Moussa Cissé has already had a summer worth remembering, but the moment that stuck with him had nothing to do with the contract paperwork.
The Mavericks matched the two-year offer sheet he signed with the New York Knicks, keeping the 22-year-old center in Dallas and locking him into his first standard NBA contract after a season split between the Mavericks and the Texas Legends. Even with that kind of news on the table, Cissé said the call that mattered most came from new head coach Dusty May.
Speaking with Abby Jones of DLLS Mavs at the last Hoops Camp Academy, Cissé said May reached out soon after he was hired. It wasn’t a conversation about role projections or minutes. It was something simpler, and apparently something that landed.
"When he got hired, he reached out to me," Cissé said. "That was beautiful."
For Cissé, that message carried weight because of what came with it.
"You know, [the] head coach [is] here reaching out to you and then telling you he had faith in you and trusting you and stuff, that puts you in a position where you [have] got to work hard and then not try to disappoint him."
That’s the heart of Cissé’s response. Not celebration, but obligation.
Plenty of players hear a coach’s confidence and treat it like a pat on the back. Cissé heard it as a challenge. He made it clear that May’s belief didn’t make him feel settled; it made him feel responsible to keep pushing.
"My goal is, like, go into the season and do whatever it takes to win," Cissé said.
That mentality matters because nothing is handed to him in Dallas. The Mavericks’ frontcourt is crowded, with Cissé joining Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II and Santi Aldama in a group that leaves every minute up for grabs.
Cissé knows the contract doesn’t change that reality. He said earlier in the interview that signing a standard deal "don't mean the job is done" and that he still has "to keep working."
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