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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at the 1990s Dallas Mavericks, and their presence in video games of the era.
This might seem like another very esoteric idea for a Wayback Wednesday feature. After all, I don’t usually profile historical NBA teams, and when I do discuss the history of the real NBA, it’s still through the lens of video games. That’s what I’ll be doing again today, but even so, you may be wondering why I’m covering the Dallas Mavericks of the 1990s and not the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls obviously enjoyed far more success during that decade, and given that they’re my favourite team, there’s a lot of nostalgia for me there.
However, those Mavs teams from the 90s stand out in my memory, particularly when I think back to video games of the era. They’re not entirely unique in that regard, as I can remember a lot of players from the decade and am nostalgic for it general, with video games playing a significant role in that nostalgia. There were many noteworthy teams that I recall playing with and against on the virtual hardwood back in the 1990s, with several of them being far better squads than those Dallas Mavericks. Those Mavs are memorable for a reason though, so let’s take a look back…way back…
If you were watching the NBA in the 1990s, or playing NBA video games, you’ll recall that the Dallas Mavericks were bad during that decade; really bad. Just how bad were they? Well, they made the Playoffs just once, right at the beginning in 1990. They were swept by Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round – no shame there, as the Blazers went to the NBA Finals that year – but what followed was a disaster of a decade. During the 1990s, the Dallas Mavericks had seven 50-loss seasons, and the equivalent of an eighth in the lockout year of 1999. That includes four 60-loss seasons, bottoming out with an 11-71 record in the 1993 campaign.
Like many terrible teams throughout history, the 1990s Dallas Mavericks picked up a few impressive wins over much better teams here and there. Years in the lottery also landed them some talented players who were fun to watch, so there were bright spots and moments of hope. For the most part though, they dwelled in the NBA’s basement. I don’t say this to rub it in for long-time Mavericks fans who remember those dark and dismal days. Over the past twenty years or so, the Bulls have endured some mighty struggles to escape the fate of being perennial basement dwellers themselves. I know how frustrating it is to have your hopes dashed, and other fans laughing at your team.
It isn’t fun when your team comes to be known as a perennial loser, but that’s what happens. In fact, it often takes a sustained period of success to shake that label, which isn’t always fair. Very few teams remain among the league’s elite without rebuilding phases, and after you’ve been a fan for a while, you’ll have seen many different teams rise and fall. The Los Angeles Lakers are about the only team to remain competitive over time without a lengthy stay in the lottery, at least until the 2010s. Even though you’re aware of teams rising and falling, I believe we always keep a snapshot in the back of our minds of the NBA as it was when we first started watching it, especially the bad teams. That brings me to how I remember the Dallas Mavericks of the 1990s.
When I really started watching and following basketball as a hardcore fan, the Dallas Mavericks were one of the NBA’s worst teams. I associated them with losing, much as younger fans may well do with the Bulls if they started watching during any of the times they’ve been nowhere near the Playoff hunt. It’s strange when a team you know as one of the league’s worst suddenly becomes a Playoff team, a contender, or even a champion. As I noted, the relevance and competitiveness of most teams is cyclical, so depending on when you become a fan, it can be tough to associate certain franchises with winning since you only know them for losing often and drafting in the lottery.
And yes, I’m bringing this back to video games, because they undoubtedly play a role in shaping a team’s reputation. When I was getting into NBA Jam back in the 90s – more specifically, the PC version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition – the Mavericks’ standing as one of the NBA’s worst teams was represented in the game’s tournament mode. They were always the bottom rung of the ladder; your first opponent whenever you entered new initials with a clean slate. NBA Jam’s balanced gameplay ensured that they could be competitive of course, but they were still easier to defeat and harder to win with. If nothing else, their place on the ladder emphasised their reputation.
They didn’t fare much better in the sim games, either. The Mavericks were absent from the first couple of games in EA’s NBA Playoffs series, finally being included in Bulls vs. Blazers along with every other team in the league. The promising young players they had weren’t enough to lift their ranking, which was often last in most categories and overall. In Season mode, they were highly unlikely to achieve much success in simulated results. It took the addition of the Vancouver Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors to bump the Mavericks up from last place in sim game rankings, and off of the bottom rung in arcade titles such as NBA Jam’s successor, NBA Hangtime.
The games were simply reflecting reality, of course. To that point, a handful of other teams that enjoyed little success during the 1990s joined the Dallas Mavericks as the go-to teams for novices to play, or gamers looking for a challenge to play with. Other such teams included the Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, and Washington Bullets. Notably, all of those teams except Washington made at least two Playoff appearances to the Mavs’ one in the 90s, and only the Nuggets joined them in tallying a 70-loss season during the decade. That said, in real life and in video games, they were the basement teams of the 1990s.
All the same, gamers found reasons to play with them. Even lottery teams have fans, after all, and on the virtual hardwood, fortunes can be very different to real life. They naturally present a tough challenge for gamers who wanted to reshape them in Season and Franchise modes, or overachieve with the players on hand. My cousin and I made it a mission to play and win with every single team in NBA Jam TE during one school holidays, so we took to the court with the basement dwellers as well. I’d absolutely recommend challenges such as that. I know it’s all about modes like MyCAREER and MyTEAM these days, but winning exhibition games as the underdog can be a blast.
Mind you, by the mid 1990s, the Dallas Mavericks offered a few incentives to play with them, even if they were low-ranked. In games representing the 1995 through to 1997 seasons, they boasted The Three Js: Jason Kidd, Jamal Mashburn, and Jim (or if you prefer, Jimmy) Jackson. Pegged as a trio to keep an eye on after being drafted in consecutive years, they ended up barely playing a full season together, with the 1995 campaign being the only one in which they were all on the floor together for at least half of it. By the 1997 trade deadline, they were all gone: Kidd to the Phoenix Suns, Jackson to the New Jersey Nets (and then 76ers), and Mashburn to the Miami Heat.
Nevertheless, they were a promising trio while they lasted, and fun to play with in video games. With that in mind, I’ve suggested the inclusion of the 1995 Mavs as a retro team in NBA 2K. 2K has added some more unorthodox squads in recent years, and the tantalising “What If” of three talented young players is one that holds great appeal on the virtual hardwood. It’s also why I’m an advocate for 1995 season roster mods. It’s one of those seasons we sometimes overlook, or only think of in terms of Michael Jordan’s comeback. That’s quite understandable of course, but there were plenty of other interesting teams and stories throughout the NBA that season.
I’ve written several articles demonstrating how basketball video games capture a snapshot of the NBA as it was when they were released, and describing them as being like interactive almanacs. When I go back and see the Dallas Mavericks in a game from the 1990s – especially the mid 90s – I’m not only reminded of the specific players on their roster, but how I (and probably many fans) viewed them at the time. I wasn’t watching when they were having their impressive runs in the 1980s, and it was tough to envision them getting it together and escaping the lottery. It eventually happened, but back then, they were the team at the bottom of the rankings and ladders in games.
These days, I’m obviously aware of what the Mavericks have gone on to achieve, as well as what they accomplished before I got into basketball and basketball gaming. When I go back and replay games from the 1990s though, I remember how they and other lottery teams of the era represented the bottom of the league, in video games as much as in real life. Beyond The Three Js, I remember names like Terry Davis, Tony Dumas, Sean Rooks, and Popeye Jones. They weren’t on TV very much, but through trading cards and video games, I recall those otherwise unremarkable teams. For long-time Mavs fans, those struggles no doubt made their subsequent success even sweeter.
