The old adage goes a rivalry doesn’t start until both teams have won.

Spurs-Mavs flies in the face of that logic.

Before I explain why, you need a little history before the history.

The 90’s were a trying time for both the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks organizations but for very different reasons.

The Spurs were the perennial choke artists led by Hall of Fame center David Robinson. They had a penchant for great regular season play followed by heart breaking playoff losses (sound familiar Mavs fans). Robinson heard it all. He was too soft. He was too nice. All the usual questions that arise when a superstar can’t get it done on the “big stage” were thrown at him.

Despite winning over 45 games in each of Robinson’s first seven seasons, the Spurs never made it past the second round save for once, which was the most memorable embarrassment for the Spurs during that time frame. It was the 1994-1995 season where Robinson won the regular season MVP award on his way to leading the Spurs to a then-franchise record 62 wins and the one-seed in the West. Only to have the defending champion Houston Rockets and Hakeem Olajuwon, as the six-seed, dismantle the Spurs in six games in the conference finals. Olajuwon going head-to-head with Robinson averaged 35.3 points and 12.5 rebounds. Some were wondering if the Spurs would ever win.

Hakeem vs Robinson in ’95. Beware the carnage is real.

Meanwhile, the Mavs could only hope for those kinds of problems. The 80’s had been kind to the Mavs but the shift in decades wasn’t. Forward Sam Perkins departure to the Lakers left All-Star shooting guard Rolando Blackman alone. Two seasons later, Blackman was traded away and the losing only got worse. The Mavs starting in 1990-1991 to the 1998-1999 campaign had nine straight losing seasons with a record of 199-508. The Mavs were becoming a laughing stock.

The end of the decade brought new luck to both franchises.

Normally, a season ending injury like the one Robinson endured in the 1996-1997 season would go down as a lost cause. But, their third worst record in the league brought them one of the best big man prospects since Robinson in Tim Duncan, despite the Boston Celtics having better odds. Two years later, Duncan and Robinson brought San Antonio its first championship.

Dallas had some luck of their own at the end of the 90’s. The 1998 draft saw them trade their sixth pick, the late Robert Traylor, for Milwaukee’s ninth pick, unknown 7’ foot German prospect Dirk Nowitzki. Traylor played seven seasons in the NBA never averaging more than 5 points. Dirk well you know.

Two years later, the Mavs were sold to billionaire Mark Cuban who had made his bones off the 90’s internet boom. Cuban brought a big mouth but more importantly a big wallet coupled with a competitive streak that served the Mavs well in re-branding their organization, just as the Spurs had by finally getting over the hump.

Finally, the two teams were on a collision course for the first time ever in 2001. That’s when it all changed.

San Antonio was looking to cement its legacy with a second title after being robbed of a chance to defend their crown due to an injury to Duncan’s meniscus in 2000. The Spurs were reloaded with a healthy Duncan, but more importantly, fourth-year guard Derek Anderson entered the fold coming over from the Clippers.

Anderson would become the Spurs second leading scorer in the 2000-2001 season behind Duncan, and it looked like he would provide the Spurs with an outside scoring punch to compliment Duncan-Robinson and topple the Shaq-Kobe Lakers.

The Mavericks were just trying to make some noise behind Dirk’s jump in scoring from his rookie campaign from 8.2 to 17.5 and Michael Finley’s continued excellence. Steve Nash would eventually join them to make the Big-3 but at that moment was just trying to find his way at the starting point guard spot. Still, the Mavs won 50 games for the first time in over a decade.

The Mavericks made the noise they were looking for when they knocked off the Stockton-Malone Utah Jazz in the West’s first round 4-5 match-up. It was a thrilling five game set that ended on the last play.

I still remember my dad waking me up to tell me the Mavericks had won. He was proud of the up-starts. I’m sure it didn’t hurt anyone in San Antonio that the Mavs knocked off public enemy number one in S.A., Karl Malone.

The joy for the Mavs didn’t last long and it never returned. Waiting for them in the next round was the top seeded San Antonio Spurs.

