Holiday spirit moves Mavs fans to give up seats for soldiers

Teh awesome. ESPN

The Dallas Mavericks don't have a regular courtside customer from the Jack Nicholson/Spike Lee/Eva Longoria universe.

The front-row folks at American Airlines Center are known for something else.

They're known for an annual (and powerful) act of charity during the Christmas season that, if not exactly glamorous, has the capacity to move a crowd of thousands.

"There isn't a more goose-bump-raising moment in sports than watching 150 soldiers stand up in the front row and react to 20,000 Mavs fans giving them a three-minute standing ovation," Mavs owner Mark Cuban says.

Cuban makes that claim based on what he's seen year after year at an event called Seats for Soldiers. For one night every December, Mavs season-ticket holders with the best seats in the house turn in their tickets to allow soldiers injured in combat from the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio -- most of whom have suffered some sort of catastrophic injury -- to see what it's like to live life like Jack, Spike and Eva.