Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks are a 1980 NBA expansion franchise that won their only NBA championship in 2011 behind Dirk Nowitzki. They have reached the NBA Finals three times (2006, 2011, 2024) and won once. They have been owned since 2000 by Mark Cuban, the Pittsburgh-based internet entrepreneur who purchased the franchise from Ross Perot Jr. for $285 million (Forbes’s 2025 valuation of the franchise: $5.1 billion). The 1998 NBA Draft-night trade that acquired Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash from the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns is, in retrospect, the single most consequential transaction in franchise history. The February 2, 2025 trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis is the most shocking, and is the transaction against which the current 2025-26 Mavericks organization is being evaluated.
Founding (1980) and the early years
The Dallas Mavericks were awarded NBA franchise status on April 28, 1980. The founding ownership group was led by Don Carter, the Dallas-based founder of Home Interiors & Gifts. The franchise began play in the 1980-81 season. They went 15-67 the first year. They improved steadily, reached the playoffs by 1983-84 under head coach Dick Motta with a starting lineup that included Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, and Derek Harper.
The 1986-87 Mavericks won 55 games and reached the Western Conference Finals. They lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in four. Aguirre was traded to Detroit in 1989 for Adrian Dantley, a deal that helped the Pistons win the 1989 and 1990 championships but did not produce sustained Dallas success.
The 1990s Mavericks were, by any reasonable measure, the worst NBA franchise of the decade. They went 11-71 in 1992-93, 13-69 in 1993-94, 22-60 in 1994-95, and 26-56 in 1995-96. They had three Rookie of the Year winners in five years (Jason Kidd 1995, Jamal Mashburn 1994, Jim Jackson 1994) and could not keep them on the roster long enough to produce competitive teams. Jerry Tarkanian was head coach for 20 games in 1993 before being fired. Quinn Buckner was head coach for 48 games in 1994 before being fired.
The 1998 Draft and Dirk Nowitzki
On June 24, 1998, general manager Don Nelson executed two trades on draft night. First, he acquired Steve Nash from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Pat Garrity and Bubba Wells and a future first-round pick. Second, he acquired the rights to Dirk Nowitzki (whom Milwaukee had drafted ninth overall) in exchange for Robert “Tractor” Traylor (whom Dallas had drafted sixth overall). The details of the Nowitzki chapter are on our Dirk Nowitzki biography. The Milwaukee-Dallas swap, in particular, is the single most one-sided trade in NBA draft-night history.
The Mark Cuban era begins (2000)
Mark Cuban purchased the Mavericks from Ross Perot Jr. on January 14, 2000 for $285 million. Cuban, a Pittsburgh-born entrepreneur who had sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999, brought to the franchise a higher-investment, player-friendly ownership philosophy than had existed under Carter or Perot. Cuban invested in training facilities, medical staff, and player-amenities packages that set a new NBA standard. He also received multiple NBA fines for criticizing officiating on his widely-read blog and on Twitter (approximately $3 million in lifetime fines through 2022).
The 2006 NBA Finals
The 2005-06 Mavericks, under head coach Avery Johnson, went 60-22. They beat Memphis, San Antonio, and Phoenix and reached the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. Dallas led the series 2-0 after Game 2. Miami, with Dwyane Wade (detailed on our Dwyane Wade biography), won Games 3, 4, 5, and 6 to win the championship. Dirk Nowitzki averaged 22.8 points in the Finals on a 38% field-goal percentage. It was the first Finals appearance in Mavericks history.
2011: the championship
The 2010-11 Mavericks, under head coach Rick Carlisle, went 57-25 as the three seed in the West. The roster, with Nowitzki (32), Jason Kidd (37), Shawn Marion, Jason Terry, Peja Stojaković, and the midseason addition of Tyson Chandler, beat Portland in six, swept the Lakers in the second round, beat Oklahoma City in five, and faced the Miami Heat’s new Big Three (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh) in the Finals.
Dallas won the series 4-2 (detailed on our Dirk Nowitzki biography and our Miami Heat franchise page). Nowitzki was Finals MVP. It remains the only championship in Mavericks history. The definitive biography of Nowitzki’s journey is Thomas Pletzinger’s The Great Nowitzki (W.W. Norton, English translation 2022).
