Mavericks finally replace Nico Harrison with championship hire to launch Flagg era

Dallas finally found its captain of the ship for the Cooper Flagg era.

Noah Weber

Masai Ujiri / John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

After firing Nico Harrison in November of 2025, the Dallas Mavericks have finally found his successor less than a month after their season ended. The team hired Masai Ujiri to be its Team President and Alternate Governor, according to ESPN's Shams Charania, and Mavericks fans should be thrilled with this hire.

The Dallas Mavericks hire Masai Ujiri to replace Nico Harrison

This process may not have ended with the team landing Tim Connelly, a target who currently works for the Minnesota Timberwolves and the team had serious interest in, but Ujiri is a solid alternative. He is one of the biggest names in the basketball executive space, and Patrick Dumont's search ended with a splashy hire.

Despite skepticism that Dumont would struggle in this search, he was able to get his hands on a former NBA Champion who built the Toronto Raptors' 2019 squad that took down the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. Ujiri was a fan-favorite target since the moment that Harrison was fired, and now he has the chance to build a second championship-winning squad in the NBA.

He is currently the owner of the WNBA's Toronto Tempo as well, and his absence from the NBA didn't last long. Ujiri was only out of the league for less than a year after being fired by Toronto last summer, and he begins his new journey in Dallas now.

The team has less than a week until the NBA Draft Lottery and Combine, and hiring a new leader before this was imperative. They were running out of time to find a new decision-maker, and it only made sense to make this hire now.

Ujiri is the perfect GM to build around Flagg

In Toronto, Ujiri became known for taking big swings. His Kawhi Leonard trade ultimately helped them win the NBA Finals in 2019 despite it being extremely risky at the time, and he became known for prioritizing lengthy wings. His stars were once Pascal Siakam and Leonard, and now he has the opportunity to build around Cooper Flagg.

Having Flagg as your franchise cornerstone had to have been one of the most appealing parts about this former vacancy in Dallas. He just won Rookie of the Year and put together one of the best rookie seasons that the NBA has seen in some time, and the team finally has a leader in place who will be responsible for putting the right team around him.

This is one of the most crucial offseasons in the Mavericks franchise history, and the pieces that they bring in around Flagg could make or break the genesis of this new era.

Noah Weber

Noah Weber is the Site Expert for The Smoking Cuban, covering the Dallas Mavericks as a credentialed media member since the 2022-23 season. With a Bachelor of Science in Sports Media from Oklahoma State University, Noah has worked in sports journalism since 2019. While he's covered the Dallas Cowboys and Oklahoma State Cowboys, he has now established himself as a go-to voice for Mavericks coverage. Noah's expertise includes in-depth game analysis, social media content creation, and offering unique perspectives through his reporting. His work has been featured on major platforms such as ESPN, Bleacher Report, and Overtime. During his time at Oklahoma State, Noah won first place in the Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association Awards for a show he co-produced. Outside of covering the Mavs, Noah enjoys working out, playing basketball and Spikeball, and spending quality time with friends and family.