Smiling-face-with-tear emoji. I could either write another unfortunate thing about the Dallas Mavericks, or I could just decide writing isn’t fun anymore and stop forever. Vote on what you think would have been the better choice below.
First of all, here is the news:
Dallas Mavericks assistant Alex Jensen has accepted the job as the next coach at Utah, sources tell me and @jeffborzello. He’s a former star player there and has been an NBA assistant since 2013. He’s a former head coach of the Canton Charge in the G League.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 6, 2025
When you’re from Utah, and Utah calls, you return to Utah. I think I read that in a Shakespeare play or something. Alex Jensen is leaving the assistant coaching staff of the Dallas Mavericks to take over the head coaching position at the University of Utah.
Congrats to him! He has a brief but interesting Wikipedia page if you want to look at that. Apparently he was Utah’s 1994 Mr. Basketball, was Mountain West Conference Player of the Year in 2000, and was named G League (then D-League) coach of the year in 2013, preceding bigger names like Quin Snyder, Chris Finch, and Nick Nurse. Dude has been around and knows hoop. He seems like a valuable guy to have around.
One less good thing Dallas has now. Unless you don’t like Mormons, but that’s between you and whatever god you’ve decided on for your salvation, assuming that’s your position. Maybe don’t be a jerk. Creed is a vector. What you believe is far less important to me than how you use, direct, or weaponize those beliefs.
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This doesn’t feel bad enough to be Dallas Mavericks news. Are you leaving anything out?
Yes, actually. Here is the context:
Alex Jensen is well-liked in Dallas and likely to have the chance to finish out the season with the Mavs if desired. But he's ultimately on his way now to head coaching in the college game at his alma mater.@JakeLFischer on the NBA-to-college pipeline: https://t.co/LuRqBu6KL0 https://t.co/dYfKJLv8Dk
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 6, 2025
A well-traveled, well-liked veteran coach has decided of his own volition that playing out (coaching out?) his Dallas contract is less desirable than what will probably amount to two whole games coaching the Utah Utes for the rest of the season.
They do have a big game against BYU tomorrow. Maybe he wants to be there for that. Craig Smith was fired a week and a half ago. You can’t have a captainless ship when there was a guy named “Craig” there before. Can’t trust Craigs.
It is likely this has more to do with really loving Utah more than really disliking Dallas, but this is just another bad thing in a quick but excruciating catalogue of bad things that have happened recently.
I promise, the next time I see something good happen to the Mavericks, I will write about that.
Any day now.