*Editor's note: Throughout the offseason, we're republishing some of our biggest Dallas Mavericks stories from years past.

Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry scored 51 points on the Mavericks in 2015. His teammate, Klay Thompson, has scored 50-plus points in a game as well.

The last time two teammates had 50-point games during a season was 1994-95. That season, Mavericks Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn did it. They joined great duos such as Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, Bob Pettit and Cliff Hagan, George Gervin and Larry Kenon and Larry Bird and Kevin McHale.

It was big news back in 1994 because the Mavericks were -- to put it nicely -- awful. They had won 13 games the previous season. In 1994-95, they won 36.

But the Three J's era came to a sudden end as the trio imploded because of personal differences during the 1995-96 season, taking the team down with them. We dug up Brad Townsend's story about it from our archives. Check it out below:

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The following appeared in the March 16, 2002 editions of The Dallas Morning News.

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Dirty, Filthy, Nasty. Such clever nicknames that teammates have bestowed on Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash ... but a little difficult to say with a straight face.

How can anyone apply such unflattering words, even if in jest, to the Mavericks' star triumvirate? If dirty, filthy and nasty describe these guys, what would you call their predecessors?

Spoiled, Immature and Petulant, perhaps, in no particular order. Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn, the Three J's.

"I thought those Three J's were going to make it that first year," recalls one of the men who tried to coach them, Dick Motta. "Halfway through the second year, shoot, I wouldn't give you 15 cents for the three of them together."

Ah, the memories. Hard to believe it has been five years since the last remaining J, Jackson, departed in the Feb. 17, 1997 nine-player trade with New Jersey.

Those tumultuous times are a cautionary tale about the fickle nature of NBA roster-building. How character may be as important as talent. How truly small that locker room can be, no matter how opulent.

And how fortunate the Mavericks are today.

Yes, the franchise has a different owner, coach, home arena, supporting cast and attitude, but success is predicated on star players.

To ascertain why the Mavericks of 1993-97 were fractious, inspect the cornerstones.

It seemed to be a foolproof mixture -- until it fermented and began to reek like hydrogen sulfide, that rotten egg-smelling stuff you used in seventh-grade Chemistry.

The legacy of the Three J's is that they showed promise but imploded because of infighting, injuries and immaturity.

And, of course, the J's era will be forever sullied by the nagging and still somewhat elusive topic: Was some of the ill will between Kidd and Jackson caused by a woman?

"The girl didn't make it personal," says Kidd's closest friend on that team, George McCloud, declining to elaborate. "That wasn't the whole issue to them not getting along, anyway. That was just something that added to the tension that was on the team already."

Jackson's severe left ankle sprain, Mashburn's knee problems and fractured cheekbone, and a roster bereft of veteran leadership were at least as responsible.

The old Mavericks were Mutiny on the Bounty, although it's unclear which J was Fletcher Christian and which was Captain Bligh.

"Why shouldn't I just go buy my own boat and have everybody jump on my boat, instead of everybody getting in their boat, when we don't know who's steering the boat?" Kidd once retorted of Mashburn and Jackson.

"It cost us," Mashburn says. "It cost us a lot of friendships, know what I mean? Jimmy's bouncing around the league. J-Kidd got traded again.

"I really regret not getting to know those guys, not getting to play with them. It could have been something special."

Friends become foes

The simplified version is that no one actually got hurt.

The Mavericks are flourishing under Nelson and owner Mark Cuban. The J's have made more than comfortable livings.

The combined $105 million in contracts Dallas gave Jackson, Mashburn and Kidd is a bargain compared with today's prices, especially since those contracts were assumed by other teams.

Everybody made out all right. Well, not everyone, not exactly.

What about Motta? After returning from retirement and leading the Mavericks to a 36-46 finish in 1994-95 (a 23-win improvement from the previous season, under Quinn Buckner), Motta had every reason to expect an even better season in 1995-96.

He had the reigning NBA co-Rookie of the Year in Kidd. He had the 6-6, 220-pound Jackson, who had averaged 25.7 points before sustaining the ankle injury 51 games into the 1994-95 season.

After six months of rehab, Jackson figured to be good as ever. Even better, Kidd and Mashburn had flourished during his absence, the 6-8 Mashburn averaging 24.1 points per game.

"When you get three positions solved, with players who are that young, you've got a chance to develop into a dynasty," Motta says. "Two years later, they weren't there.

"I think it probably started out of jealousy at first. Later, I heard there was a gal involved. I never got into that, so I wouldn't be qualified to comment on it. There was something off-kilter, something pretty deep."

The team started 5-1, but Motta smelled trouble, particularly between Mashburn and Jackson. The day after a Nov. 15 road loss to the Lakers, Motta summoned the pair to his hotel room. The players scarcely looked at one another.

The Mavericks plummeted to 9-23. The season was ruined, but the soap opera had just begun.

On Feb. 17, upon returning from his first All-Star Game appearance, Kidd criticized Jackson and Mashburn for their early season feud. Perhaps more alarming, Kidd and Jackson, the closest friends on the team during the previous season, had stopped speaking to one another.

On March 27, after ending an 11-game losing streak, Kidd said he wasn't sure he and Jackson could coexist.

