Dallas Mavericks Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
59 free Dallas Mavericks trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Dallas Mavericks trivia quiz covers the whole franchise: the TV western that named the team, Don Carter's expansion club and Dick Motta, Mark Aguirre and Rolando Blackman, the 11–71 and 13–69 seasons, the Three Js, Mark Cuban's arrival, Dirk Nowitzki's MVP and the 2006 collapse, the 2011 championship over Miami, Luka Dončić's arrival and 2024 Finals run, and the trade that sent him to the Lakers. Expect easy questions on the arena, the colours and the biggest names, plenty of history for regular fans, and hard ones about the tennis tournament that bumped a playoff game, the 'Trash Bags' uniforms and the record 27 players used in one season. Uniforms, rivalries with the Spurs and Heat, and ownership all get a turn. Every answer was checked against primary and encyclopaedic sources before it went in, so when you miss one you can trust the explanation. Play it solo or run it as a round at your next MFFL watch party. For the wider league, our NBA trivia page is the natural next stop.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the name of the arena the Mavericks have shared with the NHL's Dallas Stars since 2001?
American Airlines Center
American Airlines Center opened in 2001 after Dallas voters approved public money for part of its cost; the Mavericks and Stars both moved over from Reunion Arena.
Q 02Which NBA commissioner awarded Dallas its expansion team in 1980?
Larry O'Brien
Larry O'Brien made the franchise official on May 1, 1980; 31 years later the Mavericks won the championship trophy that carries his name.
Q 03Which star of the TV western Maverick was part of the Dallas franchise's original ownership group?
James Garner
James Garner, TV's Bret Maverick, was part of the original ownership group; the name itself came out of a 1980 name-the-team contest run by Dallas radio station WBAP.
Q 04Which Home Interiors and Gifts owner founded the Mavericks, partly as a gift to his wife?
Don Carter
Don Carter sold control in 1996 but kept a small stake and his courtside seat; when Dallas won the 2011 title, Mark Cuban had him accept the trophy from the commissioner.
Q 05Which coach, who won the 1978 NBA title with Washington, became the Mavericks' first head coach?
Dick Motta
Dick Motta coached Dallas from its 1980 debut until 1987, when he quit by surprise after a 55-win division title ended in a first-round loss to Seattle.
Q 06Which first-round pick refused to play for the expansion Mavericks and was traded to Denver?
Kiki VanDeWeghe
Kiki VanDeWeghe, the 11th overall pick out of UCLA, never suited up for Dallas and was dealt to Denver for draft picks, one of which became Rolando Blackman.
Q 07Which guard, signed from the CBA's Anchorage Northern Knights, played 12 years for Dallas and had his No. 15 retired?
Brad Davis
Brad Davis had been waived by the Lakers, who drafted him, and was playing in Alaska when Dallas called in December 1980; in 1992 his became the first number the team retired.
Q 08Whom did the Mavericks select with the first overall pick in the 1981 draft?
Mark Aguirre
Mark Aguirre scored 24.6 points a game for Dallas until a 1989 trade sent him to Detroit, where he won two titles beside his close friend Isiah Thomas.
Q 09Where did the Mavericks play the deciding game of their first playoff series win in 1984, with Reunion Arena booked?
Moody Coliseum
Moody Coliseum, SMU's gym, stepped in because a pro tennis tournament had Reunion Arena; Dallas beat Seattle 105–104 in overtime there, a night remembered as Moody Madness.
Q 10Which troubled Mavericks big man won 1988 Sixth Man of the Year and was later banned for life twice?
Roy Tarpley
Roy Tarpley's third substance-abuse violation in 1991 brought the first ban; reinstated for 1994–95, he was banned for life again in 1995.
Q 11Why did rookie Jim Jackson miss most of 1992–93?
A contract holdout
A contract holdout kept Jim Jackson out until March 1993. In December, with Dallas 1–14, he had vowed never to play for the team; he signed anyway and stayed until 1997.
Q 12What nickname did the Mavericks' mid-1990s trio of top-four draft picks share?
The Three Js
The Three Js were Jim Jackson, Jamal Mashburn and a No. 2 pick at point guard; they never made the playoffs together, and all three were traded between December 1996 and February 1997.
Q 13Which future two-time All-Star did Dallas get for its star point guard in 1996?
Michael Finley
Q 21Which former Spurs guard became head coach in March 2005 and Coach of the Year in 2006?
Avery Johnson
Avery Johnson went 194–70 in Dallas, a .735 regular-season winning percentage that stood as the franchise's best.
