For the first time since his departure, former Michigan men’s basketball head coach Dusty May has decided to speak with a member of the Michigan media to discuss why he left for the Dallas Mavericks.
In his two seasons with the Wolverines, May won a Big Ten Tournament championship, Big Ten regular-season championship, made the Sweet Sixteen twice, made the Final Four and won it all, among sending four players to the NBA Draft in the first round.
May joined Brian Boesch on the Defend the Block podcast
this week to discuss his reasons for leaving after the national championship season, being in Ann Arbor because of a hip surgery he had scheduled. For May, the decision came down to a combination of factors.
“Obviously, if anyone knows me, they’ve always known I’ve been infatuated with the NBA,” May said. “I just started thinking about all that’s happening now and not knowing what tomorrow looks like, not knowing what a year from now looks like. We’re all wired differently. I’m someone that security and planning is very important.
“We all have a criteria and what’s important to us in life — Dallas checked a lot of those boxes. When you factor in the leadership, my respect and admiration for Masai, my friendship with Mike Schmitz that goes back from traveling the globe, and then Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving and a strong core of guys that if we can get healthy, we feel like we have a group to grow with.”
The combination of Dallas, leadership, players and predictability was enough to push May over the edge. The decision was one May and his circle found hard to turn down. And had Michigan not won the national championship, May doesn’t think his decision would’ve changed.
“It was incredibly difficult for me,” May said when asked about making the decision to leave. “Talking to people that I love and respect and trust, they all share the same sentiment that this one’s gonna be a tough one to turn down and this one makes sense for all the reasons.”
Now in his place is an assistant coach that worked under him, Mike Boynton Jr. He was the defensive coordinator for May the last two years and brings a wealth of experience to his new position, most recently being the head coach for Oklahoma State and Cade Cunningham.
May detailed the conversations he had with Boynton throughout the hiring process with the Mavericks.
“When I decided to meet with (the Mavericks), I told Mike, ‘Hey, this is gaining some traction. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s definitely picking up some steam. I think you should definitely have a plan ready, a plan of attack ready for when it does go down where you know what direction you’re going to go in,’” May recalled. “We have to prioritize every minute of the day, and so for him to start prioritizing what he needed to do if it did happen, and then once I met with them, I told him, ‘Hey, unless there’s a change of heart right now, my heart is I’m going to do this.’ I said, ‘I still have to meet with some people and do some things, but unless I change my mind, I’m probably going to do this. So I would make sure you’re ready to go.’”
After making his decision, May immediately advocated for Boynton to take over. May was a first-time head coach at Florida Atlantic where he said he had more freedom to grow without scrutiny — Boynton didn’t have that same luxury at Oklahoma State.
Now, Boynton is in a position to succeed, but still under a tremendous amount of pressure as the head coach of the reigning national champions.
“We’ve all gotten a lot better in the last two years, and so you factor that in with the relationship building that he does and the quality of the staff … what better situation for our players to be in where not much is going to change,” May said. “They know exactly what they signed up for, and it’s not much different now. So it seemed like a seamless transition. And also, I think his leadership style is very similar to mine. We’re educators, we’re teachers, and we’re simply trying to make everyone that’s around us better because we’re around and how much we’re trying to grow.”
With a new era for May with the Mavericks and a new era of Michigan men’s basketball under Boynton, May still holds a tremendous amount of respect for Michigan and what he, the staff and the players were able to build in two seasons. And what he’ll remember the most is the time spent with the player building relationships.
“When I speak of my most fond memories with last year’s group, it’s in the meeting rooms and on the practice floor, it’s around the facility, because those guys had so much respect for each other and they really appreciated what the others brought to the table,” May said.
