The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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AUGUST 2026 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 21 'would I have any interest in this job?'" His eyes went up immediately, he re- called. And when he thought about it, he said to himself, "This one checks all the boxes." "I said, 'There are certain criteria for any job that we coaches have,'" he con- tinued. "Mine has always been a little bit different, but this job checks all of them. So, I was excited from that moment. "The Mavs checked every box, and it started with the people in the building, the people that I'm going to be working with every single day. To feel like you're aligned, you're inspired by them … all those things are extremely important." Several, though, thought he was in love with the college game and eager to compete for more titles. When we asked him after his last Michigan press confer- ence in May if he had NBA aspirations or if it was a "dream" or "goal" of his, he denied it and said he was focusing on his job at Michigan. Later, though, it would surface that recruiting his team every year was more taxing than he expected. He told CBS's Matt Norlander he couldn't see himself doing it for more than three or four more years. That's probably when he realized the NBA might be a better fit, too, though he was always motivated by "what's next?" "I was probably 25, and I was incred- ibly ambitious, and I was trying to get to the top quickly," May said. "Once [wife] Anna and I started having children, my entire perspective changed. I simply wanted to enjoy who I worked with, en- joy who I coached, and try to be the ab- solute best coach I could be. "This is all too big a dream. I did start preparing for this years ago, going to watch and trying to figure out if I can do this well. But as far as dreaming about coaching in the NBA, I never dreamed about coaching in the NBA, of coaching in college, of coaching anywhere other than just being a coach in high school in my state. "… This wasn't a dream, but I had In his debut season at Michigan, May inherited an 8-win team and guided it to a 27-10 record and a Sweet 16 appearance, and he became the first coach in Big Ten history to win the conference tournament in his first season. PHOTO BY ANDREW MASCHARKA/MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY