"LOVE IS IN THE AIR" IN DALLAS, TEXAS

Dirk Nowitzki, Don Nelson, Steve Nash in '98

There's a sprinkling of Dallas Mavericks fans in Brownsville, but, by far, most of those who follow the NBA root for the Spurs.  Not only is San Antonio much closer to Brownsville geographically, it is also closer culturally. 

As much as I respect San Antonio Spurs Coach Popovich and his team, my last seven years of gainful employment were spent commuting from Eagle Mountain Lake into Fort Worth and my car radio exposed me to Mavs coverage.

North Texas talk radio back then usually meant Rush Limbaugh or someone parroting his views, so I turned the dial to sports radio and discovered the raspy-voiced Norm Hitzges.

Hitzges covered the Cowboys, but also devoted air time to the Dallas Mavericks, owned at that time by H. Ross Perot.

Hitzges spoke excitedly about a young German kid, Dirk Nowitzki from Wurzberg, Germany who'd played on a team with U.S. high schoolers and lit up a group of NBA players including Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley.

The Mavericks back then were coached by Milwaukee Buck's legend Don Nelson, but the coach's son, Donnie Nelson, was active in scouting, particularly European scouting, and had "discovered" Nowitzki early on.

Before wasting their draft position on a player not willing to come to the United States, Don Nelson traveled to Wurzberg to have a couple beers with Nowitzki's dad and try to talk the kid into coming to the U.S.

That trip paid off with Nowitzki agreeing to come in 1998.  That same year Don Nelson made a trade with the Phoenix Suns for the rights to Steve Nash.

Nash and Nowitzki formed a powerful duo that quickly brought winning seasons to the Mavs after 20 years of losing and I became a fan.

When it came time to renew Steve Nash's contract, the Mavs new billionaire owner Mark Cuban turned cheapskate and let him leave with no team compensation.

Despite that misstep, the Mavs recovered enough to win a championship in 2011.

Dirk Nowitzki and his Swedish-born wife Jessica Olsson

The following year, Cuban again resorted to his penny-pinching ways, allowing several of the team's stars to sign lucrative contracts elsewhere, except the ultra-loyal Nowitzki who took a series of pay cuts.

It's now a quarter century since the signing of Nowitzki and Nash and Dallas is led by another European, Luka Doncic of Slovenia.

Doncic also has a talented teammate in the sometimes unpredictable Kyrie Irving and the Mavs seem to be building a good team by surrounding that duo with defensive players.

Mavs fans hold their collective breath hoping against hope Cuban won't cheap out rebuilding the team and lose generational player Doncic.

Luka Doncic with fiancee' Anamaria Goltes

Yesterday, the 24 year old Doncic announced his engagement to longtime girlfriend Anamaria Goltes, 25, also from Slovenia.

The two have been dating since 2016.