Mark Cuban Reveals No. 1 Mavs Regret

Mark Cuban Reveals No. 1 Dallas Mavs Regret - That Reversed, Would've Won '16 NBA Championships'

DALLAS - Regrets? Dallas Mavericks team owner Mark Cuban has a few.

His franchise is a personal financial success, and a success on the floor as well, over the course of his 20 years in charge. He's overseen two rapid rises, the first - The Dirk Nowitzki Era - culminating in the memorable NBA 2011 championship.

The second? It's The Luka Doncic Era. We're living it. 

Nevertheless, there have been bumps in the road. From a basketball standpoint, by far, that biggest bump?

Allowing Steve Nash to walk away from the franchise in 2004.

“Yes,” Cuban answered, when asked if he still thinks about how Nash and Dirk would have succeeded together if only the Mavs had opted to retain the services of Nash. “Often. It was my biggest mistake.”

As Mavs fans painfully recall, Nash entered free agency in the summer of 2004, coming off two All-Star appearances over the past three seasons. Cuban - with whom Nash was close, on a personal level - was comfortable with Nash shopping his services, something the owner has always told his players to do ... with the idea that he would simply match whatever offer was made, and retain the standout player.

But the Phoenix Suns courted Nash, and part of their proposal was that the offer not be shopped back to Dallas. Meanwhile, Cuban supervised the Dallas franchise's decision that while Nash had a special future, back issues might cause him to break down and derail that future.

It was a miscalculation.

Nash did indeed finally give in to those back issues - but not before he won back-to-back MVP titles, led the Suns to two consecutive trips to the Western Conference Finals, and made the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Was Nash going to become an MVP in Dallas? Did Dirk develop into an MVP in his own right in part because of the absence of Nash? Spin it any way we wish ... but we might as well recognize what Cuban himself is willing to concede: The Mavs had two budding superstars with amazing chemistry ... and allowed one to escape.

How good would they have been together? How many titles would a Dirk-Nash Mavs team have captured?

"Sixteen,” answered Cuban, exaggerating, of course, but ... he and the rest of Mavs Nation is left wondering just how much he is exaggerating by.