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As Mavs celebrate their 40th anniversary, employees reminisce about inaugural season

This is the first of a five-part series chronicling the Dallas Mavericks’ 1980-’81 season, which was their first season in the NBA. Saturday: Norm Sonju

As the Dallas Mavericks celebrate their 40th birthday today, Kevin Sullivan remembers during their first year of existence when they actually suffered from an identity crisis.

“There were a hard core group of people that were really excited from the very beginning, but there also were a lot of people in Dallas who did not know what we were,” Sullivan said. “I would be asked sometimes, when I was getting a haircut, ‘Mavericks?