The Mavericks emerged as a perennial playoff contender, mostly due to the rise of star players such as Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, but Bradley's defense made a significant contribution.

More importantly for the team, second-year teammate and friend Dirk Nowitzki was blossoming quickly into a top player, veteran Michael Finley was having an All-Star-calibre year, and the team's new owner, billionaire Mark Cuban, was bringing new energy and excitement to the franchise.

With Nash directing the team's offense, Nowitzki and Finley playing at their best, and the acquisition of All-Star Juwan Howard complementing the high-scoring trio, the Mavericks earned a playoff berth for the first time in more than a decade.

However, with the series tied 1 – 1 Dirk Nowitzki, the team's leading scorer, suffered a knee injury in game three that kept him out of the rest of the series.

However, on December 27, Dirk Nowitzki sustained a knee injury that derailed the Mavericks momentum, combined with the team's second-leading scorer Caron Butler suffering a season-ending knee injury himself only four nights later, raising questions of if the Mavericks could make it 11 straight 50-win seasons.

Other veterans like Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd, and Jason Terry also won their first titles with Nowitzki.

The big man came back strong in the 2006 NBA Playoffs against the Dallas Mavericks, where he outscored rival power forward Dirk Nowitzki 32. 2 to 27. 1 points, with neither Nowitzki nor Mavericks center Erick Dampier able to stop Duncan with their man-to-man defense.

Together with Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley, Nash led the Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals the following season.

He was now an All-Star, increasingly appearing in television commercials and, with Finley and Nowitzki, a part of the Dallas Mavericks " Big Three.

He attempted to negotiate a long-term contract with Cuban, who was paying Walker, Finley, Nowitzki and Jamison nearly $ 50 million in combined salaries that season.

Cuban wanted to build his franchise around the younger Nowitzki and did not want to risk signing the 30-year-old Nash to a long-term deal, and offered Nash a four-year deal worth about $ 9 million annually, with a fifth year partially guaranteed.

He narrowly missed being MVP a third consecutive time, coming in second with 44 first place votes to 83 for Dirk Nowitzki.

In terms of specific skills, Nash is particularly effective playing the pick and roll, notably with Nowitzki when he was at Dallas and later with the Suns ' Amar ' e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion.

Blackman scored 16, 643 points ( which was a franchise record he held for 18 years until being broken by Dirk Nowitzki on March 8, 2008 ) and 6, 487 field goals with the Mavericks.

Schrempf became the first ( and one of only two, to date, along with Dirk Nowitzki ) German-born NBA player to reach the NBA Finals.

Howard provided the Mavericks with a back-to-the-basket player who moved into the starting power-forward position, enabling Dirk Nowitzki to play small forward and Bradley to play center.

On a team with All-Star Michael Finley and future MVPs Steve Nash and Nowitzki, Howard was the highest paid player.

* Draft rights traded by Bucks with draft rights to Dirk Nowitzki to Dallas Mavericks for draft rights to Robert " Tractor " Traylor on 24 June 1998

Nowitzki went on to win the 2011 NBA Finals with Dallas, but without Nash.

However, lacking interior defense – as the front court with Raef LaFrentz, Shawn Bradley and Nowitzki was weak in the paint – they never reached the NBA Finals.

In July 2012, Kaman signed with the Dallas Mavericks, joining his former Olympic teammate Dirk Nowitzki.

Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki formed a potent pick and pop combination during their years together with the Dallas Mavericks.

Kiki initially had a front office role with the Dallas Mavericks, where he was instrumental in the development of Dirk Nowitzki.

Defensively, he, along with Udonis Haslem, provided tough defense on the Mavericks All-Star, Dirk Nowitzki.

In Game 7, with 2. 6 seconds left, Nowitzki converted a 3-point play to force OT.

Bradley has competed internationally for Germany ; he and Dallas teammate Dirk Nowitzki were members of the German national basketball team that finished in fourth place at the EuroBasket 2001 in Turkey.

With Nash and Nowitzki, the Mavericks quickly went from a lottery team in the late 1990s to a perennial playoff contender throughout the 2000s.

Dirk Nowitzki and John Wall ( basketball ) | John Wall in action as the Dallas Mavericks face the Washington Wizards in 2011

The Mavericks, led by Dirk Nowitzki ( the eventual NBA Finals MVP ), took the series in six games.

The Mavericks returned to prominence in the 2000s, first led by a new " Big Three " of Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash.

As the 2010 season began, the Mavericks still had Nowitzki, Kidd and Jason Terry plus other pieces such as Shawn Marion, Tyson Chandler, J. J. Barea and Caron Butler.

In May 2006, Hasselhoff returned to the spotlight after he was mentioned in an interview of Dirk Nowitzki, an NBA star playing for the Dallas Mavericks and a native of Germany.

Nowitzki and Nash led the Mavericks from a 14-game winning streak to open the season all the way to the Western Conference Finals, where they lost to the eventual NBA champions, the San Antonio Spurs four games to two.

In a June 30, 2006 interview, Mavericks player Dirk Nowitzki said about Cuban:

* Dirk Nowitzki, a German basketball player who plays power forward for the Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks were led, once again, by Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry.

The Bucks traded his rights, and the rights to Dirk Nowitzki, to the Dallas Mavericks for the rights to Robert Traylor.

Notable were the acquisitions of power forward Dirk Nowitzki and point guard Steve Nash, two seemingly unspectacular moves which would make a great impact in the future.

44 points in Game 4 from Dirk Nowitzki would save the Mavericks season, sending the series back to Denver for a Game 5, the series in Denver's favor, 3-1.

This however would prove to only be a temporary setback because Nowitzki only missed nine games, and admittedly rushed back to assist the Mavericks ' reeling offense, and consequently they quickly returned to their winning ways.

The league ’ s best shooters ( such as Steve Nash, Peja Stojaković, Ray Allen, Chauncey Billups, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, and Dirk Nowitzki ) can make roughly 90 % of their attempts over a season, while notoriously poor shooters ( e. g. Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, Ben Wallace, Tim Duncan, Rajon Rondo, Andre Iguodala, Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis or Marcin Gortat ) may struggle to make 50 % of them.

At 6 ' 10 ", he was the tallest player to make more than 1, 000 three-pointers until he was surpassed by Dirk Nowitzki ; Robinson made 1, 253 threes in his career.