The Dallas Mavericks finally lifted Mark Aguirre’s No. 24 into the rafters on Thursday night at American Airlines Center, but the most unforgettable scene didn’t come with the banner. It came earlier, in a small interview room, when a simple question about friendship cracked open decades of shared history.
During Aguirre’s pregame media session, a reporter asked what it meant to have his best friend, Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, fly in for the ceremony, along with a large group of former Mavericks teammates and coaches. Aguirre looked over at Thomas, standing along the wall, and suddenly couldn’t keep his voice steady.
“That means so much to me,” Aguirre said,
explaining that they grew up in the same neighborhood and that Thomas “knows everything about me,” leaving him unable to “hide anything” when he sees him.
As Aguirre’s emotions took over, Thomas didn’t hesitate. He walked straight to the podium to hug him, then turned and called for another familiar presence, urging Mavericks great Rolando Blackman to come up as well:
“Hey, bro, come on up here, man. We need another teammate.”
Absolutely incredible moment before the Mavs game. Franchise legend Mark Aguirre spoke pregame ahead of his jersey retirement.
When asked what it meant to have guys like Isiah Thomas and Rolando Blackman be with him, his emotions started to flood. Blackman, Thomas and even… pic.twitter.com/Jf9za6ObQ4
— Johnny Resendiz (@Johnnyresendizz) January 30, 2026
It was a fitting snapshot of who Aguirre has been in basketball’s story: a franchise pillar in Dallas, and a championship bridge in Detroit. Aguirre was the No. 1 overall pick in 1981 and became the first true star of the Mavericks’ early rise. Later, when he joined Thomas with the Pistons, Thomas has long credited that move as championship-changing; a sentiment echoed again in Dallas around the retirement, with Thomas calling Aguirre essential to Detroit’s title run and thanking Blackman and Derek Harper for being there for his friend.
The ceremony itself arrived at halftime of the Mavericks’ game against the Charlotte Hornets, with Aguirre joining an exclusive club as the fifth player in franchise history to have his number retired.
But what made the night resonate was the part that couldn’t be staged: one of the toughest scorers of his era, undone by the presence of the person who has known him since childhood, and that friend stepping in immediately, not as a legend, but as a teammate.
