Israeli basketball coach Mody Maor is officially headed to the NBA after the Dallas Mavericks announced that the 40-year-old will join head coach Dusty May’s staff as an assistant coach for the 2026-27 season.
Maor follows May to Dallas after joining his staff at the University of Michigan earlier this year. May subsequently left Michigan to become the Mavericks’ head coach, and Maor will now continue alongside him at basketball’s highest level.
The appointment marks the latest step in a rapid rise for Maor, whose coaching career began in Israel in 2012. He worked as an assistant with Hapoel Holon, Maccabi Ashdod and Hapoel Jerusalem, where he also briefly served as head coach before being replaced by Oded Kattash.
During his years in Israeli basketball, Maor worked under several prominent coaches, including Dan Shamir, Lior Lubin and Zvika Sherf.
In 2019, he moved to the New Zealand Breakers of Australia’s NBL, initially serving as an assistant under Shamir. He was promoted to head coach in 2022 and guided the Breakers to the 2023 championship series before leaving the club in 2024.
Maor then moved to Japan to coach Nagasaki Velca, where his career took another major step forward. In his second season, he led the club to its first B.League championship, defeating the Ryukyu Golden Kings in the deciding game of the finals.
Dusty May
(Photo: AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
That success helped open the door to Michigan, which announced Maor as an assistant coach in June. His stay in college basketball proved brief, however, as May’s move to Dallas created an opportunity for Maor to make the jump with him to the NBA.
The Mavericks announced that Maor will serve alongside assistants Willie Green, Garrett Temple, Joe Boylan, Drew Williamson, Rob Fodor and Sam Hershberger on May’s staff.
For Maor, the move completes an unusual coaching path that has taken him from the Israeli league to New Zealand, Japan, Michigan and now the NBA.