Mavericks After Dark: Who are the Original Mavs Greats?

For this week’s “Throwback Thursday”, it was about time we reminded those Dallas Mavericks fans who the stars were when the franchise first began.

On this wonderful Thursday evening, it is due time that we paid our respects to the Dallas Mavericks that took the early years and made us who we are today. This throwback goes back before the Dirk era, before the dreadful 1990’s and right to the early 80’s teams that put together the winning tradition that we have come to love.

In 1980, the Dallas Mavericks franchise began as an expansion team and as such was not expected to be any sort of threat in the league. The players being drafted must have heard that as well because the Mavs first round pick, Kiki Vandeweghe, decided that he did not want to play for the team at all and demanded a trade.

The Mavs traded Vandeweghe to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for two future first round picks. These picks would turn out to be far better than was initially supposed, but at the time, Mavericks fans were very unhappy with what happened to start the franchise.

The early 1980’s were some of the most exciting years for the Mavericks franchise. After Dirk Nowitzki, a handful of the best Mavericks players in history came from that early 80’s era. Here are three of the most exciting players Dallas had in the early days of the franchise.

Rolando Blackman

Rolando Blackman was the first player drafted by the Dallas Mavericks from the Kiki Vandeweghe trade. Blackman had a great college career at Kansas State University before he was drafted by the Mavs.

He went on to spend a majority of his career in Dallas playing for the Mavs. He went to the New York Knicks for the last few years of his career but all of his great seasons were spent with the Mavericks. A 4-time All-Star, Blackman has his number 22 retired at the American Airlines Center.

Some of Blackman’s accomplishments include being the Mavericks all-time leading scorer for 18 years before Dirk overtook him in 2008. He played a total of 865 games for Dallas between the years of 1981-1992.

Blackman also was the leading scorer in NBA history at the time of his retirement for all Hispanic/Latin born players. His record was broken in 2015 by Pau Gasol. Blackman is still employed by the Mavericks.

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Brad Davis

Brad Davis was the very first point guard for the Dallas Mavericks in 1980 when he agreed to join the expansion team. Prior to that, Davis was a first round draft pick by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1977.

Davis bounced around to a few different teams before finding himself without a team in 1980. The Mavs swooped in and grabbed him and immediately made him the starting point guard. He played in Dallas until 1992.

When Davis did retire, he was the last remaining Mavericks player from the original expansion roster. Although his statistics do not jump out on paper by any means, “Bad” Brad Davis was a fan favorite in Dallas for a lot of years. His hustle and tenacity on the court was unparalleled and the Mavs were sad to see him go when he finally hung it up.

Davis’ number 15 was retired at Reunion Arena in 1992 and now hangs in the rafters of the American Airlines Center. Davis also still works with the Mavericks today.

Mark Aguirre

Mark Aguirre is probably the best player the Mavericks ever had for an extended period of time prior to the arrival of Dirk Nowitzki. Aguirre spent his college years at DePaul University where he dazzled night in and night out. His incredible college play eventually led to the Dallas Mavericks drafting him as the number 1 overall pick in the 1981 NBA Draft.

Aguirre went on to lead the Mavericks from 1981-1989 including multiple playoff appearances and leading the team in scoring from 1982-1988. His career averages of 20 points per game, 5 rebounds per game, and 3.1 assists per game are impressive in themselves.

Although Aguirre never led the Mavs to an NBA championship, he did lead them to our first appearance in the Western Conference Finals where the Mavs fell short against the eventual champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. Aguirre did go on to win 2 titles with the Pistons after he was traded from the Mavs.

Next: Why Do People Continue to Doubt the Mavericks?

These are three of the best players the Mavericks ever had in the organization and those who were around then were fortunate enough to see all three play together at the same time. Just thought I would throw out a quick reminder of those who helped the Mavericks become who they are now.