DALLAS (AP) - The roots of Donnie Nelson's discovery of Dirk Nowitzki grew from helping make Lithuania relevant on the world basketball stage.

The Dallas Mavericks personnel guru is one of the NBA pioneers of European scouting. Nowitzki is retiring after the big German's record 21 seasons with the same franchise, and the Mavs hope two young European stars will help lead them into a new age of prosperity.

Now that Nelson has paired Kristaps Porzingis of Lithuania's neighboring country, Latvia, with first-year phenom Luka Doncic, he figures to be a spectator for most of Thursday's NBA draft - an event that has had an international flavor for years.