Back From the Other Side, Courtside

Neal Hawks, a real estate developer in Dallas, put some of his property to good use last night.

Hawks, a Mavericks season-ticket holder, gave his 10 courtside seats for the game against the Utah Jazz to Army soldiers who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious injuries.

They had a lot of company from the military at American Airlines Center. Last night, 145 courtside seats were occupied by injured soldiers from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and members of the National Guard from the Dallas-Fort Worth area who have recently returned home from active duty.

Hawks started Seats for Soldiers night four years ago and persuaded other season-ticket holders to participate.

“The whole thing is really a neat deal,” he said. “Every year, the soldiers are really grateful to have this night because it makes them feel like people really care about what they have done and what they are continuing to do for their country.”

Hawks, 46, grew up in Omaha rooting for Tiny Archibald and the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. Business eventually took him to Dallas in 1999, and he quickly became a Mavericks fan. Six of his seats are along the baseline at the visitors’ end of the court; four are between the visiting team’s bench and the scorer’s table — “kind of like Jack Nicholson territory,” Hawks said.

In the spring of 2004, Hawks said, he read a newspaper article about soldiers returning from the Middle East who required surgery and rehabilitation.

“These were men and women who had sacrificed their lives for our well-being, and now many of them were burn victims and amputees,” he said. “These were people who were fighting for us overseas so that we can enjoy all that life has to offer here. I just started thinking of a way that I could thank them.”

Three times that April, Hawks donated eight of his courtside seats to wounded soldiers and paid their airfare from Brooke Army Medical Center. He asked other front-row ticket-holders to do the same. By December 2004, the Mavericks were on board, and 137 courtside seats were donated for the first official Seats for Soldiers night.

“It was a brilliant idea by Neal,” said Mark Cuban, the Mavericks’ owner, who donated his five courtside seats last night. “The Seats for Soldiers program has become an incredible source of pride for the Dallas Mavericks and our community. It’s an annual reminder that our ability to enjoy something as simple as a game of basketball comes with a cost, and we should never take for granted our freedoms or forget the heroes who make it all possible.”

Yesterday, about 45 soldiers rode by bus from the hospital to San Antonio International Airport; American Airlines donated their flights to Dallas. Hawks met them for dinner, donated by the restaurant Abacus, before the game.

“The energy our service people bring to the arena gives everybody goose bumps,” Cuban wrote in response to questions by e-mail. “I think the best part of the night is when we ask all the soldiers seated courtside, many of whom have been severely injured, to stand and let all 20,000 people show their appreciation. The looks on all of their faces as they wave to the crowd and high-five each other and just soak it all up is unforgettable.”

“To the soldiers, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Cuban added. “By the time it’s over, there are smiles and not a dry eye anywhere.”

Cuban said that he hoped a Seats for Soldiers night “would become a tradition at sporting events across the country.”

Hawks, who has spoken to officials from the Atlanta Hawks and the San Antonio Spurs, said: “There is no reason why a front-row season-ticket holder in every N.B.A. city could not get on the ball and organize an event like this. For our soldiers, there is no other sports ticket quite like it.”

E-mail: cheers@nytimes.com