I grew up a Rockets fan. Over the past 7 or 8 years I have become a Mavs fan. I liked Michael Finley, I liked Steve Nash, and I assumed this teenage Dirk guy would for cement Don Nelson's firing as head coach in Dallas. I was a bit off base there. As the Rockets got worse the Mavs got better. Back in Rockets land Hakeem retired, Kenny Smith was a TV host, Barkley got fatter, and the Dream was over for a while it seemed. So I turned my attention to supporting the Mavs mainly because I liked Don Nelson's style of play. But year after year the same thing happened... Losers. Losers, and let's fire up another 3 one more time. It was one jacked up 3 too many for me. I was pretty much drinking the national kool aid in and around 2002-03. Mavs were fun to watch and would win 60 games a year but come playoffs the gig was up.
Nash split, Finley left, Nelly left, and little Avery was left with little Dirk and a bunch of spares that no one really wanted. However much to my and every ones surprise they got better. Much better. The fundamentals of basketball were back, in fact i had flashbacks of coaches yelling at me back in the old days. It felt fresh again and when the 3 went up it made you cringe instead of cheer. Mavs seemed to have added from subtraction. Then there was the Marc Cuban factor. I love the guy but at the same time I think his passion during games was distracting from the game itself. The players finally came out and said it and that was that for a while. Then the Mavs did the unthinkable and blew right by the Spurs and Suns into the NBA Finals. This was a grand time to be on the Mavs bandwagon. Then as you all know, the collapse occurred. It was tragic and unfair, even players like the Rocket's Tracy McGrady said it seemed as though the Finals were fixed for Miami to win. Could the NBA Comish, David Stern actually exacted this kind of brutal revenge for his arch nemesis Cuban. We will never know.
After a summer of heartbreak we added some impressive defensive players like Devean George and Greg Buckner made a trip back to big D. Things were looking peachy. Then the 0-4 start. Finals hangover? Then the season took off in a way that no one ever imagined. 67 wins later the Mavs had the best record in the NBA. The steamrolled through every team except one, The Golden State Warriors coached by Don Nelson. Towards the end of the month of March and April Avery started resting guys or playing them limited minutes to rest up for the playoffs. Sounded fine to me, no complaints. However on the west coast the Warriors are playing for a playoff spot. And they are not just playing like the Clips were, they were straight up blowing people up. When the standings got closer and it seemed that Dallas could face them in round one I was very very worried. I didn't want it. I had been watching there games for the past few weeks, and I knew they were destroying people much like the way the Suns did a few years ago. And meanwhile we are having a really hard time beating The Celtics and the Knicks at home. Let me repeat that The Knicks and the Celtics. OK.
I was at the Clipper game that if the Mavs had lost we would not have had to have played GS. But we went ahead and got all crazy and won anyway to secure home court advantage. Great, big deal right. I felt like the only one in that arena that could see what was coming around the corner. Revenge. Now let's take a minute and explain what revenge means. Revenge is defined as follows...
Revenge consists primarily of retaliation against a person or group in response to a perceived wrongdoing.
Hmmm, let's see. I'm a basketball coach that was on the verge of being fired until a new billionaire guy comes in and buys my shitty under-performing team. The media says well the first thing that should happen is that I should get fired. The owner has a meeting with me and says hey I don't know nothin about no basketball so I'm putting my faith in you to help us dig out of this hole. And I'll give you about oh say 10 million or so do that. And I'll spend whatever it takes to get you the players and personnel you need to get that done. In return I would like to sit near the bench and watch the games and yell at the refs. Sounded like a good deal to me.
A few years later, I just got tired of losing and counting all my money. I got a new contract extension and stopped going to practice, let my third string point guard run all the practices and film sessions while I drink beer and have real estate meetings about all my real estate properties in Hawaii that you bought for me. In other words my life is just hell because of you. You expect me to concentrate on basketball? I think I'll go to the press and bitch about how much it bothers you that I support the team by yelling on the bench and that I'm in the huddles. Oh excuse me I just sold a 20 million dollar property could you step out of the huddle please. Thanks little billionaires boy. Oh and by the way I'm going to quit and let a player with no coaching experience take over the team cause the players stopped listening to me. If you can go ahead and pay me a check for the remaining millions you still owe for me for the work I never did that would be great. Oh could you hold my beer while I sign off on this. Thanks boss man you're the greatest. I'll just tell the press that the players don't listen to me and my health is too bad to continue coaching. If you like I can throw in the golden nugget of excuses, I'm going to spend more time with my wife and family. Cool, well its been nice I'm out. I'll just hang out in the tunnel during the games and drink beer and you can call me the Godfather of the Mavs now.
Now that I've had some time to think it all over, my boss is really a dick. I can't believe he did all that shit to me. What an ass. I think I'll inquire over to Golden State and see if I can maybe get a team to coach again so I can come back and kick that old bosses ass. That sounds fun. Revenge! Is it? Sounds fun anyway. Maybe I can in the process tear down one of the greatest players of all time that I made and make him look like a complete failure in front of the entire world. Awesome this is such a great way to get my "revenge". Oh and I'm not done yet. I think I might sue my old boss for some bonus money that I never got in my contract. And since he has a problem with that I'll throw in some more anguish payments so he can end up paying me 10 million more to compensate for my sad life. Oh and going into game one I'll say that we can never win this series, that we are just lucky to be here. Poor sad me. Oh woo hoo, I've had such a sad sad life.
Hey Don Nelson: F you and all your Bullshit. Your a sad pathetic old man, that may be a great coach, but your nothing but utter sadness and a pathetic excuse for a human being. That being said you may have beaten the Mavs for now, but your team will get theres. Your free agents will walk out on you for more money during the off season. You may have won more games than any coach, but the one thing you also have more than anyone else is Failure. I can't wait for you to get yours. All your little mind games you like to play. Guess what Golden State? You may have a good coach but you also got the laziest, saddest sack known to basketball. You are where we were a few years ago. Riding high, having fun winning regular season games, but at some point it will happen. The sadness, the ego, the excuses, the beers. Get ready for it. It's coming.
Now back to the Mavs and the Golden State series. Avery got out coached. The team was not ready. They were on vacation and Golden State had a mission. To make the Mavs look like punks. They won, they destroyed us emotionally and physically. They play psycho ball, and at some point soon that will haunt them. Jacking up threes at buzzers sound great in theory but its the fundamentals that get you to championships. Always have always will. People are overreacting to this a wee bit. It was for the most part a two part issue. One was the matchups, its one of those deals where the Mavs do not match up against GS. Its that simple. We could have played the Spurs or the Suns and had an easier time. It just happens that way. The second issue was hunger. The Mavs shut off around late February, and Golden State turned it on. Somehow I think Avery knew this and was afraid to admit it. The players got too confident. They didn't look in the rear view for the last few months, and when they slammed on the brakes a semi rear ended them all the way to the finish line. End of story. I think they will learn from this if they can mentally get over it. That is the big question for me. If not they may be forever haunted by the season that got away.
Changes that need to be made: Point guard. Need one. Devin and JT are amazing players. However together they make a good point guard. Individually they void each other out at times. Either Avery needs Devin to step it up and lead this team, or JET must go for something else. And I love the JET. I have more JET jerseys then all the other Mavs. But this is a big problem two years in a row.
Second: We need a low post up player. Dirk is great and MVPish you could say. But when his spin move is taken away we have nothing in the paint. Stack is too old to rise up and do that on a constant basis. We need a good low post scorer. I think that Austin C. was supposed to provide that. He just didn't play enough to get into that flow he needs.
This was a great season to be proud of. It ended horribly, but I suspect the Mavs will return some day if not sooner. On a side note, after the Msvs were eliminated we went to Planet H-town to see the Rockets play the Jazz in game 7. All I can say is I was so impressed with the Rockets game presentation and crowd. I can only hope that one day the Dallas crowd can get to that level. It gave me goosebumps to see all that. The Rockets failed on that night as well, and coach Van Gundy has also turned in his badge. Here is to better days ahead for the Rockets and Mavs. As much as i hate to hear shit from Spurs fans, I hope they can bring the title back to Texas.
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