Mavericks part ways with health director in latest organizational change.
The Dallas Mavericks have terminated the employment of director of health and performance Johann Bilsborough on Monday, marking the fourth consecutive year that the organization has implemented significant changes in that area, sources informed ESPN.
This decision was made the day following the conclusion of the Mavs’ injury-plagued 2025-26 season.
It is anticipated that Bilsborough’s successor will be appointed by the Mavericks’ new head of basketball operations once that role is filled, according to sources. Governor Patrick Dumont aims to finalize this hire by mid-May.
Bilsborough experienced two challenging seasons in Dallas, during which the team did not qualify for the playoffs in the last two years following their appearance in the 2024 NBA Finals. The choice to part ways with him was driven by a desire for a new beginning and different philosophy within the team’s health and performance department, sources indicated.
Former general manager Nico Harrison brought Bilsborough on board, an Australian sports scientist with a doctorate who had previously been associated with the New England Patriots and Boston Celtics, as his selected successor to Casey Smith.
Harrison dismissed Smith in August 2023, concluding his two-decade association with the franchise without ceremony. Smith did not participate in the final season of his contract before taking on the role of vice president of sports medicine with the New York Knicks.
The Knicks received the NBA Trainers Association’s Training Staff of the Year award last season, which was Smith’s inaugural year with the team. Under his leadership, Dallas secured the award in both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.
At the conclusion of the previous season, the Mavs let go of first-year athletic performance director Keith Belton, who had experienced conflicts with Bilsborough, including a heated exchange at the practice facility after Belton conducted an intense return-to-play session with center Dereck Lively II just a day before a CT scan revealed a stress fracture in the player’s ankle.
Belton had taken over from longtime Mavs strength and conditioning coach Jeremy Holsopple, who was dismissed following the Mavs’ Finals appearance and subsequently hired by the Los Angeles Lakers as their athletic performance director prior to this season.
