Escape the burnout of college athletics as a championship-winning mastermind trades the Michigan sidelines for Dallas's new front office, a premier city lifestyle, and a generational superstar.
DALLAS - Were the Dallas Mavs a three-pronged drawing card for new coach Dusty May, who shocked many this week by making the leap from his secure perch at the University of Michigan?
So it seems.
This hire marks a major victory for a Mavericks franchise trying to get back on the NBA map, considering May just won a national championship and is widely considered one of the brightest minds in college basketball.
One reason for May's move? It may be in part about the challenges of "sustaining'' success at the college level.
On reporter Jeff Goodman's podcast just last week, the former Michigan Wolverines coach was candid about how life can be difficult in college athletics.
"The actual game and profession is sustainable, [but] it's just a low quality of life for the people involved in it, because the uncertainty and just the lack of overall structure," May said.
"Obviously, the frustration is there," he added. "Because, you need multi-year contracts, you need - in my opinion, if we're gonna sign a player from a mid-major, we should pay some sort of buyout in compensation. ...
"The thing that frustrates me is, every time there seems to be a solution to, I guess, solve one of the biggest problems, then some of the more well-known coaches come out and say that that affects them in a negative way. There's a give and take with everything..."
Hearing these remarks explains how May chose to make the jump to the NBA.
But why Dallas?
It seems there are three specific reasons behind May's decision.
According to ESPN's Shams Charania, those three factors ...
1 - The presence of the emerging star Cooper Flagg.
2 - The city of Dallas itself.
3 - The Mavs' new front-office leadership of president Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz.
May, 49, is the first college coach to jump to the NBA in six years; this sort of thing doesn't always work.
But May and the Mavs, it appears to be a win-win.
Or, in the case of what three things lured the coach here? Let's call it a win-win-win.
