The brief tenure of Gersson Rosas in the Dallas Mavericks‘ front office is over.
Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that the Mavericks and Rosas parted company Tuesday, the eve of Dallas’ season opener against the Atlanta Hawks and just more than three months after Rosas was hired away from the Houston Rockets‘ front office.
Sources briefed on the situation told ESPN.com that the abrupt parting was triggered by the fact that Rosas — hired by the Mavericks to work in support of longtime president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson — wanted to be “in charge” of basketball operations. Concerns about how Rosas would fit into the Mavericks’ front-office structure in a supplementary role to Nelson, sources said, surfaced almost immediately after Rosas’ arrival in late July.
The intent when the Mavericks hired Rosas late in free agency was to inject a new voice and fresh ideas in terms of scouting, analytics and recruitment to a front-office team spearheaded by Nelson and longtime executive Keith Grant, whose association with the franchise dates to Dallas’ inaugural NBA season in 1980-81.
Rosas, 35, worked his way from an intern to executive vice president of basketball operations in Houston and was one of three members of the Rockets’ front office to be poached by other teams during the offseason.
A native of Colombia, Rosas was initially targeted by the Mavericks to bolster their pro and college scouting efforts after working extensively with the Rockets’ successful D-League franchise.