Both are Mavericks trailblazers. Both were born in Chicago, albeit 21 years apart. Both within the past year have endured strokes.
But of their commonalities, the most striking is the profound gratitude in their voices.
Mavericks co-founder Norm Sonju and the franchise’s first NBA All-Star, Mark Aguirre, realize many fans know little about the team’s early 1980s infancy, so they were stunned when third-year Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont decided to honor them.
Aguirre, 66, will have his No. 24 jersey retired at halftime of Thursday night’s game against Charlotte, becoming the fifth Maverick to be so honored.
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“After so long, it’s kind of shocking,” Aguirre told The Dallas Morning News, his usual booming voice softened to near-whisper. Four times during the 25-minute interview he broke into mid-sentence sobs.
Sonju, 87, will be honored during Wednesday night’s game against Minnesota. In a phone interview last week from his Pennsylvania home, he kept expressing disbelief that Dumont was sending a private plane to bring him and 13 family members to Dallas.
“I want to thank that man, who I’ve not met,” he said. “I don’t think he even knows me. I’m so moved by his kindness.”
Why is this happening now, 45 years and nine months after the Mavericks’ May 1, 1980, founding? And 36 years and 11 months after the franchise traded Aguirre to Detroit? And 29 years and eight months after Sonju retired as president and general manager?
The “why now” can be traced to Dumont’s several-hour job interview of Rick Welts in winter 2024, before Welts formally decided to apply to replace the retiring Cynt Marshall as Mavericks president and CEO.
Among other reasons Dumont and Welts quickly found common ground is both view running a sports franchise as a stewardship. Welts described his 1982 hiring as the NBA’s 35th employee. Despite being founded in 1946, the league had no marketing department.
Then-NBA executive vice president David Stern told Welts the league had done a poor job of embracing its roots, and he made doing so one of Welts’ core tasks, especially after Stern rose to commissioner in 1984.
“We have a responsibility to preserve, publicize and celebrate the history of why the Mavericks are here and why people care about them now,” Welts said. “Because had none of that happened, I wouldn’t have a job.
“This week is going to be great because I think we’re taking care of some unfinished business with both Norm and Mark that Patrick was all-in on from day one. He said, ‘These things are important. Whatever it takes, let’s get it done.’ ”
What fans mostly will see Wednesday night are the Sonju bobbleheads that will be given to the first 5,000 people entering American Airlines Center. More than likely, Sonju will be led to center court and hear heartfelt words of thanks shared by Welts or Dumont or both.
What fans might not see is a weeklong franchise embrace of not only Sonju, but also wife Carole; their children Lynne, Scott and David; 10 grandchildren; 19 family members in all, flown in from Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, Tennessee and Colorado.
“We realized through all of this,” Lynne texted, “that six of my parents’ grandchildren, including my daughter, have never been to a Mavericks game. So this week will be pretty special.”
Dallas Mavericks 1981 No. 1 overall pick Mark Aguirre is overcome with emotion as he speaks during the Dallas Mavericks draft watch party at the American Airlines Center, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Dallas. The Mavericks selected Duke’s Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 overall pick.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
‘Long time coming’ for Aguirre
There is symmetry in Norm Sonju also taking part in Aguirre’s Thursday night ceremony. Sonju, after all, was the GM who selected Aguirre out of DePaul as the No. 1 overall pick of the 1981 draft, ahead of No. 2 selection and fellow Chicagoan Isiah Thomas by Detroit.
Thomas, too, is scheduled to attend and watch close friend Aguirre’s No. 24 banner rise to the rafters, completing a starting five alongside the banners of Brad Davis (No. 15), Rolando Blackman (No. 22), Derek Harper (No. 12) and Dirk Nowitzki (No. 41).
Of equal or perhaps greater importance to Aguirre will be the presence of another quintette: His daughters, who range in ages from 26 to 35. Waves of emotion have consumed Aguirre since Oct. 22, when Dumont personally delivered the news before that night’s season opener against San Antonio.
“It comes and goes,” Aguirre said. “So much time has passed. A lot of things happen in your life. My daughters grew up here and went through it all. So many things come back in your head, like, ‘Daddy, how come your jersey is not retired?’ ”
After Thursday, there will be little if any need to wonder why it took so long to retire the number of the player who ranks third among Mavericks in points (13,930), third in scoring average (24.6) and was the first Maverick selected for an All-Star game (1984).
For years, 1980s teammates Blackman and Harper have been among Aguirre’s more vocal advocates. So it was fitting that the Mavericks invited 2000 jersey retiree Blackman and 2018 jersey retiree Harper to hear Dumont give Aguirre the news.
“He was definitely shocked,” Harper said. “I think he’s really excited that this has finally happened. Because you can walk around and say, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter.’
“I thought the same thing before my jersey was retired. But then when it happens, it’s a great feeling to know that your jersey will hang in the rafters forever. Long time coming, but this is well deserved for Mark.”
Welts said he spoke about Aguirre to Mavericks basketball staff members, as well as many longtime members of the organization, including Mark Cuban.
Though there was acrimony from both sides leading to and after Aguirre’s 1989 trade to Detroit (where he won NBA titles in 1989 and 1990), no one could provide a compelling reason his jersey shouldn’t be retired.
His statistics, individual accomplishments and his role in transforming the Mavericks from 1980 expansion franchise to the Western Conference elite speak for themselves.
“Clearly there was a point in time when Mark and the franchise weren’t feeling great about each other, but it never got to closure, right?” Welts said. “And talking to Patrick, this was an opportunity to be a steward of the franchise and honor people that created this.
