The Mavericks joined the NBA as an expansion franchise in 1980 and spent their first years establishing themselves before a roster built around Mark Aguirre and Rolando Blackman reached the Western Conference finals in 1988. The early 1990s brought a severe downturn, including an 11-win season in 1992-93, and the subsequent rebuild only gained real traction after the team acquired Dirk Nowitzki in the 1998 draft. Under owner Mark Cuban, who purchased the team in 2000, Dallas became a consistent playoff fixture and reached its first NBA Finals in 2006, losing to Miami after leading two games to none.

The Nowitzki-led Mavericks won the franchise's only championship in 2011, upsetting a heavily favored Miami team built around LeBron James. A rebuilding period followed Nowitzki's decline and 2019 retirement, but the acquisition of Luka Dončić reestablished the club as a title contender, culminating in a 2024 Finals appearance that ended in a loss to the Boston Celtics. In December 2023, Cuban sold majority control to the Adelson and Dumont families while retaining a minority ownership stake and authority over basketball decisions, and the Mavericks later drew scrutiny for trading Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025 as the franchise entered a new rebuilding phase.