May 5, 2001 marks the first time the Spurs-Mavericks met in the playoffs. It also marks the beginning of the Spurs-Mavericks “I-35” rivalry. The Mavericks didn’t win that day. In fact, they wouldn’t net a win in the series until game four. They would end up losing in five games. The series should have been totally unremarkable to NBA, Spurs and Mavs fans alike except for what happened seconds before halftime of game one.

Anderson was on a fast break like he had been so many other times that season. He cocked back for his signature one handed jam when Mavericks forward Juwan Howard came across his body with a big hack in an attempt to stop the layup with a hard foul (Couldn’t find a clip of the game or the foul anywhere).

Howard stopped the layup and much more.

Anderson separated his right shoulder on the fall. He never returned to the game or the series.

Howard was ejected for his trouble and took Malone’s spot as public enemy number one in San Antonio.

It didn’t matter that Howard hadn’t intentionally done the deed. It didn’t matter that Anderson and him go way back, or that Howard checked on him as soon as he could. It didn’t even matter that Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and Duncan publicly took Howard at his word that it wasn’t intentional, although they both made sure to say it wasn’t a normal hard foul either.

What did matter is Howard took everything from the Spurs that season in a series Dallas had no chance of winning. Why? For what?

Anderson came back in the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers with the Spurs down 0-2 in L.A. He wasn’t the same. He combined for four points in games three and four, as the Spurs were swept.

Anderson was never the same again, actually, and was shipped out of town that same off-season.

Howard single-handedly made Dallas our little brother. Little brother wanted our stuff and he’d do anything to get it even if it meant making sure big brother couldn’t succeed going further.

Truth be told, San Antonio has no reason to hate Dallas. Most Spurs fans are also big time Cowboys and Rangers fans in football and baseball. San Antonio rarely got to play the big brother role in a rivalry, and we milked it for all its worth after that point.

That one moment provided the vitriol for what became last decades’ longest rivalry. If Spurs-Lakers was the heart of the NBA in the 2000’s, Spurs-Mavericks was the backbone just as essential without any of the recognition.

But, Spurs fans made sure to always let the Mavs fandom know where they stood.

In 2003, Spurs fans didn’t care that Nowitzki missed most of the Western Conference Finals, and it still went six games.

Steve Kerr was traded with Anderson to Portland but reacquired before the 2002-2003 season for Antonio Daniels. Mavs fans wish he had stayed in Portland.

The Spurs dispatched Dallas on their way to their second title that year. Instead, Spurs fans chided little brother with you didn’t play enough defense. You’re all flash and no substance.

In 2006, Michael Finley jumped ship. He came to the Spurs after essentially being waived by Dallas. He was supposed to be coming to the winning side. It wasn’t so.

The defending champions and top seed in the West met the four-seeded Mavs in the West semis. Many felt whoever won the series had the title in hand, despite two rounds remaining in the playoffs. The Mavs jumped out to an early 3-1 lead, but the Spurs fought back to send it to a decisive game seven in their own building.

Nowitzki shook every criticism Spurs fans had ever thrown at him in the 119-111 overtime win. We said he took too many jumpers (the biggest play of the series was a drive by him), didn’t rebound enough (Nowitzki had 15 rebounds as many as Duncan) or play enough defense (contributed a huge block late in the game). All the demons should have been vanquished.

Despite that, Spurs fan remember the game more for Spurs guard Manu Ginobili’s late game foul on a Nowitzki drive, which allowed the Big German to tie the game with the basket and a free throw off the foul with under 24 ticks left. They maybe remember Duncan running out of gas in OT against the likes of Desagana Diop and Erick Dampier (the same bigs he had in foul trouble all series). The Manu foul lives in Spurs lore of heartbreaking moments with the likes of the Derek Fisher .4 shot in 2004. Nowitzki’s greatness in the match-up didn’t.

Bear through the musical selection to get the gist of the big Manu foul and a bit of Duncan running out of steam.

