He seemingly came out of nowhere, a 41-year-old, self-made billionaire who simultaneously became a lightning rod for controversy and beacon of hope for a moribund Mavericks franchise.

Twenty years, one championship, two finals berths, 15 playoff appearances and innumerable headlines later, what does Mark Cuban most cherish about owning the Mavericks?

“Still the best part about buying the team, other than winning, is being able to go out on the floor before a game and get shots up,” he says. “That is the best. By far.”

He was a bachelor when he purchased the franchise from Ross Perot Jr. for $285 million on Jan. 4, 2000.

Now he’s a father of three and a Shark Tank star, and he’s had both hips replaced (2007 and 2014), but you better believe he’s still getting those shots up.

“The only thing I miss is I used to be able to run up and down a lot more, play one-on-one or shoot with the guys,” he says.

But reminisce about his early days of Mavericks? Not so much. He says the anniversary has crossed his mind, but he’s been too immersed in the evolutions of Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis and this season’s Mavericks to do much reflecting.

Two decades ago the Mavericks were 9-21 and in their third season under coach Don Nelson when Cuban purchased the franchise, not realizing that Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash were about to flourish and meld with Michael Finley to form a 2000s Western Conference powerhouse.

“When I first bought the Mavs, owning an NBA team was new to me and the whole process was new,” he says. “So I don’t think I got to appreciate Dirk and Nash and Fin.

“It’s different now that we’re getting back in the mix again. Now I’m just trying to soak it in and enjoy. I’m making it a point to watch all of our guys, whether it’s Luka or K.P., Dwight [Powell], and just appreciate the nuances and things that Coach is doing.”

Coach, of course, is Rick Carlisle, who guided the Mavericks to the 2011 NBA title and Dirk Nowitzki through his golden years, until his retirement last April.

Nelson (2000-2005), Avery Johnson (2005-2008) and Carlisle (2008-present) are the only coaches Cuban has had during his ownership tenure.

Only two general managers have worked under Cuban, Don Nelson (2000-2005) and Donnie Nelson (2005-present). There has been one assistant general manager, Keith Grant.

Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Carlisle are the NBA’s second- and third-longest tenured coaches, behind San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich.

“Rick has been able to be a part of some teams within some rebuilds to be able to now be the perfect coach for this team,” Spoelstra says. “Obviously a lot of other franchises would have panicked and rolled through a few other coaches and not have had the benefit of having a Hall of Fame coach be able to handle a team like this.”

January 20, 2000: Ross Perot Jr. (left) presents Mark Cuban with a Dallas Mavericks jersey during a press conference to formally announce their definitive agreement for the sale of the Dallas Mavericks. Cuban agreed to purchase the franchise for $285 million on Jan. 4, 2000. (Allison V. Smith / Special contributor)

Taking stock

Back to January 2000. Cuban says he was connected to Perot through former Maverick Mark Aguirre, a close friend of Perot’s right-hand man (and at one point interim Mavericks GM), Frank Zaccanelli.

Perot had purchased the Mavericks in 1996 from founding owner Donald Carter. Cuban recalls that negotiations with Perot, such as they were, took less than 15 minutes.

Perot named his price. Cuban said yes. That wasn’t even the most memorable part of the courtship.

“Ross took me on his helicopter,” Cuban says, “and I’m terrified of heights. It was the first time I was on a helicopter and the last time I’ll ever go on a helicopter.”

Months earlier, Yahoo had purchased Cuban’s Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in Yahoo stock. So, yes, Cuban could more than afford the Mavericks.

“I remember sitting on the [Mavericks] bus right after I bought the team, with Nellie and [Mavericks assistant] Del [Harris],” Cuban recalls. “Yahoo stock price had just gone up like $75. I said, ‘Oh, I just paid for the Mavs purchase.’ That’s how crazy it was.

“It was funny money.”

A lot of new owners with cash to burn would have gone out and found their own basketball guys to run the team, especially in light of the fact that the Mavericks had just completed the 1990s with an NBA-worst 240-550 record.

“When Mark came in as owner, he really embraced us in our darkest hour,” Donnie Nelson says. “We had everyone who wasn't happy with the win-loss record at the time.

“Mark had every right to come in and say, ‘Hey, I’ll take the keys from here in, boys. I appreciate it.’ And he embraced us and Dirk and Nash and the whole program.”

Says Cuban: “I try to be very self-aware. I know what I know, and I know what I don’t know. I didn’t know anything about basketball, and there was no reason to pretend that I did.”

Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, and assistant coaches Dwane Casey (center) and Terry Stotts (far left) simultaneously use a hand signal to tell the Mavericks players on the floor to switch to zone defense, during the second quarter of play in game five of the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Center Thursday, June 9, 2011 in Dallas. (Louis DeLuca - Staff Photographer)

Enter Carlisle

On March 14, 2000, the Indiana Pacers came to old Reunion Arena to face the Mavericks, who were on their way to finishing 40-42, including 31-21 after Cuban’s purchase.

Then-Pacers assistant Carlisle vividly remembers approaching then-Mavericks assistant Donnie Nelson before the game. Carlisle and Nelson attended the same prep school, Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, though not at the same time, and had been friends for years.

