The Dallas Mavericks landed a generational talent in the 1998 NBA Draft when they selected Dirk Nowitzki with the No. 9 overall pick. Nowitzki is widely considered the best player in Mavericks franchise history, but if Don Nelson would have had his way, the team never would have selected Nowitzki in that NBA Draft.
Don Nelson was recently presented with the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award during the NBA Finals, and during his press conference, he revealed that he had his sights set on another player during the 1998 NBA Draft.
Don Nelson apparently wanted to select Paul Pierce in that draft, but the team had made a commitment to Dirk Nowitzki to draft him at No. 9, and the Mavericks kept their word, as per Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s Andscape. Pierce was selected at No. 10 right after the Mavericks’ pick.
In the end, it seemingly worked out for both teams as Nowitzki helped lead the Mavericks to the 2011 NBA title and Pierce helped lead the Celtics to the 2008 NBA title. Both players are among the greatest in their respective franchise histories.
It’s fun to imagine hypotheticals, but Mavericks fans are probably happy with the way things turned out. Nowitzki never played for another franchise during his 21 years in the NBA. He retired in 2019 as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, and he currently sits at No. 6 on the NBA’s all-time leading scorer list.
His resume includes 14 All-Star appearances, 11 of which were consecutive between the years of 2001-2012. He was named the Finals MVP after the Mavericks knocked off the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals. Nowitzki holds career averages of 20.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists with splits of 47.1 percent shooting from the field, 38 percent shooting from the three-point line and 87.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
But following the 2024-25 season and the wildly unpopular trade of franchise player Luka Doncic among other things, Nowitzki reportedly has made efforts to distance himself from the organization. The Doncic trade was a move that Nelson was also not a fan of, and he made sure to let that be known during his award press conference.
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