Dallas Mavericks (Concept)

Dallas Mavericks

CONCEPT

The Dallas Mavericks are a professional basketball team that competes in the NBA.

The Dallas Mavericks were founded as an expansion team in 1980, the third NBA team based in Texasfollowing the San Antonio Spurs (Concept) and Houston Rockets (Concept) (who were originally based in San Diego). The franchise had moderate success in its first decade, making the playoffs several times, with their best season coming in 1987-88, where they lost to the eventual champion Lakers to seven games in the Western Conference Finals. Fortunes soured in the 1990s, as the team failed to make the postseason at all.

In 1998, the Mavericks made a draft-day trade for German power forward Dirk Nowitzki (Character), who spent his entire 21-year career with the team. Dirk was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player in 2007 and led the team to their lone championship in 2011, defeating the heavily-favored Miami Heat (Concept) with LeBron James in six games.

In 2018, the Mavericks made another draft-day trade for Slovenian point guard Luka Dončić. Luka's first season on the team was Nowitzki's last, and many felt the two joining forces on the court was a "passing the torch" moment from one European Maverick to another. Luka was named Rookie of the Year in 2019 and quickly established himself as one of the best young players in the NBA. With Dončić and fellow guard Kyrie Irving (Character), the Mavericks returned to the NBA Finals in 2024, losing to the Boston Celtics (Concept) in five games.

The NBA world was rocked in February, 2025 upon announcement that the team was trading Luka to the Los Angeles Lakers (Concept) for Anthony Davis (Character). The trade was hugely controversial among Mavericks fans, irate that they traded away their franchise cornerstone, and drew comparisons to the infamous Babe Ruth trade that is viewed as the most lopsided of all time.

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