Carlisle: “What do you know about this new owner?”

Nelson: “Well, he says he’s going to keep us.”

Carlisle watched from a distance as the 2000s Mavericks blossomed, going to the 2006 NBA finals under Johnson and forging a 67-win season the following year, only to get bounced in the first round of the playoffs by Golden State.

All told, the Cuban-era Mavericks would go 561-261 in the first decade of the 2000s, 419-386 in the next decade and are 1-0 in the 2020s.

“One of the things that I’ve admired about Mark is his sense of loyalty,” Carlisle says. “But it’s not misguided loyalty. It’s loyalty based on relationships. It’s loyalty based on the work that you do. And if you are honest and forthright and hard-working, he’ll be there for you. He’s proven that.”

On May 1, 2008, hours after Cuban fired Johnson as coach, Donnie Nelson flew to Indianapolis and took a taxi to the home of Rick and Donna Carlisle.

Earlier that day, Carlisle had interviewed with the Knicks and Bulls about their open coaching positions. Nelson made it clear that Carlisle was the Mavericks’ sole candidate.

“If you’re really interested,” Nelson told Carlisle, “Mark is up in Chicago tonight, and he would fly in tomorrow to talk to you about the job.”

Rick and Donna Carlisle met with Cuban and were struck by his enthusiasm about the organization and city of Dallas.

The next step was for Carlisle to fly to Dallas and meet with Nowitzki and other key members of the organization. Carlisle says he and Nelson then went to Cuban’s home, where Carlisle and Cuban finalized contract details. No agents. No attorneys.

But wasn’t Carlisle at least a little concerned about Cuban’s reputation for being, putting it mildly, involved?

“At one point I just said, ‘Mark, what if you were to find out that the team functioned better if you weren’t sitting behind the bench or near the bench?’” Carlisle recalls. “He said, ‘Oh, no, no, no, it’s great. Because on the road, the fans don’t bother the players at all. They just heckle me.’

“At that moment I knew that he was going to be a very close part of things, and I accepted it, and really from that point built that into my approach to coming here. That ‘If this guy is going to be involved, I was going to make sure that he was really involved.’

“Because he had the relationships with the players. He certainly knew the lay of the land. He had ultimate access in terms of everything. Once we did the deal, I said, ‘I want you to be around as much as possible. I want you to be at practices when you can be. I want you to be in the locker room before games, at halftime, all that stuff. I want you to see what’s going on. There’s no secrets here.’”

Carlisle had but one request of his new boss: That if he saw anything that needed fixing, he would tell Carlisle about it, so they could work together to solve it.

It’s worked for 12 seasons.

“The first few years he was with us on the road probably 70 to 80% of the time,” Carlisle says. “And as time has gone on, he has become such a big TV star and everything else that it’s hard to get him at all the road games and even some of the home games.

“But that’s OK. Everything kind of adjusts the way it adjusts. We have a continuous open dialogue.”

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (left) and forward Luka Doncic share a laugh during the second half at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Friday, April 5, 2019. Doncic sat out the game. The Mavericks lost, 122-112.(Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

A new era

This quiet anniversary, amid the 40th season in franchise history, means that Cuban has owned the Mavericks for half of their existence.

“Crazy, isn’t it?” he asks, adding with a laugh, “I figure I’ve got a good 40 years to go, hopefully.”

Actually, like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Cuban considers the Mavericks to be a family asset. The difference is that Jones’ three children are grown and long have had executive roles in the Cowboys organization, while Cuban’s daughters and sons are school-aged. The oldest, Alexis, is 16.

As of February 2019, Forbes ranked the Mavericks as the NBA’s ninth-most valuable team, at $1.9 billion.

“I don’t have any reason to sell it,” Cuban says. “At all.”

The Mavericks’ early Cuban years seem like a blur now. The 2001 playoff berth, the franchise’s first in 11 years. Cuban “working” at a Dairy Queen after saying he wouldn’t hire NBA director of officials Ed Rush to manage one.

The at-least 20 fines totaling more than $2.4 million, most of them levied by former NBA commissioner David Stern, who died this past week.

“Maybe not chronologically, but in every other way I was just a big kid enjoying my new toy,” he says. “That’s what I tried to do. There were a lot of battles with David, who made me in so many ways.

“He encouraged me to raise hell and contribute to the ‘donut fund.’ It was ‘Be yourself.’ He didn’t tamp me down. I just had to understand that it was going to cost me money when I did it.”

The Nowitzki-years Mavericks have transitioned to the Doncic-Porzingis Age.

After a three-season playoff drought, the longest of Cuban’s tenure, the Mavericks are poised to return to the postseason, perhaps even win a first-round series for the first time since the championship season.

“Since Day One it’s always been, ‘What resources can we provide that put players in position to succeed?’” Cuban says. “And that hasn’t changed. The stuff you heard me say in 2000 is, for the most part, the same things you’ll hear me say today.

“Be opportunistic. Put people in position to succeed. Try to be ahead of the curve in technology and biotechnology and information.

“Some things we did right, some things we did wrong. You don’t go 20 years without making mistakes, and we obviously did. But we tried to learn from them, too.”