Dallas Basketball

No ‘Dirk Nowitzki Night’ Invite for Nelsons? ‘Not True,’ Says Mavs Owner Cuban

A report claims Don and Donnie Nelson weren’t invited by the Mavericks to attend Dirk Nowitzki’s jersey ceremony. Mark Cuban tells us otherwise.

Dalton Trigg

Earlier this week when the Dallas Mavericks retired legend Dirk Nowitzki’s No. 41, nearly everyone who had an influence on Dirk’s career was either in attendance or on a pre-recorded video, except for two very important people—Don and Donnie Nelson.

Given all the history and all the stories those two accounted for throughout Nowitzki’s Hall-of-Fame career, how in the world could that have happened?

A report by the Dallas Morning News on Friday night claimed that the Nelsons were not invited to Dirk’s big night by the Mavs.

However, Mavs owner Mark Cuban adamantly denies that claim.

“Of course it’s not true,” Cuban tells DallasBasktball.com. “Not a single word of it.”

Given that both Cuban and Nowitzki both mentioned the Nelson duo in their speeches on Wednesday, it’s hard to believe that nobody associated with the Mavericks reached out to them about attending the event. 

“The whole article was initiated by (Frank) Zachinelli, and (they) fell for it,” Cuban tells us. “Then people who did the event corrected (them).”

Zachinelli was a Mavs minority owner back in the late-90s before Cuban bought the franchise from then-majority owner Ross Perot Jr.

Later on in the evening, the News added to their report that two sources told them that Nowitzki invited Don and Donnie to his ceremony personally. … But that’s what Don Nelson himself is claiming.

“I wasn’t invited,” Nelson told The News. “I really wanted to be there, but I didn’t feel that I should just show up without an invitation, so I didn’t.”

Given the past drama between Cuban and both Nelsons, it wouldn’t be a shock if there was just an honest miscommunication here. It’s not likely that those guys talk to each other much these days.

Somehow, with no room for grudges, the Nelsons should’ve been at the AAC. It was supposed to be all about Dirk—that’s it.

And no matter which way you want slice it, missing it was ultimately Don and Donnie’s loss.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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