Ranking the greatest Dallas Mavericks of all time

The Dallas Mavericks were founded in 1980, but have achieved almost all of their success since the turn of the millennium after being sold to Mark Cuban, one of the most well-known owners in the league.

Join as we take a trip down memory lane and rank the five best players in franchise history.

5. Jamal Mashburn

Position: Small forward
Years active: 1994-2004
Accolades: 1x All-Star, 1x All-NBA

It’s very easy to forget how good Jamal Mashburn was. His first two seasons in the league were filled with highlights, and his 1994-95 campaign saw him average 24.1 points per game. An injury early in the 1995-96 season, however, set him back several years.

He was traded to Miami and eventually rebuilt his career with the Hornets, with whom he averaged 21 points per game over four seasons from 2001 through 2004.

4. Rolando Blackman

Position: Shooting guard
Years active: 1982-94
Accolades: 4x All-Star

Blackman had a strong run in the mid-1980’s, when he made three consecutive All-Star teams. In those seasons, he averaged more than 20 points per game and shot better than 50% from the floor. He spent 11 of his 13 seasons with Dallas before finishing his career with the New York Knicks.

3. Steve Nash

Position: Point guard
Years active: 1997-2014
Accolades: Hall of Fame, 8x All-Star, 2x MVP

If we’re going off of full-career accomplishments, it’s a slight to put Nash here. However, most of his best work came not in Dallas, but Phoenix, and that has to matter here.

Still, Nash made two of his All-Star teams while a member of the Mavericks and averaged 17.8 points and 7.5 assists per contest in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons.

2. Mark Aguirre

Position: Small forward
Years active: 1982-1994
Accolades: 3x All-Star, 2x NBA champion

Aguirre was the top player of Dallas’s early years. He spent most of the 1980’s with the Mavericks and made all three of his All-Star teams as part of the squad. His finest season was likely the 1983-84 campaign, when he averaged nearly 30 points per game and finished 11th in the MVP voting.

He was, of course, traded to Detroit during the 1988-89 season, and he helped the Bad Boys win back-to-back NBA titles.

1. Dirk Nowitzki

Position: Power forward
Years active: 1999-2019
Accolades: 14x All-Star, 12x All-NBA, 1x MVP, 1x NBA Finals MVP, 1x NBA champion

Yeah, there’s nowhere else I could’ve landed here. Nowitzki spent his entire career in Dallas, once made 11 consecutive All-Star teams, and, at his peak, was one of the toughest players of his era to guard due to his size and versatility.

He averaged 26 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game in Dallas’s Finals win over Miami in 2011, and he was named the Most Valuable Player of that series.