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Stadium:
American Airlines Center
By 1998, the Dallas Mavericks, owned by Mark Cuban, and the Dallas Stars were indicating their desire for a new facility to replace the dated Reunion Arena. Dallas taxpayers approved a new hotel tax and rental car tax to pay for a new facility to cover a portion of the funding, with the two benefiting teams, the Mavericks and the Stars, picking up the remaining costs, including cost overruns. The new arena was to be built just north of Woodall Rodgers Freeway near Interstate 35E on the site of an old power plant. On 18 March 1999, American Airlines announced that it would be acquiring the naming rights for the arena for US$195 million. On 27 July 2001, the facility opened with the largest ribbon cutting ceremony ever, according to the Guinness Book of Records. The first event occurred the next day with an Eagles concert. On the next night, the arena hosted the last show of Michael Flatley's Feet of Flames tour. The first sporting event took place on 19 August 2001 with the Dallas Sidekicks of the World Indoor Soccer League taking on the San Diego Sockers.

Seating Chart:
American Airlines Center Seating Chart

Team History:
In 1979, businessman Don Carter and partner Norm Sonju requested the right to bring an NBA franchise to Dallas, Texas. The last professional basketball team in Dallas had been the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association, which moved to San Antonio in 1973 to become the San Antonio Spurs. At the 1980 NBA All-Star Game, league owners voted to admit the new team, and the Mavericks paid a $12 million entry fee to join the NBA for the 1980-81 season. The team's name came from the 1957-1962 TV western Maverick. James Garner, who played the namesake character, was a member of the ownership group. There was some controversy at the time since the University of Texas at Arlington also uses the Mavericks nickname. They joined the Midwest Division of the Western Conference, where they would remain until the league went to six divisions for the 2004-05 season. Dick Motta, who had guided the Washington Bullets to the NBA Championship in 1977-78, was hired as the team's first head coach. He had a well-earned reputation of being a stern disciplinarian, but was also a great teacher of the game. Kiki Vandeweghe of UCLA was drafted by the Mavs with the 11th pick of the 1980 NBA Draft, but Vandeweghe refused to play for the expansion Mavericks and staged a holdout that lasted a month into the team's inaugural season. He was traded to the Denver Nuggets, along with a first-round pick in 1986, in exchange for two future first-round picks that eventually materialized into Rolando Blackman in 1981 and Sam Perkins in 1984.

Season Preview:
The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they have re-signed forward Devean George. Terms of the deal were undisclosed. George (6-8, 235) played 60 games starting 17 times for Dallas in 2006-07 after signing as a free agent on August 2, 2006. In total, he averaged 6.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 0.77 steals in 21.4 minutes. He shot 39.5% (146-370 FGs) from the field, 35.3% (53-150 3FGs) from 3-point range and 75.0% (36-48 FTs) from the line. Prior to joining Dallas, he spent his previous seven NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and was originally the 23rd overall pick by the Lakers in the 1999 NBA Draft. During his tenure with L.A., he became just the seventh player in NBA history to win an NBA championship in each of his first three seasons.

Official Site:
http://www.nba.com/mavericks/