The Dallas Mavericks have parted ways with head coach Jason Kidd after five seasons, and Inside The NBA used Thursday night's show to process a firing nobody on the desk saw coming. Anchor Ernie Johnson framed it as the first signature move from new president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri, the executive who has now stripped the Mavericks down to studs after inheriting the wreckage of the Luka Doncic trade.
Charles Barkley led the reaction with the kind of plain-spoken math that defined the segment. "Uh well, I'm kind of surprised, but the I see $40 million, I want to go that direction," Barkley said of the contract Kidd still has running. "Jason is a heck of a coach. I think he probably got somebody in mind. You don't make this — you don't fire Jason Kidd unless you have somebody you want in mind."
Barkley made it clear his shock was about the timing, not the politics. He argued that any new lead executive earns the right to bring in his own bench, even when the move costs the franchise tens of millions. "When you get a new job, you get to hire the people you want to hire," Barkley said. "But Jason — I don't think there's any jobs open. So he's probably out until next year."
Shaquille O'Neal saw the dismissal as the formal closing of a chapter that began with the Mark Cuban ownership group. "Jason Kidd, he created an element of culture of winning and expectation of winning," O'Neal said. "He did his job. But obviously when they fired Nico Harrison and then all of a sudden now you bring in Masai, this is the last leg of that era. That era of the new Mavs coming in now."
O'Neal also nominated a landing spot for the deposed coach, pointing at the Eastern Conference vacancy created when Jamahl Mosley left Orlando for the New Orleans Pelicans head job. "I wouldn't mind seeing Jason Kidd for that Orlando job," O'Neal said. "I mean, that would be a good position."
Kenny Smith echoed the sentiment that Kidd will land on his feet quickly given the buyout already in his pocket. "Jason Kidd doesn't have to worry about it," Smith said. "One, he has $40 million left. And two, he can get a job. So I guess they said, 'Okay, we're going to just usher out all of that era and now we're going to start again.'"
Kidd was hired in 2021 as part of a package deal with former general manager Nico Harrison and steered the Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals before this season's 26-56 collapse. With Cooper Flagg already in the building as the franchise centerpiece and Kyrie Irving expected back from injury, Ujiri is betting that a coach of his choosing — one without ties to the Doncic regime — gives Dallas the best chance to reset.
Barkley signed off the segment with a one-liner that captured the mood across Mavs Twitter and inside the Inside The NBA studio. "Welcome to the Titanic," he said. "Let's move on." For Jason Kidd and the chapter he authored in Dallas, the iceberg has already been hit.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/jason-kidd-fired-mavericks-inside-the-nba-chuck-shaq-reaction-may-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
