The Dallas Mavericks have a new team president. The team reportedly hired former Minnesota Timberwolves CEO Ethan Casson in the role, according to Sports Business Journal.
The move will reportedly allow current Mavericks CEO Rick Welts to focus on securing a new arena for the team.
Casson and Welts have a history together, and the two rekindled their relationship after it became clear Casson was going to leave the Timberwolves with new owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore taking over the team.
In his role as team president, Casson will be more focused on day-to-day operations of the team, according to SBJ. Welts will work on “big strategic priorities.” The two will be involved with what the other person is doing, but Casson said the partnership would be more of a “divide and conquer kind of arrangement.”
Handling day-to-day operations for the Mavericks could prove to be challenging. While the team picked up Duke standout Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, it still has work to do to win back the fanbase. Mavericks fans are still frustrated with the organization — particularly general manager Nico Harrison — over the shocking trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Casson specifically called out fan outreach as one of his top priorities in an interview with SBJ. “I’m going to make [healing the fans] literally one of my biggest priorities, if not the most important priority,” he said.
Casson added that he would “listen, listen, listen and listen” to Mavericks fans, and vowed to “meet fans where they are,” per the SBJ.
“I’ll describe it this way: I want to meet fans where they are,” Casson said. “So if they’re in the ‘We’re enthusiastic about the future’ mode, great. Tell me why and how we can continue to enhance that enthusiasm. And if you’re in the camp of ‘I’m still really disappointed, I can’t believe this happened,’ great. I’m going to meet you where you are. Tell us how we change that on your behalf?”
Getting back frustrated Mavericks fans could prove challenging, though winning would go a long way toward turning the tide. Casson was able to do a fair amount of that with the Timberwolves in recent seasons. While the franchise has not won an NBA championship under Casson’s watch, it is coming off four-straight seasons in the playoffs.
If Casson can engineer a similar run in Dallas, it would probably go a long way toward repairing the franchise’s relationship with fans still scorned by the Dončić trade.
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