Of the four major pro sports franchises in our back yard, only two selected their first overall draft picks while they were in town.
In their first season, the Dallas Cowboys picked Bob Lilly in 1961. Lilly is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and one of the most revered players in the history of the franchise.
In 1980, the Dallas Mavericks picked Kiki Vandeweghe. He never played a second for the Mavs. In his own, odd way, the selection of Kiki ended up being a large reason why the Mavs were a good franchise for much of the '80s.
The Texas Rangers' first pick was selected when the club was in Washington D.C., and named the Senators. The Dallas Stars' first pick was when the club was in Minnesota, and they were named the North Stars.
The Mavs are entering their 40th anniversary season. Forty years ago this month, the Mavs picked Vandeweghe, a UCLA forward, with the 11th selection in the NBA Draft.
"I actually was really torn a bit. I knew I wanted to play basketball, and I was considering continuing my education," Vandeweghe said in a phone interview. "I was going to study abroad."
The Mavericks were so new, and the NBA was far from the NBA as we know it, that the team practiced in a church.
"The length of the court was 84 feet," said current Mavs assistant GM Keith Grant, who was the team's equipment manager that season. "They used the floor so kids could roller skate."
Vandeweghe liked Texas, and specifically, Dallas.
At the time, he was recovering from an ankle injury. The Mavericks offered him a non-guaranteed contract.
"The word got out that his dad didn't want him to come to Dallas and a new team and a new organization," Grant said.
Vandeweghe balked, and the negotiations didn't progress. Mavs co-founder Norm Sonju, who previously promised not to trade Vandeweghe, sent him to the Denver Nuggets on Dec. 3 of that year.
Of all the players selected in the 1980 NBA Draft, Vandeweghe scored the most points second only to future Hall of Famer Kevin McHale.
"But it worked out for everybody," Vandeweghe said.
As part of the deal, the Mavericks acquired the Nuggets' first round pick in 1981.
The Mavs had the first pick in 1981, and used it for DePaul forward Mark Aguirre. With the Nuggets' pick, ninth overall, the Mavs selected Illinois guard Rolando Blackman.
For a while Blackman was the leading scorer in Mavericks history, and a major part of a team that featured Derek Harper, Roy Tarpley and briefly pushed the Magic Johnson Los Angeles Lakers for air space at the top of the Western Conference.
Nonetheless, no one ever forgot Vandeweghe. Nor did they forgive him.
"In one my first games back was against the Mavericks, in Denver. One of the first plays I caught an elbow and it broke my nose," he said. "The trainer said I needed to come out. I said, 'No, way.'"
When the Nuggets visited the Mavericks in Dallas, during the national anthem all of his teammates made it a point not to stand near Vandeweghe.
"The fans really booed me. I was young and upset and they all thought it was hysterical," he said. "I ended up being good friends with so many people there. And they said, 'We just have so much fun booing you.' It ended up becoming a thing."
Ironically, Vandeweghe ended up coming back to the Mavs.
Not long after the Dallas Mavericks acquired Dirk Nowitzki in a draft day trade in 1998, then coach Don Nelson offered Vandeweghe a job to work with the kid from Germany. Vandeweghe, who retired in 1993, knew footwork as well as any player could.
"Two things that stuck out (with Dirk) was that you almost had to kick him out of the gym," Vandeweghe. "If you showed him something, he could do it right away in an actual game. That's highly unusual. You could show him, and he got it."
The Dallas Mavericks are 40 this year, and there is no debate that Nowitzki is the best player in the history of the franchise.
The first player they ever picked is an obscure piece of their history, who in the end actually played a role in their success without ever scoring a point.
