Dallas Mavericks
| Dallas Mavericks | |||
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| Conference | Western Conference | ||
| Division | Southwest Division | ||
| Founded | 1980 | ||
| History | Dallas Mavericks 1980–present |
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| Arena | American Airlines Center | ||
| City | Dallas, Texas | ||
| Team colors | Navy Blue, Light Royal Blue, Silver, White, and Green |
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| Owner(s) | Mark Cuban | ||
| General manager | Donnie Nelson | ||
| Head coach | Rick Carlisle | ||
| D-League affiliate | Texas Legends | ||
| Championships | 0 | ||
| Conference titles | 1 (2006) | ||
| Division titles | 3 (1987, tied first 2003, 2007, 2010) | ||
| Official website | mavs.com | ||
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The Dallas Mavericks (also known as the Mavs) are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas, USA. They are members of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Founded in 1980, the Mavericks have won three division titles (1987, 2007, 2010) and one conference championship (2006). According to a 2008 Forbes Magazine report, they are the seventh most valuable basketball franchise in the United States, valued at approximately $466 million; the franchise is surpassed in value only by the New York Knicks, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Chicago Bulls, the Detroit Pistons, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Houston Rockets.[1]
Contents |
History
In 1979, businessman Don Carter and partner Norm Sonju requested the right to bring an NBA franchise to Dallas, Texas. 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.
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 name was chosen by the fans with 4600 postcards received beating Wranglers and Express. James Garner, who played the namesake character, was a member of the ownership group. There was some controversy at the time since the University of Texas at Arlington also uses the Mavericks nickname. They joined the Midwest Division of the Western Conference, causing a divisional realignment with the Midwest and Central Divisions, and would stay there until the league went to six divisions for the 2004–05 season and the team moved to the Southwest Division. Dick Motta, who had guided the Washington Bullets to the NBA Championship in 1977–78, was hired as the team's first head coach. He had a well-earned reputation of being a stern disciplinarian, but was also a great teacher of the game.
Kiki Vandeweghe of UCLA was drafted by the Mavs with the 11th pick of the 1980 NBA Draft, but Vandeweghe refused to play for the expansion Mavericks and staged a holdout that lasted a month into the team's inaugural season. Vandeweghe was traded to the Denver Nuggets, along with a first-round pick in 1981, in exchange for two future first-round picks that eventually materialized into Rolando Blackman in 1981 and Sam Perkins in 1984.
For much of the 1980s, the Mavericks boast a very good team in the highly competitive Western Conference. Led by Mark Aguirre, original draft pick Brad Davis, Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper, Sam Perkins and Detlef Schrempf, the Mavericks made the playoffs six of seven times from 1983-90, winning the Midwest Division in 1986-87 and reaching the Western Conference Finals in 1988. However, they never made it deeper in the playoffs, due to the dominance of the Los Angeles Lakers at the time.
The 1990s were known as the Mavs' "dark ages". They never reached the playoffs from 1991 through 2000, bottoming out with an 11-71 record in 1992-93 and a 13-69 mark in 1993-94. Much of their freefall was blamed for various off-court and on-court distractions, particularly Roy Tarpley's drug abuse, injuries and former coach Quinn Buckner's disciplinary approach. The mid-90s were considered the only positive period for the Mavs, led by The 3 J's: Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn. Kidd would become the most famous of the trio, winning Co-Rookie of the Year (with Grant Hill) in 1994-95 and eventually a perennial All-Star.
The Mavericks returned to prominence in the 2000s, first led by a new "Big Three" of Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash. With a new owner in Mark Cuban and head coach Don Nelson leading the crew, they returned to the playoffs in 2001, eventually returning to the Conference Finals in 2003. However the San Antonio Spurs would emerge as their main rivals, defeating them in the playoffs each time. The Big Three gradually disbanded with Nash returning to the Phoenix Suns in 2004, and Finley picked up off waivers by the Spurs in 2005. Nowitzki emerged as the team's leader, and with Avery Johnson coaching the team, the Mavericks would make their first NBA Finals appearance in 2006; along the way exacting revenge against the Spurs and defeating Steve Nash and the Suns. However after leading 2-0 to the Miami Heat, they inexplicably lost the Finals' next four games. The Mavs' best regular season came in 2006-07, winning 67 games and earned the NBA's best record. Despite Nowitzki's MVP showing, the Mavericks were upset by their former coach Don Nelson and the 8th seeded Golden State Warriors in the 2007 NBA Playoffs. Kidd returned to the team in 2008, and with new coach Rick Carlisle leading the crew, the Mavericks maintained their winning form throughout the decade.
