Dallas Mavericks Spend the Day in West, Texas
A sign in front of St. Mary’s School in West, Texas, reads “Find God, Find Peace.” While the former is something that can’t be found on the basketball court, the latter certainly is — at least for one day.
That was what Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson hoped when he and other Mavericks and Texas Legends employees traveled by bus to West on Saturday to put on a basketball and dance camp for kids of all ages in the community. Later in the day, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle and Legends assistant general manager Nancy Lieberman coached an exhibition game between West policemen and firefighters.
Leading Off (3/29/13)
The Future of Dallas: Like Mumbai or Portland? Speaking to an audience of prominent developers yesterday at the Dallas County Club, that’s how the former CEO of the Trammell Crow Co., J. McDonald Williams, characterized the alternative paths facing the city in how it confronts the growing gap in economic equality and opportunity between the northern and southern sectors of Dallas.
“We spend money on the Arts District,” he said. “We spend money on … the Calatrava bridges. We spend money on a two-city-block downtown park.
“Those are all good things, but the truth is, we live in a world of limited resources. We are going to have to have a public conversation about how resources get prioritized.”
The city’s elite ignore the changes taking place at their peril, he said.
“You can’t isolate yourself out here in Highland Park for very long,” Williams said
Sounds like there’s at least one rich guy that Jim Schutze wouldn’t call a clown
Dallas Mavericks Still Can’t Shave. As mentioned yesterday, there was a barber standing by at the American Airlines Center last night, in the hopes that a Mavs victory would bring the team’s win-loss record to an even 36-36, enabling Dirk and Co. to remove the glorious beards they’d sworn to grow until they got back to .500. But instead the Indiana Pacers blew them out, 103-78. Now they’ve got to beat the Chicago Bulls (who just ended the Miami Heat’s 27-game win streak) and then the Lakers (the team they’re chasing for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference) at the Staples Center. Should they even bother packing their razors for the road trip?
Texas Rangers Concessionaires Are Trying to Kill You. That is the only rational conclusion to be drawn from the Ballpark at Arlington’s unveiling of the new “Beltre Buster” burger (named for third baseman Adrian Beltre) that’ll be on offer in the upcoming season. It’s a pound of beef with 8 ounces of bacon. “Although nutrition information wasn’t provided by the team, one dietitian estimated that one Beltre Buster burger contained roughly 2,800 calories, 185 grams of fat and 6,000 milligrams of sodium. That’s more calories than a healthy adult male should eat in an entire day, plus more than double the fat and nearly triple the recommended sodium intake.”
The Mavericks Are Coming Back From the Dead
…they just work, and work, and work. They’ve understood the long odds against them over the last six weeks, but this is a veteran group that views basketball as a job over which they can gain the smallest bit more mastery every single day. The results across three or four different cities might not go their way every night, but the Mavs will grind away at their own basketball process.
They’re 10-4 in their last 14 games, now sitting just one game behind the Lakers in the loss column heading into a three-game stretch that will determine whether the bearded Mavs can work their way into an improbable playoff berth. Dallas hosts Indiana and Chicago, two tough Eastern Conference defenses, before heading to Los Angeles next Tuesday for a crucial game against the Lakers — a chance to even the season series and put the tiebreaker back in play. “We are trying to be the greatest comeback story since Lazarus,” Carlisle joked during a phone interview this week with Grantland.
This piece goes into a bunch of detail about lineups, dress codes, points per possession, and defensive lapses, but settles on one point: the Mavs never stop working. Gametime against the Pacers is 7:30, at the AAC. Bring your clippers.
Lamar Odom Doesn’t Feel Guilty At All About His Time With the Mavericks
The dream. The reality was much different. Photo: D210 television, via Flickr
Lamar Odom returned to Dallas last night for the first time since his unremarkable, nay, crapmessy season with the Mavericks. ESPN Dallas caught up with Odom to ask him about his time in Dallas. Quick reminder: came to the team out of shape, shot 35 percent for the season, sweated heavily despite little effort, left the team before the playoffs. Let’s continue:
“Guilty? No, no, no,” Odom said when asked if he felt guilt about the way his season in Dallas unfolded. “It happens.
“I was telling one of my friends, right, that you got some people, they meet and they can be married for 40 years and after 40 years they get a divorce. They could have been high school sweethearts. Then you got people that meet one night, have a glass of wine with each other and they talk and then they’re married for 100 years.
“This is a relationship-built business. Sometimes people just see things differently.”
But those people, seemingly, still have 40 years together, right? There are some good times: the birthdays, the vacations, hopefully the sex. With Odom, it was like getting married one night, then sleeping for eight months as the dishes pile up before you finally leave without telling your spouse. I think it’s a Cameron Diaz movie.
Deadspin’s Tribute to Dirk Nowitzki’s Beard
Last night’s game was fun to watch. This highlight reel doesn’t even have the best play, a fast-break, no-look behind-the-back assist from Mike James to Dirk. (I confess that I went to bed at the end of regulation — so old). You know what’s also fun to watch? This.
Note from Brad: After last night’s win against the Clippers, the whole 35-36 team is only one game away from shaving. (That that one game comes against the 44-27 Pacers is insignificant. Completely not even worth noting. Also not worth noting: the game after that is against the Bulls. Really, really not worth noting: the game after that is against the Lakers. And why am I even mentioning this next whisper of a fact: the game after that is against the second-hottest team in the NBA, the Nuggets. I guess what I’m saying is beat the Pacers.)
