Emotion rarely escapes Michael Finley's public facade. But a few cracks have appeared as the former Mavericks star contemplates his return.

It hurts Finley to no longer play alongside Dirk Nowitzki, his friend and teammate of more than seven years. There is the owner who told him they were "in this together" only to let him go a few months later and the coach and former teammate who didn't lobby to keep him.

These are issues Finley must sort through tonight when San Antonio plays the Mavericks at American Airlines Center. But above all, the founding father of the Big Three can't help but wonder what might have been if the Mavericks had kept their nucleus intact.

"You look back a couple of years ago, the year we won 60 games, we thought that was the team that was going to ultimately take Dallas over the top," Finley said. "Management thought otherwise.

"Their plans for the future were very different from the players' in the locker room at the time. From their standpoint, they made decisions that bettered the organization. But from a player's standpoint, I don't think so.

"We will never know how good that team would have been."