Uniforms
During their expansion season of 1980–81, the Mavericks road uniform colors were royal blue with green and white trim, but the green and blue were reversed one season later, and green was the dominant road uniform color through the early-1990s. However, in the 1993-94 season, they were reverted back to their original road uniform scheme from their expansion season, with minor alterations to the "Dallas" script, a design that the Mavericks used until 2001. From 1980-2001, the home white uniforms had "Mavericks" in blue, with green and white trim, with a few minor alterations to the "Mavericks" script during the 1990s[2]. The 1980s green road jerseys were revived in the 2004-05 season as part of the Mavericks' 25th anniversary.
In the 2001–02 NBA season, the Mavericks drastically updated their logos and uniforms, with a new color scheme of midnight blue, royal blue and silver. The new uniforms consist of a "Dallas" script on both the home and road jerseys. On the home jersey, "Dallas" is in midnight blue across the chest and the numbers are in royal blue with silver trim, while on the road jersey, "Dallas" is in white, with the numbers in silver and white trim.
In the 2003–04 NBA season, the Mavericks debuted their shiny silver alternate uniforms, with "Mavericks" in white and royal blue trim, with blue numerals. However, it proved to be unpopular with fans, and it was scrapped after just one game (at Lakers on October 28, 2003).
In the 2004–05 NBA season, the Mavericks introduced an alternate green uniform similar to their 1980s road uniforms. They were designed by rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, and featured "Mavs" in white on the front side of the jersey with blue trim, and the numbers in silver with white trim above the script on the left chest.
On September 21, 2009, the Mavericks unveiled a new alternate royal blue uniform with the same "Mavs" script, replacing the green uniform. The said uniform will also be used for the NBA's Noche Latina promotion, with the wordmark "Los Mavs." [3].
On August 19, 2010, the Mavericks unveiled yet another change to their uniform set, with a new royal blue road uniform that displays the "Dallas" script in navy blue with silver numbers, both with white trim, despite the fact that the aforementioned alternate road uniform with the "Mavs" script is also royal blue.[4]
Head coaches
There have been nine head coaches for the Mavericks franchise. The franchise's first head coach was Dick Motta, who served for two non-consecutive stints, and coached for nine seasons with the Mavericks. Motta is the franchise's all-time leader for the most regular-season games coached (738); Don Nelson, Donnie Nelson's father, is the franchise's all-time leader for the most regular-season game wins (339); Avery Johnson is the franchise's all-time leader for the most playoff games coached (47), the most playoff-game wins (23), and the highest winning percentage in the regular season (.735). Nelson is also named one of the top 10 coaches in NBA history.[5] Johnson is the only coach to have ever won the Western Conference championship, but lost the 2006 NBA Finals to the Miami Heat.[6] Johnson is also the only Mavericks coach to have won the NBA Coach of the Year Award, having won it in the 2005–06 season.[7] Quinn Buckner, Jim Cleamons, and Johnson have spent their entire NBA coaching careers with the Mavericks. None of the Mavericks coaches have been elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.[8] Rick Carlisle has been the head coach of the Mavericks since 2008.[9]
Season-by-season records
Home arenas
- Reunion Arena (1980–2001)
- Moody Coliseum (1984 game 5 first round)
- American Airlines Center (2001–present)
Rivalries
vs. San Antonio Spurs
The Mavericks-Spurs rivalry is relatively new but very fierce. It features two teams with Dallas roots—the Spurs began their life in the ABA as the Dallas Chaparrals and did not move to San Antonio until 1973. The Spurs defeated the Mavericks in 2001, 2003, and 2010; while the Mavericks defeated the Spurs in 2006 and 2009. The Spurs have won four championships and four conference titles, while the Mavericks have won one conference title. The Spurs have won 15 division titles, while the Mavericks have won 2. Both the Spurs and the Mavericks have 3 60-win seasons.
The two teams met in the playoffs during the 2000–2001 season with the Spurs winning in five games. Little was made during this series, as the Spurs won their first NBA championship since their ABA days only two years before. The Mavericks, run by a trio of Steve Nash, Michael Finley, and Dirk Nowitzki, had just defeated the Utah Jazz despite not having home court advantage and were only starting to meld into a title contender.
The two teams met again in 2003 in the Western Conference Finals. Both the Spurs and the Mavericks had 60-win seasons and reached the Western Conference Finals after defeating the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings, respectively. Despite having the best season of their history, the Mavericks fell in six games to the Spurs.
The rivalry took on a new meaning in 2005 when, near the end of the regular season, Don Nelson would resign as head coach of the Mavericks, apparently satisfied with the state of the team, and hand the coaching reins to former Spur Avery Johnson, the point guard of the 1999 world champion Spurs team who hit the game-winning shot against the New York Knicks. Since Johnson was coached under Spurs' Head Coach Gregg Popovich, he would be familiar with most, if not all, of Popovich's coaching style and philosophy. During the 2005 offseason, Michael Finley, waived by the Mavericks under the amnesty clause, joined the Spurs in search for the elusive title.
