Legends Brunch Honors Mavs of the '80s

DALLAS -- Derek Harper still thinks his group of Dallas Mavericks were good enough to reach the NBA Finals, but unfortunately, the Los Angeles Lakers kept getting in the way.

Harper, along with teammates Rolando Blackman, Sam Perkins, Mark Aguirre and James Donaldson, were honored Sunday at the 11th annual Legends Brunch as part of All-Star Weekend returning to Dallas.

They played together for much of the '80s, often the second, third or fourth best team in the West, but always well behind the legendary Lakers, who won five NBA titles that decade.

Among those in attendance Sunday were NBA greats Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Spencer Haywood, Dolph Schayes, Bill Walton, and Moses Malone.

"The Lakers were always our nemesis. If it wasn't for them, we probably would have gone to the Finals, and this franchise would have won a championship,'' Harper told FanHouse after the ceremony. "But it is what it is. The Lakers had 4-5 Hall of Fame players. They were just better than us."

That group of Mavericks were eliminated from the playoffs three times in the '80s by the Lakers, including a seven-game series in the 1988 Western Conference finals.

"Timing is the key to all of it,'' Harper said. "Remove the Lakers, and it's the Mavericks who would have been on top. The timing just wasn't there for us.''

Johnson, the Lakers' ringleader in the '80s, was part of the ceremony introducing the Mavericks. He talked about Aguirre once knocking one his front teeth on a drive to the basket, about Harper always stealing the ball from him, about Donaldson knocking him down more than once.

"We always hated playing that team,'' Johnson said. "They were so tough to beat.''

The NBA All-Star Game will be played in Dallas on Sunday night for the first time since 1986. That was the year the Lakers beat the Mavericks in the conference semifinal round.

Harper and Blackman were together in the Mavericks backcourt from 1983 to 1992. Aguirre was with there from 1981 to 1989, before he was traded to Detroit, where he won two NBA titles with the Pistons. Perkins and Donaldson were the front court through the second half of the decade.

"To have the real legends like Oscar and Bill Russell in the audience today, it just blew me away,'' said Harper, who received the NBA Leadership Award Sunday. "And hanging out again with these guys just brought back some great memories, the best I ever had as a player."