I'm a Mav fans, and would like to thank the Suns for
help in building the current Mav franchise. In the early 90s the
Mavs absolutely sucked. One benefit of such
lousy seasons was that I could buy $5 seats and seat in
the $25 section; very few people attended the games then.

The Mavs via a trades with the Suns acquired Michael
Finley and Steve Nash. These players made up 2 of the
"Big Three." Of course the Mavs sent Jason Kidd to
the Suns.

With Don Nelson coaching, the Mavs steadily improved.
"Nellie" needed help however, and hired his son Donnie
from the Suns. Little Donnie was the "head coach-in-waiting"
with the Suns. The important thing for the Mavs was that
Donnie took impeccable notes from scouting international
players. More specifically he kept an eye on a young German
phenom named Dirk Nowitski. He was so impressed with
the kid that he was willing, and convinced the head coach to
draft, (which at that time was a very high risk) an essentially
Euro high school prospect as a top ten choice for the Mavs.
The rest as they is history.

Then Donnie takes Josh Howard (J-Ho) in a later draft. In
that draft, J-Ho was passed up by most of the NBA in favor
of the now popular Euro player. He was totally ignored even
though he was the MVP in the ACC, arguably, the best
conference in basketball. Had Donnie stayed in Phoenix
it is conceivable (likely) that Dirk and Josh would be Suns.

The Donnie Nelson move (from the Suns) is one overlooked
by many people in the current success of the Mavs.

Thanks fellas.