During the 2006 playoffs the two rivals met again. San Antonio won the first game at home 87-85. The Mavericks got revenge the next game winning 113-91 evening the series up at 1–1. The Mavericks won a dramatic Game 3 by one point 104-103. Though Manu Ginobili could have made the basket with five seconds remaining, he committed an error allowing the ball to bounce away from him with one second remaining. Dallas won a tightly-contested Game 4 123-118 in overtime. Game Five was won by one point with the Spurs taking the victory. In the final seconds of that game, Jason Terry was seen punching former teammate Michael Finley under the belt. This would lead to his suspension in Game 6. He was sourly missed in Game 6 as the Spurs took the series back home for a Game 7. In the crucial Game 7, with 2.6 ticks to go, Nowitzki converted a three-point play to force overtime. Manu Ginóbili, the one who fouled Dirk was the same person who gave San Antonio their first lead one possession earlier. Tim Duncan, who had played in all 48 minutes of regulation was too fatigued to carry his team in overtime. The Mavericks, meanwhile, were set to take control of the game and they did just that winning the game 119-111. The Mavericks went on to the Conference Finals where they defeated the Suns in six games, but succumbing to the champion Heat in the NBA Finals.
Despite much anticipation of a renewed meeting in the 2007 Western Conference finals, the Mavericks lost to the Golden State Warriors in one of the greatest upsets in NBA history.[10] The eighth seed Warriors, who made the playoffs on the last game of the NBA season, defeated the 67-win, first-seed Mavericks in six games.[11] Meanwhile, the Spurs would ultimately go on to win the 2007 NBA Championship, establishing themselves as a true NBA dynasty.[12][13][14][15] The season also gave longtime former Maverick Michael Finley his first championship. Many Spurs teammates claimed that the drive to win this season was partially to give Finley his first championship, especially since Finley had lost a bitter-fought series to his longtime team the year previous.[16]
Worth noting in a regular season meeting between the two rivals in April 2007, a game which the Mavs won 91–86, Tim Duncan suffered his first career ejection for supposedly laughing while sitting on the bench. Joey Crawford, the referee who ejected Duncan, allegedly asked Duncan to a fight which led to the longtime ref's season-ending suspension. As Duncan was heading into the locker room, American Airlines Center erupted into a huge cheer, applauding Duncan's ejection.
In the 2009 NBA Playoffs, the Mavericks and Spurs squared off again in the first round. San Antonio finished with a better record than Dallas, but were noticeably struggling due to Manu Ginobili suffering a season-ending injury. The Spurs and Mavericks split the first 2 games in San Antonio, but Dallas defeated the Spurs in games 3 and 4, both in Dallas. The Mavericks then went on to close out the series and eliminated the short-handed Spurs at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.
The following years NBA Playoffs in 2010 they met again in the first round. This time the Mavs were the 2 seed and Spurs the 7 seed. Manu Ginobili came back to Spurs and they took out the Mavs in a 6 game series.
vs. Phoenix Suns
During the 2004 off-season, former Dallas Mavericks point guard Steve Nash signed a free-agent deal with the 29–53 Phoenix Suns to help out their offense. The addition of Nash helped as Phoenix rolled to a 62-20 record and the best seed in the NBA. The teams met in the Western Conference Semifinals with Phoenix having the home-court advantage.
Phoenix won Game One 127-102 with a 40-point game by Amar'e Stoudemire. Steve Nash was also given his NBA MVP award during that game, a game in which he terrorized his former team. However, Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki hit a game-winning turn-around jumper in Game 2 to beat Phoenix 108-106 to send the series back to Dallas tied 1–1. Phoenix and Dallas split the two games in Dallas which saw both winners of games score 119 points. The series went back Phoenix then took care of Dallas 114-108 in the America West Arena (now US Airways Center). Then, in Game Six, with Dallas facing elimination, Phoenix beat Dallas in a thriller which saw Steve Nash with a 39-point game, to go along with 12 assists. Phoenix then made it to the Western Conference Finals, where they eventually lost to the San Antonio Spurs who then went on to win the NBA Title that season.
