INDIANAPOLIS – On April 6, Dusty May sat at a dais on the event level of Lucas Oil Stadium and admitted he was impulsive. May had just coached Michigan to a national championship in his second season at the school, with the reputation of being one of the best coaches in college basketball.
Barely two months later, May left behind what could've been an all-time college coaching career to become the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. Exactly four months after the day he was hired, May earned his first NBA win just half a mile from where his last victory as a college basketball coach occurred – the Mavericks beat the Pacers 121-105 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Friday.
May – an Eastern Greene High School and Indiana University grad from Greene County – is at his 10th coaching job since he left Bloomington in 2000 following his tenure as a manager for Bob Knight's final teams. The 49-year-old continues to take career leaps bolder than many of his peers would think of.
"It's been a whirlwind," May said of the last six months. "Obviously, that was very difficult to leave that group of people that I worked with every day and was able to coach. They're the reason why I'm here – very grateful for that experience. But a lot's happened.
"Every day, I learn so much about myself (and) try to be the best I can be. There's a big learning curve in this league, and just trying to get a little better every day. And I think with this group, especially as young as we are, if we just turn our attention and focus to just layering our foundation and just growing a little bit every day, I think we've got a chance to be a good team."
May didn't leave the Wolverines for a team that's ready to win an NBA championship. Instead, he left a secure job in Ann Arbor to lead a Mavericks team with an average age of 25.4 years old, good for the fifth-youngest in the league (per Basketball Reference).
This is the same man who, in 2018, left an assistant job at Florida to lead an FAU program that had only made the NCAA tournament once before he showed up. May and the athletic department went as far as hiding the locker room from recruits on official visits because it was rundown.
May managed to build that program up and take it to the Final Four in 2023, which helped him get the Michigan job. He turned his instant success at Michigan into an NBA position coaching Cooper Flagg, last year's No. 1 overall pick.
Bringing jewelry to Dallas might not be as seamless as it was for May at Michigan, but he's focused on learning alongside his team. May's a coach who has never worked on an NBA staff, and in his first week of games, he and his team are figuring themselves out.
In the first half of the Mavericks' season opener Wednesday against the Houston Rockets, Rockets forward Tari Eason unnecessarily shoved Mavericks forward P.J. Washington to the ground. With Houston leading 22-18, Eason got a Flagrant 2 foul and was ejected. At that moment, the game flipped – but not in the Mavericks' favor.
The Rockets outscored the Mavericks 48-20 for the rest of the half en route to a 128-110 win in Houston. Washington was the only Mavericks player who attempted to confront Eason afterward, and May felt like the Rockets were the more physical team for the rest of the game.
Against the Pacers, Flagg took a hard foul from Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith, who struck the Mavericks' franchise centerpiece from behind while he was in the air attempting a breakaway dunk. The foul – which was deemed a Flagrant 1 on Nesmith – led to pushing and shoving between almost everyone on the court, and even May got in the scrum to try to break it up.
This time around, the Mavericks kept their composure and put the Pacers away.
"We didn't respond well to that level of physicality," May said of the Eason incident. "I thought tonight, our guys not only matched it, but they channeled it in the right way, which isn't getting technicals and fouling and sending them to the line. It was just more force and more aggression and more togetherness."
May's team – which has its home opener Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs – is evolving and growing up in real time. Despite being blown out by the Rockets, May felt the second half of that game carried over to the Pacers game.
"It was almost as if we got down and the scoreboard was off, and we just let it go and went out and played," he said. "I want to give our guys credit. A lot of the things that we did well tonight were things that they fixed that were exposed by some of the other teams."
Before the ball was even tipped Friday, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle – who's in his 25th year as a head coach and led the Mavericks from 2008 to 2021 – sang May's praises. And then Carlisle's team had no answers for May's.
"Dusty's an amazing coach, one of the best coaches in the world," Carlisle said pregame. "He proved that last year. He's gonna mold this team into a team that has the identity of his Michigan teams, I think. I see a lot of similarities. They're disruptive. They're long. They're athletic. They play free. He really empowers his best players. They're gonna be very good."
Kyrie Irving, a nine-time All-Star and the oldest player on the Mavericks, feels similarly. The 34-year-old said May "falls in line with some of the great coaches that I've played for" because of his willingness to speak up.
"I think he's very confrontational, and we need that in order to get the best out of each other," Irving said. "We have a young group – a few veterans – but Dusty can push me just like I'm one of the young guys, and I think vice versa. That gives us that positive exchange that we need going into the game. If he can trust me with it, coach me, then no one else should have a problem with that, so we welcome it."
May is not someone who looks in the rearview mirror often. He hardly even looks at his side mirrors.
When asked how many family and friends he had at Gainbridge Fieldhouse after Friday's game, May had no idea. He let his wife, Anna, handle ticketing for their loved ones while keeping his focus on the Pacers.
"This is a business trip," May said. "I know we have a lot (of friends and family in attendance), and I saw some familiar faces as I was walking out. But we try to get these guys to not think about themselves quite as much, and so really, this isn't about me. It's about our group coming in here and figuring out a way to be better and competing like crazy."
May has a lot to adapt to as an NBA coach, and he's doing so by the game. If he and his team continue to learn what it means to succeed in the NBA, the question isn't if the Mavericks will win big. It's when.
Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Pacers Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Through 'whirlwind' 2026, Indiana native Dusty May is learning what it takes to coach in NBA