The Dallas Mavericks announced a mutual agreement to part ways with head coach Jason Kidd on Tuesday, ending his five-year tenure as Dallas' top man.
That run was hot and cold, as Kidd twice led his squad to 50 wins or more, including a Western Conference championship in 2023-24. That team ultimately lost to the Boston Celtics in five games in the NBA Finals. Yet he also had three losing seasons, including last season's 25-56 bottoming out.
"Jason has had a meaningful impact on the Dallas Mavericks,
both as a Hall of Fame player and as the head coach who helped lead this franchise back to the NBA Finals," Mavericks president Masai Ujiri said. "We are thankful for Jason's leadership, his professionalism and his commitment to the team. In my short time here, I've developed an enormous amount of respect for what he has built. He will always be an important part of the Mavericks family."
Kidd finished 205-205 over five seasons in Dallas with a 22-18 playoff record and is now 388-395 (31-33 playoffs) as a head coach overall.
He just signed a contract extension in October 2025 and has four years and well over $40 million remaining on the deal.
His popularity in Dallas took a hit when the Mavericks traded away superstar Luka Doncic in February of 2025. Kidd denied any advance knowledge of the deal beyond learning of it at "the 11th hour," yet Kidd became associated with the deal anyway, which has turned Dallas from contender into a lottery team.
The organization expressed a desire to turn the page and conduct a comprehensive search immediately.
"As we evaluate the future of our basketball program, we believe this is the right moment for a new direction for our team," Ujiri said. "We have high expectations for this franchise and a responsibility to build a basketball organization capable of sustained championship contention. We will conduct a thorough, disciplined search for our next head coach and continue to evaluate our entire basketball operations staff to ensure we compete at the standard Mavs fans expect and deserve."
Kidd, 53, had a Hall of Fame career as a player and has 10 seasons of experience as a head coach, helming the Brooklyn Nets for a winning season (44-38) before taking charge of the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014. In Milwaukee, his teams only once eclipsed the .500 plateau (42-40 in 2016-17) until he was fired midway through the following season.
After a two-year stint as an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kidd was hired in Dallas in 2021, where he had spent parts of eight seasons as a player as part of run of 10 All-Star appearances over 19 seasons.
Kidd found immediate success as the top guy in Dallas, taking the Mavericks to a 52-30 debut season and Western Conference finals appearance, riding the hot hand of Doncic to two playoff series wins. He finished sixth in voting for Coach of the Year that season.
Two seasons later, after the Finals appearance, he finished ninth in that same vote.
--Field Level Media
