On his favorite former teammate:

I think still to this day, I love Steve and Mike, but one of my favorite teammates is Nick Van Exel. Man, he was great. You hear a lot of stories, about how he pushed a ref and head-butted a ref, how he’s a little selfish and stuff. He came here — first of all, he had to give up the last year of his contract, which was like $13 mil or whatever. Who does that, first of all? He was around here, in a great mood always. He had leadership on the court. He would make tough shots for us.

On why he stopped playing saxophone:

What happened was, I started playing the sax, and I even had lessons. Then I got my teeth knocked out. I had those front two, those rabbit teeth that were, like, this long. [Points to his lower lip.] The first, first time I got them knocked out was in Germany. Then over here, it was in the playoffs against San Antonio. I couldn’t really put the plate here anymore and play. I had to be careful. I had, like, a brace from the back on it—I was like, “Screw it. That’s not going to work.” So I started playing guitar. My brother-in-law is actually a good guitar player. He’s got a Rolling Stones cover band in Germany. He showed me some tracks, and that’s how I got into it.

On his first participation in the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program this summer:

It was great. I’ve never really been to Africa. I’ve been to Tunisia, North Africa, on the beach — but that’s not really the real Africa. When I found out I definitely wasn’t going to play at the Euros — because the NBA has asked me for years, and I always was busy in the summer, playing. So I asked them if they still had a spot and they said yes. We were in Johannesburg for a little over five days. Usually what we did, we went to the camp in the morning, taught the kids some stuff, hung out with the kids. In the afternoon, we did community service stuff. Saw some great stuff. Built a house, actually, in one of the poorer areas. Played with the kids one day. Saw some eye-opening stuff, so I’ll definitely want to go back and help out when I get a chance. Definitely an experience. Did a safari afterwards, for a week — that was great. I think when you live in a modern world, you get away from nature a little bit. All you do is sit at house and watch TV or whatever. There, you kind of sleep in a tent outside, and at 3 in the morning, you get woken up, like, “What is going on?” An elephant just walks by, grazes the tree your tent’s in, wakes you up. It was amazing. Saw every animal there is in the book. Had a blast. Then I went home real quick to Germany for a couple of days.

“I work for Tom, I wanted Tom to be successful at this, but, frankly, we can’t sell Tom,” said one. “Our fans, for the most part, will not buy Tom. And our former season-ticket holders, and we’d lost a lot of those because of Mr. Hicks, will not come back if Tom is still the owner.”

Really? That’s the problem in selling tickets? The owner?

The meeting wasn’t open to the public, and even members of the media were shut out of the first bit. What we were allowed to hear were updates on the Slant 45 program, and transportation, aviation, and public safety plans.

For example, we were told that on the day of the Super Bowl there will be a no-fly zone within a 10-mile radius of the stadium. And only restricted flying will be allowed within 30 miles. The southern end of D/FW Airport is less than 10 miles away, and Love Field is about 15. So every plane traveling between 4 p.m. and midnight will be affected. Maybe don’t book a flight for Feb. 6, 2011.

Jump for more.

• During the week leading up to the last Super Bowl, in Tampa, upwards of 1,200 corporate aircraft flew in for the game. That region’s entire fleet of 15,000 rental cars was booked.
• The Taste of the NFL event, at the Fort Worth Convention Center the night before the game, will feature treats whipped up by chefs from each of the cities with NFL teams. The Cowboys decide who represents North Texas. Bill Lively, CEO of the Host Committee, mentioned Dean Fearing as a possibility. But both Fearing and Stephan Pyles sit on the Host Committee. Who gets the nod?
• Cowboys Stadium is a great place to have a meeting. It sure beats sitting inside some drab hotel conference room, as evidenced by the photo below of Lively at the podium. (Bonus points if you can name the famous face belonging to that bald spot in the first row.)

The YET centers house afterschool programs including tutoring, mentoring, and recreational activities. The NFL pledges $1 million for the YET, with the rest needing to be matched by local donations. I’m sure the Host Committee can help you out if you’re interested in contributing to the project.

I don’t really know Chris. I’ve met him once or twice. Seems like a nice guy. People who know him much better than I do confirm this. But at Mavs games, he is my kryptonite. I know from reading Glenn Arbery’s piece from a couple of years ago that game presentation is a complicated affair. But I think a little common sense is in order. Because here is what happens every game. The Mavericks go on a run. The fans go crazy. The opposing team — in last night’s case, the Houston Rockets — calls a timeout, specifically to calm themselves down and hopefully cool off the crowd, too. And then, without fail, Chris Arnold comes out and accomplishes that for them, by quieting everything down so a couple of fans can play some ridiculous game no one ever understands or really cares about. Momentum gone.

Look, there will come a time when it makes sense to trot out Chris. Maybe the Mavs have a big lead. Maybe the other team needs some cooling off. It’s not rocket science. You have to veer off the script on occasion. I don’t know why I have to keep bringing this up.

Lively gave us a figure just a few weeks ago: About $500 million.

Granted, the host committee hasn’t yet released any findings of the official economic impact study that it commissioned. So Lively’s number is probably just him doing what he needs to do at this point:  boost expectations. He’s optimistic that North Texas will come in higher than the record take for Arizona in 2008.

Of course some sports economists cast doubt on any estimates in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

That’s short for “FAMiliarization Week.” (Don’t ask why those first three letters are capitalized.) The Super Bowl XLV Host Committee has organized itineraries for these folks to get to know the area, Cowboys Stadium, and a host of other venues available for events in the run-up to the big game in February 2011.

Obviously putting together a Super Bowl is a major challenge. But the NFL’s experiment of changing the timing of the Pro Bowl will throw some additional hurdles into the process. Couple that with North Texas never having hosted before, and Super Bowl XLV will put Supovitz and his staff to an unusual test.

In 2011, the Pro Bowl will be played the week before the Super Bowl (a break from tradition, as it’s usually the week after) in Hawaii. The NFL has to manage the set up and execution of two major events, thousands of miles apart and with a big time zone difference.

The Super Bowl in South Florida next February will give them a bit of a practice run on pulling off the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl. But it doesn’t seem nearly the challenge of 2011, since that next Pro Bowl will be played in the same stadium as Super Bowl XLIV a week later.

Anyway, the Morning News had a good blog post about this already. I’m really linking to it to point out how quickly the comments on the DMN Crime Blog item degenerated into racial epithets.

I’ve had games where I’m stiff in shootaround, can’t make a shot in warm-ups, and all of a sudden, you get to the basket one time. You get fouled. You have an “and-1.” And all of a sudden, every basket you get, the basket seems to get bigger. I had other experiences where I felt like I could jump out of the gym in the mornings, and I miss my first six, seven shots. The game’s weird like that. I’ve had games where I wasn’t feeling well, and for some reason you can’t even get a rebound; somebody seems to tip it, and you end up with zero rebounds. You’re 7-feet — how the hell you not getting one rebound? And then that night, against Phoenix in the playoffs, it just seems like the ball is coming to you. I was getting offensive rebounds. I was getting good looks at shots. I was driving. I was getting to the foul line. It’s just funny how sports works. Sometimes it works in your favor and sometimes it doesn’t.