DALLAS -- Dallas coach Don Nelson and assistant Donnie Nelson were suspended for the season's first two games by the NBA, which also fined the team $150,000 Friday for contact with players who were ineligible for the draft.

The Nelsons -- Don is Donnie's father -- attended two private workouts in June in Yugoslavia, according to the league.

It was the ninth time the Mavericks have been fined for a total of $1,155,000 since January 2000, when Mark Cuban bought the team.

''We are of course disappointed and surprised,'' said Cuban, who noted there is no method of appealing fines in the NBA. ''We do think the fine and punishment was excessive.''

Cuban said the coaches were only observing players, not working them out.

''I can assure you no one thought it was illegal because there was no workout,'' Cuban said during an e-mail exchange Friday. ''But we had coaches in a gym where there were draft ineligible players who were playing pickup games, and according to the letter of the NBA law, it's against the rules.''

He declined to say who the players were.

The Nelsons, through the team, declined to comment.

Mavericks spokesman Gregg Elkin said assistant Del Harris probably will coach the first two games, Oct. 30 at Memphis and Nov. 2 at home against Phoenix.

The Mavericks have been successful cultivating foreign players, drafting German forward Dirk Nowizki and Chinese center Wang Zhizhi, who this month signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Cuban said he's worried about how the punishment will affect future pursuits of foreign talent.

''Our bigger concerns are whether or not our coaches will be able to work with international teams, given they all have ineligible players involved, and our and other NBA teams' involvement in commonly held clinics and promotions where our coaches are being asked to participate,'' Cuban said.

''We hope we can work with the NBA to eliminate the ambiguity of the rules so that we can continue to serve the fans and customers of the Dallas Mavericks and the NBA,'' he said.

Cuban, who spent $280 million of his fortune to buy the Mavericks in January 2000, has been fined by the league eight times for $1,005,000, including a $500,000 penalty for saying he wouldn't hire the NBA's head of officials ''to manage a Dairy Queen.''