This day in Mavericks’ history, the NBA welcomed a new franchise to Dallas
As the calendar turned over to the year 1980, the NBA landscape looked very different than it does today. George Gervin would finish the 1979-1980 season as the scoring champion (33.1 points per game), Larry Bird would win Rookie of the Year while averaging a double-double and there were only 22 teams in the league spread across four divisions. The Wizards were still called the Bullets. The Clippers hailed from San Diego while the Kings took up residence in Kansas City. The Rockets and Spurs were Eastern Conference teams. The Bucks and Bulls were Western Conference teams. Twelve teams made the playoffs, which meant the one and two seed in each Conference received a first round bye. The Dallas Mavericks did not yet exist.
It took many people, a lot of persistence and a bit of luck to see a new NBA team come to Dallas, but Norm Sonju deserves much more credit than he probably gets. Sonju endeavored to bring a basketball franchise to Dallas two years prior, but the city missed out on welcoming the relocating Buffalo Braves, for whom he served in the role of president. The Braves instead moved to San Diego to become the Clippers, leaving Dallas without a team, but not without Sonju. He stuck around in Dallas, insistent on realizing his dream of bringing an NBA team to town. The road ahead would not be easy. Relocating an existing team was one thing, but getting the go-ahead on an expansion franchise, which came at a hefty $12 million dollar expansion franchise fee, was something else entirely. Birthing a new team would require coordination with city officials, the creation of an ownership group, and the small matter of finding a place to play.
The team behind the team
Then-mayor Bob Folsom was a big help on all fronts. Folsom was something of a perfect trifecta combination for what Sonju needed. For starters, he was a Dallas native, having grown up in Oak Cliff. Second, he was an investor and real estate mogul by trade, who operated on a political platform that was keen on business development. Finally, he had some professional basketball experience of his own, having started up the ABA’s Dallas Chapparals in 1967. Folsom sold the Chapparals to Red McCombs in 1972 for $725,000. Adjusting that number for inflation, the team netted roughly $5.5 million in today’s money – not much more than a single player’s mid-level exception contract. McCombs moved the Chapparals south where they became the San Antonio Spurs, opening the pro basketball vacancy that existed for nearly a decade following the move.
Having Folsom’s backing was a tremendous boon, but Sonju needed an ownership group to actually support a new franchise. Led by Don Carter, he was able to get that group together, but it didn’t last long. With interest rates north of 20% at the time, some of the investors started dropping out, including Carter himself! Fortunately for Sonju, Carter later reconsidered his stance and came back into the mix. Sonju credits that fortuitous event as a critical difference maker in getting a new franchise in Dallas. “Praise the Lord that Mr. Carter came back in,” Sonju once said. “When we started the team it was my dream, obviously. Don was trying to do it independently, then he and I hooked up and he became my hero because without Don we couldn’t have gotten the team.” Carter was the man who ultimately fronted the $12 million expansion franchise fee, and who served as the majority owner of the team, so it remains extremely likely that had he not returned to the fold, the ensuing 45-year Dallas sports landscape would look very different right now. Credit should also be given to Carter’s wife, Linda Jo. Like Sonju, she had her own personal desire to bring a basketball franchise to town. Don’s efforts were in large part an effort to help his wife realize her dream.
A place to call home
With the necessary people in place, Sonju was well on his way, but he still needed a place for a potential team to call home. At the time, there was no venue in Dallas for a new team to move into. The good news for Sonju and the developing ownership group was that their efforts coincided with redevelopment plans for the western portion of Dallas. Those redevelopment plans included Reunion Area. Unlike the Mavericks’ current home at the American Airlines Center, Reunion Arena was going to be built regardless of whether or not an NBA franchise would be inhabiting it. Construction wrapped in 1979, leaving plenty of time for what would come next. On May 1, 1980, then-commissioner (and namesake for the championship trophy) Larry O’Brien awarded the city an expansion franchise under the ownership of Don Carter, with visionary Norm Sonju by his side. The Dallas Mavericks were born, though their name and identity were not yet known.
Forging an Identity
The team colors were a matter of circumstance. Again, Reunion Arena was not built specifically for an NBA franchise, but fans wouldn’t know it thanks to Sonju’s smart thinking. The seats inside Reunion were blue and green, so Sonju thought it wise to make the team colors blue and green as well. Now a multi-purpose arena looked as though it was tailor made for the incoming basketball team. The team’s moniker still needed to be determined as well. Sonju and Carter took to the people of Dallas to help them decide, by promoting a contest on radio station WBAP over the course of three weeks. The roughly 4,600 entries ultimately narrowed down to three – the Wranglers, the Express and the Mavericks. Choosing between those three options was a decision for Sonju and Carter, who of course elected to go with the Mavericks. Regarding that name, Sonju had serious intent to never let it be shortened to the Mavs. He saw teams like the Cavaliers and Knickerbockers get shortened to the Cavs and Knicks, respectively, and did not want his team to experience the same fate. He felt the full name – Mavericks – best represented the style and attitude of the team, so throughout his tenure he did all he could to reference the franchise by its full name every time he and the staff spoke it.
The Dallas Mavericks would join the fray for the 1980-1981 NBA season. Notching a 103-92 win over their in-state rivals the San Antonio Spurs in their very first game, the Mavs… rather, the Mavericks, got off to a nice start in a home win to welcome fans to a new era in Dallas sports.