“Mark’s name just kept coming to the top of the list.”
After the Mavericks won last May’s draft lottery and the ability to select Cooper Flagg, it presented an organic opportunity to welcome back the franchise’s only other No. 1 pick, as a draft night honoree in American Airlines Center.
Three days later, an all-smiles Aguirre and about a dozen other former Mavericks were feted as celebrity guests at Flagg’s first Dallas news conference.
Does Aguirre feel a sense of closure now?
“Well, I think it opened it up, really,” he said. “To the fact that I am a Maverick.”
‘Without Norm, there’s no Mavs’
Much of this season, the 46th in Mavericks history, has been spent commemorating the franchise’s first 45 years with Hardwood Classic nights.
Fans received Blackman bobbleheads Jan. 12. Ahead are bobblehead giveaway nights for Davis (March 18) and Harper (April 3), and the April 12 season finale against Chicago will feature bobbleheads of Reunion Arena, the Mavericks’ home from 1980 to 2001.
This week, though, is the most momentous. Along with the Sonju and Aguirre celebratory games, a Legacy Luncheon was scheduled for Tuesday, but due to the icy conditions, it was postponed until Saturday.
Lunch attendees probably will be shown at least part of another poignant example of the franchise celebrating its roots.
Last summer, Welts traveled with several Mavericks staff members, including a photographer and videographer, to spend three days with Sonju in Speculator, N.Y. (population 406).
Specifically they gathered at CAMP-of-the-WOODS, a Christian-based resort Sonju ran for 22 years, without salary. The Mavericks’ trip got delayed after Sonju suffered a pair of strokes, but he eventually sat with Welts about the birth and early years of the Mavericks.
Dallas Mavericks co-founder Norm Sonju (left) chats with Mavericks CEO Rick Welts at the Camp-of-the-Woods basketball court in Speculator, N.Y., during Welts’ visit in September 2025.
Courtesy Rick Welts
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And certainly no one knows the topic more intimately than Sonju, who co-founded the franchise with majority owner Donald Carter – and for 10 months in 1979 and early 1980 carried the financial burden and stress when Carter and other investors dropped out of Dallas’ expansion quest.
“I’m so grateful that Rick himself came,” Sonju said. “I was so worried that I didn’t make sense in my interview, but everyone swears I was lucid and said things that made sense. So I thank the Lord for that.”
Sonju is selling himself short. The story of the Mavericks’ birth has often been written, including by The News, but it’s riveting to hear it in Sonju’s words in the edited down 32-minute conversation.
Sonju had been president and GM of the Buffalo Braves from 1976 to 1978. After that franchise moved to San Diego, he identified Dallas as the NBA’s most promising new frontier, so he moved himself and his young family here.
What he did not anticipate was the economy crashing; 21% interest rates; the NBA at the last minute telling Dallas the expansion fee would rise from $8 million to $12 million; and that instead of getting the No. 1 overall pick in 1980 it would pick 11th.
“I just focused on what had to be done,” Sonju told Welts, adding that he had to produce five circulars for prospective investors, each costing $30,000.
“That’s a lot of money out of pocket when you don’t know you’re going to get the franchise,” Sonju said. “My wife was such a saint, still is, but she made it feasible for me to get done. … Not one time in all the years I pursued a franchise did she make me feel I made the wrong decision.”
Watching the video with The News, Welts becomes visibly emotional. He described the trip and conversations with Sonju as “incredibly meaningful” and a labor of love.
Welts, 73, has a unique perspective when it comes to Sonju. Welts had risen from Seattle SuperSonics ballboy to media relations director in the late ‘70s. As an NBA executive, he came to know Sonju well and the Mavericks as a model franchise.
Welts also expanded All-Star weekend starting in 1984, and the ‘86 event Dallas hosted at Reunion included the first 3-point contest, won by Larry Bird. That All-Star court has resided at CAMP-of-the-WOODS for nearly four decades.
“Norm played an outsized role in working with Stern and the belief that if the league had a business operation, it could be additive to all the teams,” Welts told The News. “Norm wasn’t just the ‘my team, my city guy.’ He had a bigger vision of what the NBA could be.”
That is why Sonju became chairman of the NBA marketing committee. He also was on the NBA expansion committee when Charlotte, Miami, Minnesota and Orlando were awarded expansion franchises.
“The organization they built at the Mavericks was just better and different than what NBA team organizations had been before,” Welts said. “As we were trying to develop this culture of sharing best practices and getting teams to talk to each other and helping teams get better, we just kept sending people to Dallas.”
Dallas Mavericks co-founder Norm Sonju (right) poses with Mavericks CEO Rick Welts at Camp-of-the-Woods in Speculator, N.Y., during Welts’ visit in September 2025. The court Sonju and Welts are standing on was used to host the 1986 All-Star Game and weekend at Reunion Arena.
Courtesy Rick Welts
So when fans get their Sonju bobblehead Wednesday night and see him get introduced and listen to the tributes, know that there was deep appreciation and attention to detail behind making the night happen.
“I don’t think his story is well enough known here,” Welts said. “Because without Norm, there’s no Mavs. The hope is that some people who knew him can get reacquainted. And some people who never knew him can learn how much he contributed to the team that represents the city today.”
The same goes for Aguirre and Thursday night’s celebration. If you don’t know, Google his YouTube highlights. Better yet, come to American Airlines Center or watch on TV the next two nights as the franchise properly celebrates two trailblazers.
Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.