Dirk never got his due because of what happened next. The Mavs went on to lose in the finals 4 games to 2 against the Miami Heat after taking a 2-0 lead to start the series. By the way, Anderson was a role player on the Heat bench that season.

Big brother sat back and laughed as if to say, “See why couldn’t you just let us handle it. You aren’t made for the big time.”

In 2007, the Mavs choked again; this time in the first round against the Warriors allowing the Spurs to avoid the clear bad match-up and glide to its fourth championship. Spurs fans believed Nowitzki would never win. We left Dirk and the Mavs for dead.

In 2009, the six-seeded Mavs gave the third-seeded Spurs a mercy killing in five games of the first round. Ginobili didn’t suit up at all. It was also Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle’s first year at the helm and even with no Ginobili he clearly out-maneuvered Pop. The Mavs went on to lose to Denver in the next round as the Spurs would have. Still, Spurs fan weren’t having it. Little brother’s always in the way. They don’t know what it means to win. They don’t have the pedigree.

In 2010, the seven seeded Spurs repaid the favor against the second-seeded Mavs but not before a freak injury to Ginobili occurred. The Spurs were swept the next round by Phoenix. Little brother strikes again with an injury (no Mavs player had anything to do with Ginobili’s injury).

Still, Spurs fans thought they had banished Nowitzki and his title hopes for good. They were wrong.

In 2011, the Mavs caught the break, so to speak, the Spurs did in 2007. Memphis knocked of the one-seeded Spurs clearing the way for the Mavs.

Nowitzki literally stormed the castle, dethroning the King before he even had a throne to sit on. Dirk and the Mavs had their first championship. Cuban whose always brash, outspoken behavior was thought to have turned the refs against the Mavs in 2006 was dead silent in 2011. Dirk willed his team with big play after big play all playoffs long. Little brother had finally grown up.

Big brother finally had to give him his due, but still ONLY ONE, little fella.

Three years later, little brother is at it again. The number eight-seeded Mavs were supposed to lay down to the NBA’s best team in the regular season and essentially co-defending NBA champion. No one told the Mavs.

Six games later, the Spurs still haven’t been able to dispatch of the Mavericks. Game seven is set for Sunday afternoon. Spurs fans expect to win, but the thing about rivalries is you never know what could happen.

When a rivalry is in full bloom, the records almost don’t matter especially with coaching maestros,Carlisle and Pop, at the helm.

For all the bluster and arrogance, Spurs fans give off towards the Mavs. They’ve never gone through a healthy Mavs team for the title. Neither have the Mavs. That’s either the greatest testament to the feud or its biggest flaw. No one escapes alive unless the other is already beaten up.

In the mind of Spurs fans, the Mavericks like the Lakers have halted the only thing that’s eluded the Spurs big-3 era, a defense of their title. All dynasties have a repeat somewhere in the run. The Mavs have been a part of making sure that résumé hole remains for the Spurs.

The great irony in all of this, Spurs and Mavs fans should be kindred spirits. The struggles of the Mavs in 00’s are a pretty exact replica of the angst the Spurs suffered through in the 90’s.

Maybe that’s why Spurs fans get so riled up. It’s tough looking into a mirror especially one that shows you what you once were.

Even today, the Mavs and Spurs franchises have been left for dead multiple times as we wait patiently for Duncan and Nowitzki to play their age and fall off for good. Still waiting….

So sit back and enjoy the rivalry that’s produced 26 consecutive 50-win seasons (15 by the Spurs and counting, 11 by the Mavs snapped in 2012), 8 regular season and finals MVP’s (Duncan-5 Nowitzki-2, Parker-1) and nearly 13 years of sustained excellence (Neither team has missed the playoffs since 2001 except once the Mavs in 2013).

The Mavs look to pull of what they did when this rivalry first began 13 years ago. If we can’t have the title, neither can you. Speaking of which…..

May 5, 2001, I was at that game. Derek Anderson was my favorite player. I still hate Juwan Howard.