Q 22Which team beat the Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals after Dallas won the first two games?
Miami Heat
The Miami Heat trailed Game 3 by 13 midway through the fourth quarter, stole it 98–96 behind Dwyane Wade's 42 points, and won the next three as well.
Q 23Which chain did Mark Cuban work a shift at after saying the NBA's referee boss couldn't manage one?
Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen took offence and invited him to try, and Cuban served Blizzards behind a counter in Coppell, Texas, while fans lined up outside.
Michael Finley, then in his second season, became the face of the revival: two All-Star Games and, in 2001, Dallas's first playoff trip in 11 years.
Q 14Which centre came to Dallas in the 1997 trade that sent Jim Jackson and Sam Cassell to New Jersey?
Shawn Bradley
Shawn Bradley, all 7-foot-6 of him, stayed in Dallas until 2005; born in West Germany, he even played for Germany beside Dirk Nowitzki at EuroBasket 2001.
Q 15Mark Cuban bought the Mavericks in January 2000, months after selling which company to Yahoo for $5.7 billion?
Broadcast.com
Broadcast.com, earlier named AudioNet, got Cuban's backing in 1995 because he wanted to hear Indiana University basketball online. Yahoo paid $5.7 billion in stock, and the Mavericks cost him $285 million.
Q 16Which Mavericks signing in 2001 became the first Chinese player in the NBA?
Wang Zhizhi
Wang Zhizhi was drafted in 1999, but his Chinese army club refused to release him for two years; he finally debuted in April 2001, a year and a half before Yao Ming.
Q 17What sat on top of the letter M in the Mavericks' original logo, used until 2001?
A cowboy hat
A cowboy hat, modelled on the founding owner's trademark white Stetson, hung on the M for two decades; the 2001 rebrand replaced it with a horse's head.
Q 18Which team's 15–0 start in 1993–94 did the 2002–03 Mavericks fall one win short of?
Houston Rockets
Houston Rockets opened 1993–94 at 15–0. Dallas reached 14–0 by winning in Detroit, then lost at Indiana the very next night and still went on to win 60 games.
Q 19What nickname did fans give the silver alternate uniforms the Mavericks scrapped after one game in 2003?
Trash Bags
Trash Bags fit because the shiny silver fabric darkened with sweat on television in the 2003 opener at the Lakers; Mark Cuban pulled the uniforms after that one game.
Q 20Which rapper designed the green alternate 'Mavs' uniforms introduced in 2004–05?
Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs
Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs designed the green 'Mavs' alternates, which revived the colour of the team's 1980s road uniforms.
Q 24Which Maverick joined Dirk Nowitzki as an All-Star in the 67-win 2006–07 season?
Josh Howard
Josh Howard, only the 29th pick of the 2003 draft, made his one All-Star Game that winter; the 67-win season then ended in a first-round loss to eighth-seeded Golden State.
Q 25Which coach led the eighth-seeded Warriors to their 2007 first-round upset of the Mavericks?
Don Nelson
Don Nelson, who had coached Dallas until March 2005, had already beaten his old team three times that regular season before the 4–2 series upset.
Q 26Which centre did the Mavericks acquire from Charlotte in July 2010?
Tyson Chandler
Tyson Chandler, acquired for Erick Dampier's non-guaranteed contract, anchored the defence of the 2011 title team and made the All-Defensive Second Team.
Q 27Which Mavericks sixth man led all scorers with 27 points in the title-clinching Game 6 of the 2011 Finals?
Jason Terry
Jason Terry scored 27 off the bench in the 105–95 clincher in Miami; he had been so sure of the title that he had the championship trophy tattooed on his right biceps before the season.
Q 28Against which team did Dirk Nowitzki score 48 in the 2011 West finals opener?
Oklahoma City Thunder
Oklahoma City Thunder defenders kept fouling him, and his 24 makes without a miss set a playoff record; he needed only 15 shots from the field, and Dallas won the series in five.
Q 29Which Miami player scored only eight points in Game 4 of the 2011 Finals, which Dallas won 86–83?
LeBron James
LeBron James took only 11 shots and finished in single digits for the first time in 90 career playoff games; Dallas tied the series that night and did not lose again.
Q 30Trailing 2–1 in the 2011 Finals, which backup guard did Dallas start in Game 4?
J.J. Barea
J.J. Barea took DeShawn Stevenson's starting spot to speed up the offence, and Dallas won all three games that followed to take the title.