The late-Dirk era (2011–2019)
The 2011-2019 Mavericks made the playoffs nine times but never advanced past the first round. They were a year-to-year competitive team with Nowitzki in gradual decline (from 21.4 ppg in 2010-11 to 18.3 in 2014-15 to 12.0 in 2016-17). The 2017-18 Mavericks went 24-58, the worst record of the decade. They won the draft lottery pick swap with the Atlanta Hawks (via the Luka Dončić draft-night trade, see below) that reset the franchise.
The 2018 draft and the Luka Dončić era (2018–2025)
On June 21, 2018, at the NBA Draft, the Atlanta Hawks drafted Luka Dončić third overall. The Hawks immediately traded him to the Mavericks for Trae Young (fifth overall) and a 2019 protected first-round pick (which became Cam Reddish). Dončić began his rookie year that fall (detailed on our Luka Dončić biography). He was 2018-19 Rookie of the Year. He made five consecutive All-NBA First Teams between 2019-20 and 2023-24. He led Dallas to the 2024 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics 4-1 (detailed on our Jayson Tatum biography).
February 2, 2025: the Luka trade
On February 2, 2025, at approximately 11:15 p.m. Eastern time, ESPN reporter Shams Charania posted a two-word tweet: “Luka. Lakers.” The Dallas Mavericks, under general manager Nico Harrison, had traded Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick (detailed on our Anthony Davis biography and our Biggest NBA trades in history page). The trade was, by universal NBA-media consensus, the most shocking transaction in league history.
Harrison’s stated reasoning, in a February 4, 2025 press conference, was that he had lost confidence in Dončić’s conditioning and championship commitment. Mark Cuban was not informed of the negotiations; as of 2020 Cuban had sold the majority ownership of the franchise to Miriam Adelson, and the basketball-operations authority rested with Harrison and the Adelson ownership group. The trade’s public reception in Dallas has been negative. Harrison was publicly booed at the Mavericks’ first home game after the trade. He has remained in his position through the 2025-26 season.
The 2025 draft and Cooper Flagg
On May 13, 2025, the Dallas Mavericks won the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery in the most-discussed lottery-night result of the decade (given that the Mavericks had entered the lottery with a 1.8% chance of the first pick, the lowest odds of any eligible team). They selected Cooper Flagg, the Duke freshman and consensus 2025 Naismith Player of the Year, with the first overall pick. Flagg signed a rookie-scale contract and began his 2025-26 season as the Mavericks’ second option behind Anthony Davis.
The 2025-26 Mavericks, through late April, have finished the regular season with a 37-45 record and are out of the playoffs for the first time in four years.
Retired numbers
The Mavericks have retired five jersey numbers: Brad Davis (#15), Rolando Blackman (#22), Derek Harper (#12), Dirk Nowitzki (#41), and Jason Kidd (#2). Luka Dončić’s #77 is expected to be retired within the decade despite his February 2025 departure.
Legacy
The Dallas Mavericks are one of six franchises founded after 1970 to have won an NBA championship (alongside the Miami Heat, Portland Trail Blazers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors, and Denver Nuggets). The 2011 title, coming against the peak of the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh Miami Heat, is still one of the most-cited Finals upsets of the post-Jordan era.
The 2018-2025 Luka Dončić era produced one Finals appearance and zero championships. The February 2025 trade has reset the franchise. The 2025-2030 period will be the one on which the Anthony Davis-Cooper Flagg core either validates or invalidates the Harrison decision. As of April 2026, the early indicators are negative. The 2026-27 season will be consequential for the franchise’s near-term trajectory.
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Sources
Basketball-Reference is the primary franchise statistical source. The Dirk Nowitzki era is documented in Thomas Pletzinger’s 2019 book The Great Nowitzki (English translation 2022). The 2006 and 2011 Finals runs are from ABC broadcast archives and The Dallas Morning News coverage by Brad Townsend. The February 2025 trade is from Shams Charania’s Athletic reconstruction. The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery and the Cooper Flagg selection are from the NBA’s official lottery broadcast and draft archive.
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