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Regular Season Champions!!! Boorahhh!!!
The Mavericks keep winning, year after year
By Kelly Dwyer
Ball Don't Lie
If you're a bit younger - or if you're in a bit of debt and decided to fake a runaway Prius crash and boinked your head - you might not remember how bad the Dallas Mavericks used to be.
Truly, embarrassingly, bad. The Mavs were kind of good in the mid-to-late 1980s and that was about it. Otherwise, you had an expansion team that was around for about two decades. Just about every year the team came through with a miserable season.
We're in 2010, however, and the Mavs' prism has twirled a bit. On Wednesday, they won their 50th game of the season, and that's the 10th time in a row they've done that. And that's a streak worth commending.
Especially when you consider what came before it.
In early 2000, when Mark Cuban's purchase of the Mavs became official, this franchise was just about the league's worst non-Clipper laughingstock. If you don't like me qualifying that with a Clipper reference, also understand the context back in those days included a couple of Clipper playoff appearances in the 1990s while the Mavericks stayed home.
And it wasn't just consistently sub-postseason play. The Mavs threatened the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers' record for futility back in 1992-93, finishing with 11 wins. The team watched as Jimmy Jackson sat out most of that season in a contract dispute, though the miserable record allowed the Mavs to draft Jamal Mashburn. A miserable record in Mash's rookie year allowed them to draft Jason Kidd. And a series of player-first, coach-second moves allowed for Quinn Buckner (trying to implement a version of the triangle offense, not bad) and Motta (trying to take advantage of the tiny 22-foot 3-point line ahead of his time) to be shuffled aside because the brats were panicky.
Then Jim Cleamons was hired, right out of Phil Jackson's staff, and he tried a version of the triangle as well. Chortle all you want at attempting to implement a five-man offense with Jason Kidd on the team, but the Mavs also decided to trade Kidd for Michael Finley and Sam Cassell in Cleamons' first year, a move that should have locked-in Dallas' backcourt for a decade. Of course, the biggest reason behind the deal had to do with Kidd and Jim Jackson fighting over Toni Braxton's hand, but let's not get too far into that.
Cleamons got a half season, kind of, and a few weeks with the team before Ross Perot Jr. - the team's newish owner - decided to hire Don Nelson as personnel boss. Because Nellie loves office life. And Nellie gave Cleamons a month and a half with Cassell and Finley before launching a ridiculous nine-player trade, "landing" the Mavs Shawn Bradley, Robert Pack, Ed O'Bannon and Khalid Reeves for Jackson, Cassell, Chris Gatling (an All-Star that year), Eric Montross and George McCloud.
Because Nellie really liked Bradley. And he wanted to coach again.
So Nellie spent the next 10 months jerking the Mavs around, drafting Chris Antsey and declaring him a star in the making, undermining Cleamons at every turn before shrugging his shoulders and firing him in December of 1997. Cleamons' raw deal (man, I wish I had a link for that line. RIP, OnHoops.com) was one of the initial public forays into the world of (prick)ishness that we've come to associate with Don Nelson.
So Nellie built his team around Bradley, and the team was awful. Just terrible. And it was the latest in more lottery-bound Mav-ness. Of course, this time around, Nelson took a huge chance and traded for Dirk Nowitzki with his lottery pick. Then he traded a future pick (that turned into Shawn Marion) for Steve Nash, who had to deal with more trade rumors than anyone else in the league back then, save for Mitch Richmond.
And the Mavs stunk the next year, the lockout year, mainly because Dirk was too young and Nash was hurt too badly. Achilles and back issues. And Nash (hurt, still) wasn't all that great in 1999-00, when the Mavericks missed the playoffs again. The last time they missed the playoffs. With Nash struggling, the new owner (Mark Cuban) actually announced a bit of a training-camp battle for the starting spot between the future two-time MVP and Howard Eisley.
If I can pat myself on the back, I seemed to be the only guy talking up how ridiculous that was, but it's something to remember when people credit Nellie and Cuban for finding Nash in the rubble. Of course, Nash got healthy that year, Eisley was Howard Eisley, the Mavs won 53 games, made it to the second round, Steve ended up on the Letterman show before the season was through, and the streak is still rolling. Dirk's still nailing jumpers.
It's a huge accomplishment, and I don't want to hear anything about championship failure. Basketball is a matchup sport, and the Mavs got bum breaks with matchups in 2006 and 2007. That's how it goes.
But to consider a decade's worth of 50-win teams? Especially coming after a decade that saw the Mavericks - quite literally (and pro-rated, for the lockout season) -- average half as many wins per season?
This is a huge deal. And the two men who were around for it all, Dirk Nowitzki and Mark Cuban, deserve all the credit you can toss their way.
It's still a bit odd, growing up with what I grew up with, to consider the Dallas Mavericks one of the standard-bearers for NBA excellence. But it's a well-earned honor.
Now let's see what we can do about the playoffs, mmmkay?
Regular Season Champions!!! Boorahhh!!!
Yeah the playoffs are a different story. The Mavs know that pretty well.
I have no comment here, too easy..this one is going to be flooded with trolling, be ready..
*insert choking jokes*..
shut the up or die
Maybe. We'll see. Mavs fans know that regular season success can only go so far. Playoffs are treated differently. I'd say the best way to show regular season success through playoffs is all the games on TNT and ESPN. Team really don't want to be embarrassed on those games.
Kill me. I don't care.
Underachiever of the Decade just keeps winning.
How about you just voluntarily kill yourself? You'd be doing the world a favor, you lace curtain irish ing pussy.
lol emo over the mavs playoff suckage
You said it. Not I. The mavs know that winning 60+ games doesn't help you in the playoffs. It really comes down to which players are more respected by the veteran refs though. Unfortunately, we aren't due to our softness reputation.
Sons, dont any of you watch the news?..Stop bullying each other hahahaha
Not every team can be crominant like the 90's Bulls, le. Is there a reason you consider yourself a fan of this fine franchise?
i said it because you asked someone to kill you and said that you don't care
lol losing the will to live over the mavs
Cripple fight!!!!!!
I'm a fan because I like the players. Unfortunately, the veteran refs don't. They are the ones to decide this. In the regular season, you get refs that are young and unbiased. Dallas benefits from this most nights. Also there is less breaks in action and that helps running teams like the mavs. The playoffs slow things down and the refs favor certain superstars and teams. Dallas is not one of those teams.
we all know it's a fight for you to get up out of the wheelchair and walk, le
Certainly different than from your days a Bulls dynasty fan isn't it?
the entire roster has changed since you became a fan except for dirk. so basically you're a dirk groupie and will find another team to bandwagon a year or so after he retires. gotcha
I said it because I would actually like to see you come over so I can put you away if you are for real. I guess you are just annoyed though and not serious. And what is your point to start with? No one dare say a bad thing about the mavs?
Address me as Sir, since I own anything related to the Mavs, and the Mavs themselves
mavsfan1000 the most decent mavfan on here
cool troll brah
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