Former Maverick Adrian Dantley Is Now a Crossing Guard in Suburban Washington
The greatest 6-foot-5 post player in the history of the NBA now pulls morning and afternoon shifts at a busy intersection outside Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, Md. The job, which he took at the beginning of this school year, earns him $14,685.50 a year, according to Montgomery County civil service records.
“He doesn’t need the money,” a Dantley associate tells me. The guard-forward was legendarily cheap during his long and fruitful NBA career, and he still lives nearby in a home he purchased in 1990 for $1.1 million, one that a former agent said “was virtually free and clear” of debt back in 1996.
“He’s not going to just sit around,” the associate continues, “and he just doesn’t want to pay health insurance.” Turns out that NBA veterans aren’t provided health insurance by the league, not even all-timers like Dantley. Crossing guards in Montgomery County, however, are.
Ahh health insurance, the eternal equalizer.
Delonte West to Suit Up For Texas Legends
Word is Delonte West scheduled to be in uniform Saturday night when @texaslegends host Golden State’s @dleaguewarriors in @nbadleague play
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) March 15, 2013
We’ve probably never dedicated more internet ink to a player who only spent one season in Dallas, but it doesn’t matter. Man’s an enigma, wrapped in a white tuxedo.
Dallas Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle Tells Reporters to ‘Go F— Yourselves’
From this morning’s media scrum:
Carlisle: “I’m tired of hearing about 19 starting lineups being a lot. I had 31 one year, so you guys can all go f— yourselves.”
— Ross Witte (@RJWitt1041) March 8, 2013
RT @eks_mavsnba: Carlisle: “…and I mean that in the most endearing way.”
— Ross Witte (@RJWitt1041) March 8, 2013
How else could it be described but endearing?
Cuban: ‘Owning a Team Is Unlike Owning Any Other Business’
Professional sports teams exist to make money. Secondarily, they exist to give a community something to rally around, something to cherish. Mark Cuban understands that probably better than most owners, and that’s why he’s always getting fined and yelled at and has Shark Tank. This morning, Cuban shared the more emotional side of being an owner by releasing some of the emails he’s received over the past few weeks. Dry eyes, be gone:
A friend of mine gave me your email. I have a friend who has a 15 year old boy with an inoperable brain tumor. He left MD Anderson today after the doctors telling him there was nothing else they could do for him. We are from OK and they are on their way home tonight. They are attending the game tonight. I called the head office and was able to get him in the “high five line”! He’s making his bucket list on the drive home and the first item on the list is meeting ****** Is there anyway you could make this kid have a great evening after this horrible day? He’s a great kid with a very positive attitude and has just been handed his death sentence. Thank you so much for your time in reading this!!
Read the rest of them here.
Here’s The Mavericks Shake. Let’s Dance.
The whole thing just reads like a failed (successful?) Tim and Eric sketch, which means it’s pretty brilliant. Like the YouTube descriptions says: “Don’t ask why. Just be.”
Allen Iverson Says Thanks, But No Thanks; Breaks All of Our Hearts
I thank Donnie and Dallas for the consideration and while I think the D-League is a great opportunity, it is not the route for me.
— Allen Iverson (@alleniverson) January 29, 2013
I realize my actions contributed to my early departure from the NBA, should God provide me another opportunity I will give it my all
— Allen Iverson (@alleniverson) January 29, 2013
Mosley, Crain, and I had some very interesting fan fiction plans for Iverson's life in Frisco, so this is obviously disheartening.
Texas Legends Trying to Lure Allen Iverson
From ESPN’s Marc Stein:
Iverson has likewise resisted the Legends’ overtures so far this season — as well as a similar offer last season — but sources say that the Legends are trying again now because they’ve moved back to the top of the list in the D-League’s waiver line, meaning they’d have an unobstructed path to signing Iverson if he could be convinced to put his name in the D-League’s player pool.
The Legends’ pitch to Iverson centers around the fact they’ve just convinced NBA veterans Delonte West and Rashad McCants to join their team with similar intentions, after the Legends signed another 37-year-old earlier this month — point guard Mike James – and wound up putting James in position to earn a 10-day callup to the Mavericks that turned into a guaranteed contract after James completed his second 10-day deal Sunday.
Just imagine Delonte and Iverson playing on the same team. Quick list of things that would be better than that: ______. Nothing. Nothing would be better than that. This random Twitter user channels similar excitement:
OH MY GOD IF ALLEN IVERSON COMES BACK IM GOING TO KILL SOMETHING OUT OF SHEER EXCITEMENT
— perrin moore (@perrinmoore96) January 28, 2013
Here’s a Song Dedicated to Luring Dwight Howard
It’s…not very convincing. But maybe this is the kind of thing that Howard’s looking for. It also includes the line “Dirk can be your sidekick, you can be our Superman,” which, come on. Dirk’s no one’s sidekick.
Delonte West May Return to the Mavericks
Rumors swirling on this one, but we were actually able to talk to Delonte. He sent us his thoughts in animated form, in classic Delonte fashion:
Mavs’ All-Star Streak Comes to an End Tonight
For the first time since 1998, the Dallas Mavericks will not have an NBA All-Star. It’s the third-longest active streak – behind the Lakers and Spurs – one started in 2000 with Michael Finley and anchored by Dirk Nowitzki since 2002. With Nowitzki’s 27-game absence, no Mav is expected to make the team.
In honor of Finley, watch the above video, likely one of the most-watched videos of all-time for a missed dunk.
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