I'm not sure what was the biggest kick to the crotch in the Dallas Mavericks' Game 1 loss to the Golden State Warriors: Watching Baron Davis looking like Amare Stoudemire only better against a suddenly inept Dallas defense, seeing Mark Cuban acting like a pouty little baby from the owner's seats or the fact that, after they game, they played "Try Again" by Aaliyah, ("If at first you don't succeed, brush yourself off and try again,").
As to the first point, Baron Davis was just unbeatable tonight. He played the way that Don Nelson used to play Dirk his first few years in the league, only Baron had a better post up game than Dirk every dreamed of having. I love Baron Davis and always have. He's my favorite kind of player: The bruiser that can be all over the court. Yeah, it's fun to watch Steve Nash cut around the court, or Kobe hitting from everywhere, but Baron Davis just takes the ground in front of him, and no one else is gonna take it from him. He's a beast.
The loss sucked, but watching Jason Richardson holding Baron Davis' head in his hands yelling, "You did this," over and over again gave me the sort of stomach dropping feeling that I had when Tony Romo fumbled the snap. This team believes in themselves way more than I knew they did.
The second point: This may have been the best season in Maverick history, but this was Mark Cuban's worst season as owner. Cuban is at his best when he's antagonistic and annoying while simultaneously being funny and approachable. This year he's only been annoying. Daniel Snyder is annoying, George Steinbrenner is interesting. Mark Cuban's gotta choose right now which kind of owner he wants to be.
About a week ago on his blog (right after the Joey Crawford incident with Tim Duncan), Cuban said that he won't blog about the NBA anymore on his blog because, "... my number one rule of blogging is if you can't offer an honest opinion, say nothing." In an interview with Real Sports on HBO, Cuban said that he almost sold the team this off season. This is an owner who is either ready to give up on the NBA and buy the Cubs or to challenge David Stern (the only man nerdier than Cuban himself) to a duel (and there's no doubt what the weapons of choice will be: Battle Axes). If Cuban's gonna bail, I hope he does it quietly. All I know is that before this season, Mark Cuban was the kind of owner that every sports fan wants owning their team: The kind that only wants to win and will put as much money into it as it takes. I miss that guy.
As for the third point, there's no excuse for Aaliyah. I know she's dead, but it's time to stop the hero worship. Hell, even 90% of the Latinos have already forgotten about Selena.
Two other random notes:
-- Speaking of Mark Cuban, I should probably take this moment to officially memorialize the time I partied with him. I got done working one night when my best friend, Chance, calls me up and says, "I'm at this party in Dallas, you have to come." I wasn't really in the mood, but he insisted. "Trust me," he said, "You'll wanna be at this party." So he gave me directions and I went to the house where the party was being held.
It's a nice neighborhood in Dallas with music pumping and the lights off in the house. The first person I see is former Maverick star and current Assistant Coach, Rolando Blackmon. Ro was easily my favorite basketball player growing up. Then I walk through the kitchen, looking for my friend. In the kitchen is a whole collection (I'm not sure if describing them as a "gaggle" is politically correct, but it's the first thing that comes to mind) of women standing around a guy sitting on the counter. It was Steve Nash (who's surprisingly big when you see him in person).
I find my friend in a circle of people talking in the middle of the living room, I walk up and say hello, and he starts introducing me to people. Finally he gets to a guy who says, "Hey, I'm Mark." And it's Mark Cuban.
I'm not going to pretend that Cuban and had any kind of conversation, but we did have this exchange:
A girl walked by and I turned to watch her (subtly, as I'm not really a gawker) and Cuban, standing next to me, checks her out too. We both look at each other and kind of chuckle. I say to him, "I think you've probably got a better shot with her than I do," and he sort of looks me up and down, pauses and then says, "Um... yeah."
The answer to your question is yes... I know that that is a sweet fucking story. Only slightly less awesome is the story of the time that Joey Crawford said to me, "Don Nelson's a great coach, but if I saw him on the golf course I'd tell him to fucking blow me." Seriously. That happened.
-- Is it possible that Don Nelson could one day be credited for being the godfather of the basketball equivalent of the West Coast Offense? I mean, seriously, he could end up being his own cottage industry that the basketball world doesn't really recognize the greatness of until 10 years after he's retired (or, in Nelson's case, dead... he won't ever quit coaching).
He created Steve Nash, who has in turn created the Phoenix Suns (who, it pains me to say, may very well be the best team in the league). He created Dirk Nowitzki (who is, without a doubt, the MVP... The best player on the team with the 7th best regular season record of all time. That doesn't convince you? How about this... Somehow the Mavericks have gotten better every year SINCE Steve Nash left the team. The reason? Dirk Nowitzki's gotten better).
And that doesn't even bring into account the assistant coaches who've turned great. Gregg Popovich... Avery Johnson... Hell, Donnie Nelson, his son, is the director of basketball operations for the Mavs (as is Golden State's current basketball operations director, Chris Mullen: a former Nelson player). We're not talking about a Bill Walsh coaching tree here or anything, but it's nothing to laugh at.
I don't know who this guy Keith Smart, Nellie's current assistant coach, is, but would you really be surprised if he's a top 10 head coach in five years?
This has been my impression of a Bill Simmons-style post.
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