The following year, a Suns team without Stoudemire (who was injured), Joe Johnson, and Quentin Richardson, but with a core of new players led by Raja Bell (who clotheslined Lakers star Kobe Bryant in a first-round series game), Boris Diaw and Tim Thomas to go along with Nash and fellow All-Star Shawn Marion. Phoenix had to play seven game series against the two Los Angeles teams, the Los Angeles Lakers (who had a 3-1 lead against Phoenix) and the resurgent Los Angeles Clippers. They faced a Mavericks team who won 60 games, but were forced to be the fourth seed since the division winners got the top three seeds. On their way to the Western Conference Finals, Dallas swept the Memphis Grizzlies, and beat in-state rival San Antonio Spurs in seven tense games. Phoenix won Game One 121-118 after Diaw hit a game-winning shot in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter. Bell, though injured himself in Game One, missing Games Two and Three. After that, Dallas took control of the series, winning Games Two and Three by the scores of 105-98 and 95-88. Bell came back for Game Four and led Phoenix to a 106-86 blowout win. Dallas however, beat Phoenix 117-101 in Game Five which included a 50-point performance from Dirk Nowitzki, and eliminated the Suns in Phoenix 102-93 in Game Six. Dallas would later on lose to the Miami Heat in six games, despite winning the first two games.
On March 14, 2007, Phoenix beat Dallas in a 129-127 double overtime thriller. With the Mavericks up by 7 with a minute left in regulation, Dirk Nowitzki (a 90% free throw shooter) missed two free throws. Steve Nash fed off his mistakes and scored 10 straight points including the game-tying three pointer with 3 seconds left to go. Dirk Nowitzki's potential game-winning shot bounced off the rim and sent the game to overtime. Jason Terry sent the game into another overtime with a game-tying three pointer of his own. Dirk Nowitzki's potential game-tying shot in double overtime went in and out of the rim as Amar'e Stoudemire's 41 points were too much for Dallas to handle. Many considered this game the Game of the Year for the 2006–07 season and many compared it to Game 6 of the 2005 Conference Semifinals.
Transactions
Players
Current roster
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Roster • Transactions |
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International rights
| G/F |  |
Shan Foster | 2008 NBA Draft | 51st pick |
| G |  |
Nick Calathes | 2009 NBA Draft | Originally drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 45th pick |
| F | |
Ahmad Nivins | 2009 NBA Draft | 56th pick |
Notable players
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All-Stars
- Dirk Nowitzki
- Rolando Blackman
- Mark Aguirre
- Michael Finley
- Steve Nash
- Chris Gatling
- James Donaldson
- Josh Howard
- Jason Kidd
- Caron Butler
- Shawn Marion
- Milos Novakovic
- Novak Vujisic
Retired numbers
- 15 Brad Davis, G, 1980–92
- 22 Rolando Blackman, G, 1981–92
References
- ↑ Forbes: NBA Team Valuations
- ↑ http://sportslogos.net/team.php?id=228 Dallas Mavericks - Chris Creamer's Sports Logos Page
- ↑ http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/09/mavericks-debut-a-new-alternate-jersey.html
- ↑ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/082010dnospomavsunis.6cef8e29.html
- ↑ "Top 10 Coaches in NBA History". National Basketball Association. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. http://www.nba.com/history/top_10_coaches.html. Retrieved July 30, 2008.
- ↑ "2005-07 Dallas Mavericks Statistics". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DAL/2006.html. Retrieved December 8, 2008.
- ↑ "NBA postseason awards - Coach of the Year". National Basketball Association. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. http://www.nba.com/history/awards_coachofyear.html. Retrieved December 8, 2008.
- ↑ "Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinees By Category". Basketball Hall of Fame. CBS Interactive. http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-halloffamers-category.html#coaches. Retrieved December 8, 2008.
- ↑ "Dallas Mavericks Coach Register". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DAL/coaches.html. Retrieved December 8, 2008.
- ↑ NPR: Dallas Mavericks Upset by Oakland Upstarts
- ↑ ESPN - Dallas vs. Golden State Recap, May 03, 2007
- ↑ Sweep! Spurs 'Dynasty' Captures 4th Title. ABC News
- ↑ NBA Finals: Series sweep could establish Spurs dynasty. The Albuquerque Tribune
- ↑ Spurs an unappreciated, forgotten dynasty. MSNBC
- ↑ MVP Parker joins Spurs' elite. ESPN.com
- ↑ Reign men: Spurs win 4th NBA title | Sports News | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas
External links
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| Franchise • History • Seasons | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 1980–81 | 1981–82 | 1982–83 | 1983–84 | 1984–85 | 1985–86 | 1986–87 | 1987–88 | 1988–89 | |
| 1990s | 1989–90 | 1990–91 | 1991–92 | 1992–93 | 1993–94 | 1994–95 | 1995–96 | 1996–97 | 1997–98 | 1998–99 |
| 2000s | 1999–00 | 2000–01 | 2001–02 | 2002–03 | 2003–04 | 2004–05 | 2005–06 | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | 2008–09 |
| 2010s | 2009–10 | 2010–11 | ||||||||
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