How important is Nelson to Dallas? He has contributed to the Mavericks 20 years of glory.

I found that you guys really don’t like to hear me write history, ε=(´ο｀*))) Alas, not many people read it after I finished writing. It was really shocking, maybe it’s because my writing is not good... But let’s continue. After all, it’s all finished...

On June 9, 2025, Nelson was awarded the 2025 NBA Player of the Year When receiving the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, Nelson talked about all the interesting things about the 1998 draft. He said that the person he wanted to pick most at the time was Paul Pierce, but his son Nelson insisted on choosing a guy he had never heard of, a young man named Dirk Nowitzki from the German Second Division.

In fact, in the 1998 draft, the exhausted Mavericks really needed a forward ball-handler like Paul Pierce to form a dual-core with Michael Finley. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Pierce's arrival can greatly improve the team's record. In other words, with the sixth pick in the first round, Pierce is the team's most guaranteed choice.

But Nelson’s son, Nelson Jr., had a different opinion. Nelson Jr.’s name was Donnie Nelson. He was 36 years old at the time. Nelson Jr. had been scouting for the Bucks since Nelson was the head coach of the Bucks. At that time, Nelson Jr. had just graduated from college and was only 2 years old. When he was 2 years old, he later followed his father to the Warriors to work as a scout. Although he was young, he had a very sharp vision. The last few articles I read on Fireworks Jun said that when Nelson was coaching the Warriors, he hired Matthew from Europe who later became the Super Six. Most of this was due to Nelson Jr.

Little Nelson and Old Nelson

Matthew's full name is Sarunas Mathiulionis. He was the first player from the former Soviet Union to play in the NBA. He was elected to the NBA Hall of Fame in 2014.

Even though Nelson is young, his opinions actually play a very important role in Nelson's heart.

In 1995, Nelson resigned from the Warriors and planned to accept the contract offered by the Knicks, but Nelson firmly disagreed. He believed that the Knicks' lineup was aging, and if they wanted to achieve results, they would have to work hard on the lineup.

Old Nelson coached Ewing

The two things Nelson did when he was young were to recruit Matthew and to disagree with him going to coach in the Knicks. Old Nelson felt that his son really had two skills.

When Nelson went to coach New York, Nelson Jr. went to the Phoenix Suns to work as a scout. Until 1998, Nelson had a difficult time with the Mavericks. He accomplished nothing in terms of transactions and his record was very poor. Nelson Jr. came to Dallas to help his old father and served as deputy general manager, but was mainly responsible for scouting. As soon as he took office, he gave his old father a big gift-Dirk Nowitzki.

As early as 1996, Nelson Jr., who was still a scout for the Suns, paid attention to Dirk Nowitzki, who was playing in the German Second Division. At that time, Dirk was only 18 years old. Although he was over 210 centimeters tall, he was not a traditional inside player who could only hit hard. He had perfect mid-range shooting ability and contributed key goals several times at the last moment of the game.

Nelson Jr. immediately became close friends with Nowitzki, who talked about everything. Later, when Nowitzki first came to Dallas and had no house to live in, Nowitzki lived in Nelson's home. Because Nowitzki was too tall, Nelson Jr. even customized a large bed for Nowitzki.

Little Nelson

Now two years later, Nowitzki's skills have been greatly improved than before, but he is still playing in the German second division league. At that time, no one in the NBA knew who this young kid who had never been out of Germany, including Nelson, had never heard of Dirk Nowitzki's name. But when Nelson said that he was a big man who could shoot three-pointers, Nelson immediately became interested.

In that era, Nelson had realized the power of three-pointers in basketball games, and was further conceiving a system whose core framework was to throw three-pointers at the fifth position. In last year's draft, Nelson selected Chris Anstey, a 213-centimeter-tall rookie who was advertised as having three-point shooting ability. However, after one season, he only made 3 of 16 three-pointers. He was almost the same with or without this three-point ability.

After watching the game video of Nowitzki brought by Nelson Jr., Nelson decided that he was the chosen one in Dallas. Nelson brought Nowitzki to Dallas for a trial training. The trial training was perfect. Nelson was very good at it. Satisfied, but unfortunately, Spurs scout RC Buford (now the Spurs general manager) also discovered Nowitzki and invited him to San Antonio for a trial. In an exhibition game with the NCAA combined team, Nowitzki scored 33 points and became famous in one battle.

After this game, Nelson Jr. received bad news. Celtics general manager Rick Pitino planned to use the No. 10 pick in his hand to select Nowitzki. At that time, the Mavericks held the No. 6 pick in the first round. Nelson was also planning how to use the No. 6 pick and several role players to get Pierce and Nowitzki at the same time. However, the Celtics suddenly disrupted Nelson's wishful thinking, which meant that it was impossible for him to win these two super rookies at the same time..

In the 1999 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks unexpectedly selected Chinese player Wang Zhizhi with the 36th overall pick in the second round. Of course, Nelson Jr. also contributed to this. In fact, Nelson Jr. had long wanted to develop the Chinese market, thinking it was a big piece of cake that no one else had touched.

As early as the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Nelson had locked in the outstanding performance of Wang Zhizhi. In the match against Meng San, Wang Zhizhi gave the admiral a big hit, which was impressive. Impressed, he came to China many times and inspected more than a dozen Chinese players with NBA potential. Finally, after heavy screening, he chose Wang Zhizhi. However, due to institutional reasons, Wang Zhizhi did not appear on the NBA stage until 2000.

Although Nelson has coached the NBA for a long time, he has never coached a superstar who can enter the top 75 in NBA history (the Knicks year is not counted). Nowitzki was the first one. Although he did not play well in his rookie season, after Nelson With the focus on training, he ushered in a big explosion in his second season, averaging 17.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. He ranked second among the most improved players in the season selection, second only to the Indiana Pacers player Jaylen Rose. Since then, he has started his own road to superstardom.

I originally thought that the master-disciple pair of Nelson and Nowitzki would make it to the end and create a good story. However, in 2000, the Mavericks experienced a team change and Mark Cuban became the team's new owner. Since then, Cuban and Nelson had three very serious conflicts that have not been resolved to this day. Eventually, Nelson resigned sadly in 2005, and he did not even attend the team's retirement ceremony for Nowitzki in 2020.

Then the question is, why did Nelson and Cuban clash three times, and what were the three conflicts for? Welcome to watch below.

Okay, that’s it for this article. I wonder how the top guys on the list evaluate Nelson? Let’s discuss it together in the comment area. Every day at 8 a.m., Fireworks will bring you the freshest NBA stories. Click to follow and like to have Fireworks’ articles pushed to you as soon as possible. It will be updated regularly at 8 a.m. every day. Don’t miss it!