Two days later The News, citing three team sources, reported that the root of the Kidd-Jackson friction was a disagreement over a woman -- an assertion both players angrily denied. And still do.

"I'm not even going to discuss that because that's a part that I think everybody is past," says McCloud, now a Denver Nugget, who remains friends with Kidd.

"Those guys are married, with different people now. That was a situation where guys were young. Things happened off the court that I found out about later made things a little touchy with those two guys. More or less, they thought the other guy wasn't there for

Searching for the source

Mashburn, Kidd and Jackson sit on the bench in a game in Dallas on Nov. 12, 1996,. (File photo)

them in different off-the-court functions."

Whatever the cause, most connected with the team say the rift seemed too deep to be about shots or endorsement opportunities.

Kidd has never identified the source, though he did acknowledge in June of 1996 that it was at least part personal.

"I know what the problem is, but that's just between him and I."

Two months ago, after his only American Airlines Center visit this season, Kidd said that he and Jackson are friendly when they see one another, but Kidd was in no mood to discuss his Mavericks days.

"We've all gone on with our lives and put that behind us," he said.

The questions and innuendo still follow them, however, just not as loudly or frequently.

The one they hear the most involves pop diva Toni Braxton. During the summer of 1996, a few weeks before Kidd issued a trade-Jackson-or-else ultimatum to new owner Ross Perot Jr. and coach Jim Cleamons, rumors about Braxton were rampant.

Braxton, the story went, was supposed to go out with Kidd when the Mavericks came to her hometown, Atlanta, in Nov. 1995. But Jackson supposedly met her limo outside the team's hotel lobby and substituted himself for Kidd.

When asked about it, Braxton giggled throughout the telephone interview and shed little light on the matter, saying "I've at least heard of them ... [but] as far as dating, whether it's true or not, I can never kiss and tell."

The story was never substantiated, but Braxton's non-denial gave it wings -- maybe forever.

"I don't know how many times we have to say it," Jackson told a Miami reporter earlier this season. "He [Kidd] says it, I say it, it's never happened. It's ridiculous."

Nevertheless, it's usually the first topic whenever the Three J's era is broached.

It even follows Mashburn, whose differences with Jackson were never purported to involve a woman.

"I've spoken to Jimmy and I've spoken to Jason," he says. "We haven't necessarily talked about whatever situation happened.

"I think there were other people involved. They wanted to divide the team for their own personal gain. Nobody even kissed the girl. Nobody got nothing from it, know what I mean?"

Meaning Braxton?

"She didn't help the situation," Mashburn said. "She had an album coming out. I think it divided the locker room in terms of people not being mature enough to understand that off the court is off the court."

"You know who I really feel bad for is Coach Motta and Coach Davis," says Scott Brooks, a Mavericks guard from 1994-96. "They turned that thing around and all of a sudden it collapsed. That was going to be Coach Davis' team and he deserved it."

Brooks, too, recalls the thick tension between Kidd and Jackson, but doubts it had anything to do with Braxton because if either had dated her, he would have bragged about it.

"First of all, she could do better than either one," he says with a laugh. "But if you are going to fight over a woman, that's a good one to fight over.

"We didn't talk much about it, at least they didn't in front of me. I was the old vanilla married guy with a kid."

Motta, retired and splitting time between Phoenix and Fish Haven, Idaho, says that season was disillusioning, particularly after a 24-season NBA career in which he won more than 900 games and the 1978 NBA title.

"They threw it away. How in the hell can you let anything interfere with the chance to succeed? You know what's really sad? If you got each of them alone, you'd probably find out their happiest time in the NBA was that first year."

Now it's five years in the past, practically ancient history, but forever a part of Mavericks infamy.

Dirty, Filthy and Nasty now symbolize the franchise's present and future. For Mavericks fans, that's something to smile about.

Jim Jackson

Mavericks rookie Jim Jackson talks with teammate Walter Bond after Jackson signed a contract with the Mavericks today. Thursday evening was Jackson's first practice as a Maverick. He has been holding out since the draft. Dallas Morning News photo by John F. Rhodes.

Coming: No. 4 overall pick of 1992 draft; signed after holding out 54 games of rookie season.

Going: Traded to New Jersey as part of nine-player deal on Feb. 17, 1997.

Jamal Mashburn

Dallas Mavericks' Jamal Mashburn, #32, in action against Golden State Warriors' Chris Mullin, #17. Photo taken 11-4-95 by a photographer of The Dallas Morning News: Richard Michael Pruitt.

Coming: No. 4 overall pick of 1993 draft.

Going: Traded to Miami for Kurt Thomas, Sasha Danilovic and Martin Muursepp on Feb. 14, 1997.

Jason Kidd

Dallas Mavericks point guard Jason Kidd (2) passes to Dallas Mavericks shooting guard Jason Terry (31) in the third period of game six of the first round of the Western Conference NBA Playoffs at the Rose Garden in Portland Oregon on April 28, 2011. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News) (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

Coming: No. 2 overall pick of 1994 draft.

Going: Traded to Phoenix on Dec. 26, 1996, as part of six-player deal that brought Michael Finley, Sam Cassell and A.C. Green to Dallas.