Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks, commonly known as the Mavs, are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas, competing in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Mavericks compete as a member of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at American Airlines Center, which it shares with the National Hockey League's Dallas Stars. Founded in 1980, the franchise has grown from an expansion club to one of the most recognizable teams in professional basketball, winning five division titles (1987, 2007, 2010, 2021, and 2024), three conference championships (2006, 2011, and 2024), and one NBA championship (2011).

Founding and Origins

In 1979, businessmen Don Carter and Norm Sonju — a former part-owner of the NBA's Buffalo Braves — sought to relocate the Milwaukee Bucks or Kansas City Kings to Dallas; however, their attempts fell through. Carter and Sonju instead switched their efforts toward attaining an expansion franchise for the city, and despite concerns that Dallas was not a financially viable market for a basketball team, the NBA granted the men a franchise for $12.5 million.

The last professional basketball team in Dallas had been the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association, which moved to San Antonio in 1973 to become the San Antonio Spurs. With that history in mind, Carter and his partners were determined to establish a lasting NBA presence in the city. The team officially became the twenty-third member of the NBA on May 1, 1980, when owner Donald Carter's Dallas National Basketball Association, Incorporated, was awarded an expansion franchise by the NBA and Commissioner Larry O'Brien.

At the 1980 NBA All-Star Game, league owners voted to admit the new team, with the team's name coming from the 1957–1962 TV western Maverick; the fans chose the title with 4,600 postcards received, beating Wranglers and Express. The name describes both a fiercely independent person and a head of cattle that remains unbranded. James Garner, who played the namesake character in the television series, was even a member of the ownership group.

Dick Motta, who had guided the Washington Bullets to the NBA Championship in 1977–78, was hired as the team's first head coach. The Mavericks' first regular season game in the newly built Reunion Arena occurred on October 11, 1980, and produced a 103–92 victory over the San Antonio Spurs — though it was only one of fifteen victories in their entire opening season. Some investors feared that Dallas, with its rich football tradition, would not support the Mavericks, yet after the first season the team finished a respectable eighteenth in the league in attendance.

Early Years and the 1980s

The 1981 NBA Draft brought three players who would become vital parts of the team: the Mavs selected forward Mark Aguirre with the first pick, guard Rolando Blackman ninth, and forward Jay Vincent at 24th. A three-time All-Star, Aguirre holds the franchise record for average points per game with 24.6 and stands second on its all-time scoring list with 13,930.

The Mavericks experienced significant improvement in each of their early seasons before reaching the NBA Playoffs for the first time in 1984 following a 43–39 season. Mark Aguirre was named the team's first NBA All-Star, finishing with an average of 29.5 points per game — second in the league to Utah's Adrian Dantley. Dallas won its first-ever playoff series against the Seattle SuperSonics in memorable fashion: due to a prior scheduling conflict for a professional tennis tournament at Reunion Arena, the Mavericks hosted the decisive Game 5 at Moody Coliseum on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU), where an overflow crowd of nearly 9,000 witnessed a frantic final-minute rally — known as "Moody Madness" — to force overtime, with Dallas winning 105–104.

By the 1985–86 season, the Mavericks set an NBA record by filling Reunion Arena to 99.4 percent of its capacity. The team continued to infuse its roster with talent through draft choices in the mid-1980s, and the Mavericks qualified for the postseason in five consecutive years from the 1983–84 season to the 1987–88 season, which included a berth in the Western Conference Finals in 1988.

In 1987, Dallas won its first division championship, topping the Midwest Division with a 55–27 record, but they were defeated by the Seattle SuperSonics in the opening round of the playoffs, which led to the surprise resignation of Dick Motta after coaching the Mavericks for the first seven seasons of the franchise. The Mavericks hired former Phoenix Suns head coach John MacLeod, and under his direction the team achieved their most successful season in 1987–88, winning a series over the Houston Rockets in four games and against the Denver Nuggets in six games to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. The series lasted seven games but Dallas lost four games to three — a result that represented the high water mark for that era of Maverick basketball.

A Decade of Struggle: The 1990s

By 1990, many of the team's star players had left Dallas — either via free agency or trades — and the Mavericks fell into a prolonged period of futility, finishing with a losing record in each year of the following decade, including back-to-back woeful seasons of 11–71 and 13–69.

During the 1992–93 season, the Mavericks posted an 11–71 record, the third-worst mark in NBA history, and from November 1993 to January 1994, Dallas lost a record nineteen straight home games. Don Carter, the only owner the Mavericks had ever had, sold the team to a group of investors led by H. Ross Perot, Jr. during this tumultuous period.

