Nowitzki stole the show at Dallas Mavericks’ Halloween party

Dallas Mavericks point guard Deron Williams hosted a Halloween party at his North Dallas home over the weekend for his teammates and team staff that was, by all accounts, one for the ages.

The event was more or less a relaxed team-bonding situation where everyone got to step out of character and enjoy themselves under non-pressure circumstances.

Halloween is Saturday, but the Mavericks will be two games into the regular season by then. Dallas opens the season Wednesday night at Phoenix then visits the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday.

From the many stories that have been told, forward Dirk Nowitzki garnered the most laughs at the party as he dressed as Lurch from the old Addams Family TV show. According to Nowitzki, when he first joined the Mavericks in 1998, a team employee said: “ ‘Hey, there’s Lurch.’ And at the time I didn’t know who Lurch was.

“I wasn’t a big Addams Family guy growing up. So now, 18 years later, I went as Lurch on Halloween, so it kind of sums up my career.”

Dirk’s wife, Jessica, and coach Rick Carlisle’s wife, Donna, assisted Nowitzki in the Addams Family ensemble.

Meanwhile, Carlisle dressed as actor/comedian Jim Carrey, whom he strongly resembles. Carlisle wore a long T-shirt with “Jim Carrey Dressed As Rick Carlisle” in bold, black letters.

Asked how long it took him to get into character, Carlisle said: “It took as long as it took my equipment guy, Al Whitley, to go to the printing shop and get a shirt printed out. I’m a longtime admirer of Jim Carrey.

“He’s not only a brilliant comedian, he’s a brilliant actor. I’m a huge fan of his going back decades.”

Carlisle recalled a story involving Carrey after the Mavericks won the 2011 NBA title.

“The only thing that was interesting was that he was on [David] Letterman one night — after we won it we did the Top 10 list— and he happened to be on Letterman that night, and he said on Letterman that people tell him he looks like me,” Carlisle said. “That’s interesting.

“I smiled when I heard that. Beyond that, I understand the comparisons in terms of the looks, and for the first time I had some really fun with it at D-Will’s Halloween party.”

Williams, who won two state wrestling titles as a youngster, wore a Randy “Macho Man” Savage outfit of World Wrestling Entertainment fame.

“A lot of guys had great outfits,” Williams said. “Wesley Matthews was the most interesting because he was a toy soldier and he pretty much duct-taped his whole outfit.”

Forward Charlie Villanueva and his fiancée were dressed as police officers.

“Actually that was my first time as an adult dressing up for Halloween,” Villanueva said. “I actually tried it on and I was like, ‘I actually look pretty good as a cop.’

“This is my 11th year in the NBA and this is my first time experiencing that where every guy showed up and pretty much everybody was pretty much into it. It was fun and I had a really good time and I just want to thank Deron for making that happen.”

As he rated other costumes, Carlisle was surprised by his players’ creativity.

“I think Dirk stole the show as Lurch, but there were some great ones,” Carlisle said. “Jeremy Evans had a Batman costume and he was using the Batman voice.

“Wesley Matthews had a really terrific outfit — he taped himself up and had an Army helmet on and he was dressed as an Army solider. And of course, [Chandler] Parsons and his supermodel girlfriend were Tarzan and Jane, and they pulled that off well.”

Guard J.J. Barea, listed graciously in the Mavericks’ media guide as 6 feet tall, also drew more than his fair share of attention.

“Barea was a Minion, and that was more like every day, really,” Carlisle said. “And Deron’s Macho Man Randy Savage costume was right up there with Dirk.

“It was a great party and it was a team-building situation. So we all enjoyed it very much.”　

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Nowitzki stole the show at Dallas Mavericks’ Halloween party."