Donnie Nelson met then-19-year-old Dirk Nowitzki in the lobby of Dallas' Hyatt Regency late one night in March 1998.
A most likely drunk Mark Cuban briefly met Nowitzki and Steve Nash in Dallas' Starck Club in early January 2000, with the players not realizing that Cuban would become their boss the next day.
Rick Carlisle met Nowitzki at the 2004 NBA All-Star game in Los Angeles, then, more formally in May 2008, when Carlisle came to Dallas to interview for the Mavericks' coaching job.
The 2008 meeting was the merger - Cuban, Nelson, Carlisle and Nowitzki, gathered in Cuban's Preston Hollow home - that laid the groundwork to the Mavericks' 2011 NBA championship and the final 11 seasons of Nowitzki's 21-year career.