Sources — Mavericks fire head athletic trainer, strength coach

The Dallas Mavericks are making major changes in their health and performance group for the third consecutive offseason, as general manager Nico Harrison dismissed head athletic trainer Dionne Calhoun and athletic performance director Keith Belton among others, sources told ESPN.

The dismissals come in the wake of an injury-ravaged season for the Mavericks, who finished 39-43 and were eliminated in the Western Conference’s final play-in game.

Calhoun spent 21 seasons in Dallas and was promoted to the head athletic trainer role in 2019. He was one of the final holdovers from the staff of former Mavs director of health and performance Casey Smith, who was fired in August 2023 and hired by the New York Knicks as the vice president of sports medicine last summer.

Harris hired Belton, a former NFL fullback who had been the director of football performance at UCLA, last summer after firing longtime Mavs athletic performance director Jeremy Holsopple.

As ESPN reported in April, Belton did not have the certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association that the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement states are required to be employed as a strength coach for a team.

Sources told ESPN that was significant tension between Belton and first-year director of health and performance Johann Bilsborough, who remains employed by the Mavericks. According to multiple team sources, the organization’s human relations department investigated a loud, heated verbal confrontation that occurred at the team’s practice facility between Belton and Bilsborough.

That argument stemmed from a disagreement regarding the treatment of Dallas center Dereck Lively II, who went through an intense return-to-play workout under Belton’s supervision a day before a CT scan revealed that the big man had a stress fracture in his right ankle, an injury that sidelined him for three months.

Harrison declined to comment.

Source: espn.com