Kyrie Irving Sends Clear Message About Dusty May Before Mavericks Opener

DALLAS — Two days before Dusty May coaches his first NBA regular-season game, Kyrie Irving said Monday that he and the first-year Mavericks coach are learning from each other.

The Dallas Mavericks open Wednesday at the Houston Rockets. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m. CT. May went 1-3 in his first NBA preseason.

Dallas plays Houston twice, San Antonio twice, and Oklahoma City once before Nov. 5. May drew up the opening possession in Macao on Oct. 11 for Irving, who was playing his first game since tearing his ACL.

Irving wants to measure himself against teams like those.

“There's no other way really to look at it when you enjoy the competition at this level,” Irving said. “The best of the best — that's who you want to go against and how you want to judge yourself. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Dusty [May], being in his first year, coming into this gauntlet, it's exciting times. We got his back. He has ours.”

The Mavericks hired May in June, two months after he won the 2026 national championship in his second season at Michigan. He went 64-13 in Ann Arbor, and Michigan beat UConn in the title game. Over his last four college seasons, his teams went 124-26.

May was a student manager at Indiana under Bob Knight from 1996 to 2000. He began coaching as an assistant at Murray State in 2005-06, then worked at UAB, Louisiana Tech, and Florida before Florida Atlantic hired him in 2018.

May spent six seasons at Florida Atlantic and went 126-69, with a winning record in every one of them. He took the Owls to the 2023 Final Four as a No. 9 seed.

May replaced Jason Kidd, whose five seasons in Dallas included a trip to the 2024 NBA Finals with Irving. Boston beat the Mavericks in five games in that series. Masai Ujiri, the former Toronto Raptors executive introduced as the Mavericks' president of basketball operations on May 5, made the hire.

At his introductory news conference on June 29, May called Irving a jazz musician.

“Kyrie knows what it takes to win a championship,” May said. “So as a first-time NBA coach, I'm going to lean on him in a lot of areas. And someone as intelligent as he is is going to bring a lot to the table for all of us. And so, you know someone he's one of the greatest point guards to ever play our game. I mean, he's a jazz musician, and so I can't wait to be around him every day and, just help him on his journey.”

Brooklyn hired Steve Nash as its head coach in September 2020. Weeks later, on the debut episode of Kevin Durant's podcast, “The ETCs,” Irving said he did not really see the Nets as having a head coach.

Irving called May a championship-level coach and himself a championship-level player.

“When I said [about] Steve Nash [in Brooklyn] we didn't need a head coach about five or six years ago,” Irving said, “I like to be a little more aware about what I say about coaching, out of respect for head coaches. I know better now. Lesson learned.”

“I give [May] the utmost respect,” Irving added. “Our communication is very fluid, very transparent. I think it's about learning from each other. He's a championship level coach. I'm a championship level player. I never want to step on his toes and I think the same way for me. He's the leader of our team. On the court, I communicate what I see and try to make the best play possible.”

Irving won the 2016 title with Cleveland. He is starting his 16th season and missed all of 2025-26 recovering from a torn left ACL.

Dallas drafted Morez Johnson Jr., who played for May at Michigan, ninth overall in June. Cooper Flagg, last season's top rookie, is starting his second season. Dallas exercised his third-year rookie scale option on Saturday.

The Mavericks finished 26-56 last season.

May's first home game is Saturday against San Antonio at American Airlines Center.