The 1996–97 season was a year of transition for the Mavericks, as they basically redesigned their entire team; 27 different players saw action for that Dallas team, setting an all-time NBA record. The franchise desperately needed a new direction. That direction would arrive in the form of a young German forward from Würzburg.

Going into the 1998 NBA Draft, Dallas was coming off a twenty-win season and held the sixth overall pick. In the most impactful trade in franchise history, the Mavericks sent their pick to Milwaukee for the rights to German-born forward Dirk Nowitzki, who was selected ninth. As part of that same trade, the Mavericks also acquired point guard Steve Nash from the Phoenix Suns.

The Mark Cuban Era and the 2011 Championship

In 2000, Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban purchased the franchise and initiated a new era of free spending for the Mavericks. Cuban, one of the league's most flamboyant and outspoken owners, upgraded the team's facilities and made Dallas an attractive location for free agents for the first time in years. Cuban sold the Mavericks in 2023 for $3.5 billion.

The Mavericks moved into the state-of-the-art American Airlines Center the following season, and defeated the Detroit Pistons in their first regular season home game on October 30, 2001. The following season the Mavericks won a franchise record sixty games in the 2002–03 regular season.

Head coach and general manager Don Nelson oversaw the acquisition of quality supporting talent, and Dallas trotted out high-powered offenses led by Nash, Nowitzki, and sharpshooter Michael Finley. The Mavericks were routinely one of the top teams in the Western Conference in the first decade of the 21st century, and, despite Nash's having left Dallas in 2004, they advanced to the first NBA Finals berth in team history in 2006, when they lost to the Miami Heat in six games.

The Mavericks had the best regular-season record in the NBA in 2006–07 but experienced playoff disappointment: in the opening postseason series, Dallas became the first top-seeded team to lose a seven-game series to an eighth-seeded (lowest-seeded) team, the Golden State Warriors. Dallas remained one of the NBA's better teams through the end of the first decade of the 21st century, and in 2009–10 it became the fourth team in league history to post 10 consecutive seasons of at least 50 victories.

In 2010–11, behind tremendous playoff scoring by Nowitzki, the Mavericks again advanced to the NBA Finals, where they defeated the Heat to capture their first NBA championship. Led by Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, and Tyson Chandler, the Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals to capture their first championship. Nowitzki was awarded the NBA Finals MVP for his performance, cementing his legacy as the greatest player in franchise history.

The Nowitzki Legacy, the Dončić Era, and Beyond

The Mavericks missed the playoffs in three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019, after which Nowitzki retired following his record-breaking 21st season with Dallas. During his career in Dallas, Nowitzki powered Dallas to fifteen playoff appearances in sixteen years and an NBA title in 2011.

After acquiring the eventual 2019 Rookie of the Year Luka Dončić in the 2018 NBA Draft and trading for All-Star Kristaps Porziņģis in 2019, the Mavericks, led by their two young European stars, returned to the playoffs in 2020. The franchise's fortunes immediately rebounded once again with the acquisition of Luka Dončić; the Mavericks returned to the playoffs in 2020, reached the Western Conference Finals in 2022 for the first time since their 2011 championship, and reached their third NBA Finals in 2024.

The Mavericks also added All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving in 2023. Dončić and Irving formed a high-scoring duo, and in 2023–24 the pair led the Mavericks to a division title and another NBA Finals appearance. Dallas, however, lost the championship series to the Boston Celtics.

In February 2025, the Mavericks traded Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers mainly for Anthony Davis. The franchise subsequently entered yet another transitional period, with rookie Cooper Flagg emerging as a centerpiece of its next chapter.

Home Venue and Fan Culture

The team plays its home games at American Airlines Center, which it shares with the National Hockey League's Dallas Stars. The arena, located in Victory Park in downtown Dallas, opened in 2001 and replaced the aging Reunion Arena as the city's premier sports venue. The Mavericks home game atmosphere is electric, and from the Mavs ManiAACs to the Mavs mascots, Champ and Mavs Man, to the Drumline, fans are entertained throughout.

As of December 2019, the Mavericks had sold out 731 consecutive games since December 15, 2001, the longest currently running sellout streak in North American major league sports at that time. The franchise has remained a cornerstone of Dallas's professional sports landscape, sharing the city with the Dallas Cowboys (NFL), the Dallas Stars (NHL), and FC Dallas (MLS).