a strong culture and focused on winning championships. Masai Ujiri is one of the great basketball leaders of this generation and his addition to our franchise is a critical step in meeting our goals,» Dumont said in a statement. «We are honored to have him join the Mavs family. We welcome his energy and determination along with his leadership, experience and many accomplishments as a basketball executive. We are very excited about the future of our team.»

The hiring of Ujiri, whose teams in Denver and Toronto had a 690-504 record and made the playoffs in 12 of his 15 seasons in charge, follows a pattern of Dumont pursuing experienced executives with impressive credentials to run his franchise. He hired former Golden State Warriors president Rick Welts as the Mavs' chief executive officer in December 2024, luring the Hall of Famer out of retirement to run Dallas' business operations as the team begins planning for a new arena.

The Mavs had preliminary interest in some current lead basketball executives of other franchises, particularly Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim