Just Another Week In The Association

There is a lot of action in the NBA, both on and off the court.

First, let’s get the latest Larry Brown gig out of the way. The vagabond coach landed yesterday in Charlotte as coach of the Bobcats. The Bobcats will become the ninth NBA team that he has coached. He has also coached Denver, San Antonio, the L.A. Clippers, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Indiana, and Detroit. In addition, Brown has coached in college at UCLA and Kansas, and coached the Carolina Cougars of the ABA. The picture shows Brown in the good old days as coach of the then-ABA Nuggets. Why not Charlotte, and why not Larry Brown? More power to them.

Surprisingly, most of the playoff intrigue is in the Eastern Conference. The lower-seeded teams such as Philadelphia and Atlanta are giving Detroit and Boston all they want. Will there be an upset? I doubt it. They’re making it interesting, though.

That thud you hear are teams in the Western Conference. What was supposed to be a set of classic playoff series have turned into wreckage. The Lakers swept 8th place Denver. The Spurs beat Phoenix, and the Hornets beat the Mavericks by identical 4-1 counts. Only the Houston Rockets spared themselves embarrassment by staving off elimination and forcing a Game 6 against the Jazz on Friday night in Utah.


The first casualty of the playoff disaster was Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson. Owner Mark Cuban made Avery the scapegoat for all that has gone wrong with the Mavs over the last two years. One truth of the NBA is that players tune coaches out after about three years or so, no matter who the coach is. Avery will land on his feet somewhere in the league. As for the Mavs, they are now just Dirk Nowitzki and a bunch of guys. This is not a championship team by any stretch of the imagination. Plus, it was a bonehead move to send two future draft picks to New Jersey as part of the Jason Kidd trade. Perhaps Cuban should cash out and sell the team. It’s going to be a painful rebuilding process in Dallas.

The One J

Mark Cuban was bound and determined to pull this deal off, and he finally did it. Jason Kidd is making his debut in a Mavericks uniform tonight, after the Mavericks gave up five players, two first round draft picks, 3 million dollars, a bag of basketballs, and dinner at Bob's Steak and Chop House in Dallas in exchange for Kidd and two others. Kidd returns to Dallas, where he began his career 15 years ago. In his first go-round, he was known as one of the "Three J's", along with Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn. Kidd is the only one of the Three J's still in the league.

What is Cuban doing here? Kidd is still an All-Star point guard, at least in the Eastern Conference, but is on the back side of his career at age 35. Cuban is trying to keep up with Western Conference teams that have made recent big deals such as Phoenix (Shaq) and the Lakers (Pao Gasol). The Mavs find themselves struggling to keep up with the Spurs and the George Shinn Hornets, not to mention the Suns and the Lakers. Let's don't forget: the Mavs lost in the first round of last year's playoffs to Nellie and the Warriors.

Mark Cuban will never live down his decision to not sign Steve Nash to a long-term contract, allowing Nash to go to Phoenix to win multiple MVP awards. At the same time, the Mavs had a short window of opportunity to win a championship that is quickly going away. Their golden opportunity came two years ago. It may never return.

At least Jason Kidd comes to a better team than he played on in his first tour in Dallas. How much better remains to be seen.

Rumor of the Day

There is a rumor out there that Shaquille O'Neal will be traded to the Mavericks.

Shaq to Dallas?

This would be cool. Shaq doesn't feel like busting it for an 82-game regular season. The Mavs don't need him for that. However, they can sure use Shaq, even if it's 36-year old Shaq in the twilight of his career, in the playoffs.

If nothing else, it would make for good radio, as Shaq would be united with his friend Corby from The Ticket.

Turn Back The Clock: Moody Madness Edition

The Dallas Mavericks' season may be over prematurely, but the Mavs live on, thanks to YouTube.

The Mavs made their first playoff appearance in 1984, against the Seattle Supersonics. The teams were tied at 2-2 in a best-of-5 series, when the series moved back to Dallas. Reunion Arena was booked, as the Mavs were not expected to still be playing. So, the series shifted to Moody Coliseum at SMU. Moody is an old, underrated pit of an arena where the fans are on top of the action. 10,000 fans packed into the old barn to watch the Mavs defeat the Sonics, 105-104 in overtime. This was their first win in a playoff series.

This is a CBS recap of the series, highlighted by a review of the deciding Game 5.

Knee-Jerk

The Mavs are down 12 with 6:39 to go in the 3rd quarter. It doesn't look good.

When in the world are the Warriors going to stop hitting 3's? Everything they throw up goes in the hoop.

Ouch!

4th quarter update: Mavs still down 23. I'm going to bed.

Where's Dirk? He's sure not in Oakland tonight.

Stayin' Alive

Up 21 in the first half. Down 9 with less than 3 minutes to play. I can't handle the suspense any longer. Great 15-0 run by the Mavs to close it out. (or was it a meltdown by Golden State-those 3's aren't going to fall forever)

Back to California for Game 6..

Train Wreck

There is a train wreck of Biblical proportions occurring in the NBA playoffs.

The Dallas Mavericks, winners of 67 games in the regular season, are down 3 games to 1 in their first round playoff series with the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors. Over the weekend, the Mavs lost two winnable games near the City by the Bay. I cannot describe how upset I am with them.

The Mavericks are on track to totally blow two entire seasons. Last season, they won the first two games in the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, then blew a lead late in Game 3, as they lost the last four games of the series and the title to the Heat. While that was embarrassing and disheartening, the little Mavs bounced back to post the third best regular season record in the history of the league. At this point, though, that doesn't matter. They're getting their butts kicked by ex-coach Don Nelson and the Golden State Warriors. The window for a championship is closing, faster than the Road Runner can say, "Beep, Beep".

This series is not over. This team is capable of winning three games in a row, in spite of the matchup problems. After all, this team had a 17-game winning streak and two 12-game winning streaks.

But, it is so easy to knee-jerk over this thing, and that's what I'm doing here. If the Mavs blow this golden opportunity, where do they go from here? Does Mark Cuban fire Avery Johnson after winning 67 games? Do the Mavs trade Dirk Nowitzki after a possible MVP season? Heck, does Cuban get sick of it all, and cash out and sell the team?

This is bad. Really bad.