File this one away for your Dallas Mavericks Meditations on a Far-Flung Future, or don’t. Nothing means anything anymore in the months when your NBA team has hung up their sneakers, and so, at some point, we commence posting simply for posting’s sake.
To that end, let’s all gather ‘round the campfire for a look at a 2028 prospect that has recently caught our collective eye — none other than Erick Dampier Jr.
If a news peg exists for this conversation, it came out on Tuesday that Dampier Jr. was announced as a member of Team USA’s 2025 U16 squad, so congratulations to the young man. His name is beginning to ring out a little more lately in future-tripping basketball circles.
His dad, of course, played for the Mavericks from 2004-2010, a perennial 8-and-8 low-post presence whose greatest attributes were the six fouls per game he could be counted on to take advantage of and his ability to at least match size for size (6-11, 265 lbs.) with the best bigs in the league of his era. He was an anchor down low whose flat-footed presence in the paint allowed Dirk Nowitzki to roam free and change basketball as we knew it by impacting the game with his length and range at all corners of the 94-foot expanse. He was traded to the then-Charlotte Bobcats before the 2010-11 season and was waived, then signed a one-year deal with the Miami Heat, whom the Mavs subsequently beat in the NBA Finals.
Dampier Jr., at this early stage in his development (he’s 15), looks like he might be able to surpass Dear Ole’ Dad, at least in terms of athleticism and playmaking ability. He was named to MaxPreps’ All-America Freshman Second-Team after averaging 13.5 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks per game for Madison, Miss.’ Madison-Richland Academy (MRA) this season. He’s also listed as the No. 3 recruiting prospect in the 2028 class by ESPN. Damp Jr. is either 6-9 or 6-10, depending on what listing you’re reading, and is somewhere in the 220-230lb. neighborhood.
His freshman year at MRA was actually his second year playing with the varsity team, as he made a leap forward in his development as an eighth-grader. He averaged a double-double as an eighth-grader, according to a separate report from MaxPreps. The video above shows off, as well as just his stature as a man among boys, Damp Jr.’s ball-handling skills and his ability to run the floor, which are two traits his dad didn’t necessarily hang his hat on throughout his NBA career. Damp Jr. told On3’s Maroon and White Daily last year that he’s been working on his shooting more and more, though this past season’s highlights from the high-school season show him playing a more traditional big-man’s role. You can see a little bit of Damp Sr.’s game in him with an effective jump-hook and his tenacity on the boards.
“Everything I have learned, I have learned from my dad,” Damp Jr. told On3. “It is really beneficial for me. Everything I want to do in the sport, he has already done. So I take a lot of advice from him and it makes it a lot easier for me.”
He hasn’t made any choices about the next level, entering just his sophomore year in high school, apparently. His recruiting profile on both ESPN and 247 list no college activity yet at this early juncture.
“It is still too early for offers and all of that,” Damp Jr. told On3. “But at camps Mississippi State and Ole Miss have talked to me when I was there. There’s also a lot of coaches that follow me on Instagram and things like that. But it is still early for recruiting.”
How many Mavs fans woulda thunk that of all the former Mavericks who took a swing through Dallas, that Erick Dampier’s son would be the one to flash this brightly coming up in the amateur game? In a world where Jeffrey Jordan couldn’t make the cut and Bronny James can’t seem to crack the Los Angeles Lakers’ roster, it makes some sort of sense on a cosmic level that Damp Jr. might be a big deal in a few years.
What many more Mavericks fans will remember is that Damp Sr.’s cap number of about $10 million per year was allotted to a stand-still five at a time when the team could have used that money to re-sign Steve Nash. Nash signed with the Phoenix Suns in free agency the year that Damp got to Dallas, and his assist numbers promptly jumped from about eight to about 11 for the next few seasons. Dampier’s best statistical game in a Mavericks’ uniform came in a 93-89 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in 2005, when he scored 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting, hauled in 26 rebounds and blocked seven shots. He also grabbed 20 rebounds in a 121-103 win over the Houston Rockets in 2009.
Courtesy Photo
Brandon Castillo
And here’s just one more little Erick Dampier-related nugget from the Remember When File. Damp made an appearance at the Six Flags Over Texas theme park during the 2009-10 season, shortly before he was traded to Charlotte, and my buddy Brandon got him to hold onto a stuffed tiger Brandon had won earlier in the day and stand in for a photo op with the fabled Shockwave roller coaster featured prominently in the background. As a Mavs Fan of a Certain Age, this image has been seared into my memory since the moment he showed it to me, no doubt at the expense of some bit of knowledge which could have proven the least bit useful lo these past 15 years. Shout out to Damp, Damp Jr. and to my buddy Brandon.