Still haunting them?

[Trainwreck2100]

I thought the Kobe trade was him wanting to play for a big market team

[baseline bum]

No bandwaggoner here. I've been a season-ticket holder since 1985. I never wanted Tractor. I remember the first pre-season game I saw Dirk play, I said to my bro at halftime, "This kid's gonna be real good." You could see it in his shot right away. Sure, he had a LONG way to go, but you can't shoot the ball the way he does and not have a ton of success.

As for Finley, he was a pretty good player on a really bad team. Those are a dime a dozen. When the torch started to be passed to Dirk, he couldn't stand it. Whenever Dirk hit a big shot or had a big game, it's almost as if Finley resented it. Never once do I remember him being happy for Dirk or even high-fiving him (back when they did that).

Call me anti-Mav if you want, but I always thought Finley was WAY overrated. I still have nightmares over that forced fade-away jumper of his. And his lack of dribbling severly negated his one asset, getting to the hole and dunking. And when they maxed him out, I remember thinking that was a HUGE mistake. Now it's obvious I was right. Nash and Dirk are what turned this franchise around.

BS. Finley singlehandedly brought you guys back from down 0-2 to beat Utah in 2001.

[Purple & Gold]

I thought the Kobe trade was him wanting to play for a big market team

I don't think he had that much pull to say where he was going to play. If Charlotte wanted him, there was nothing he could say. It was definitely a pre-draft agreement with Jerry West. He told Charlotte to draft him and he would give them Vlade.

[Bob Lanier]

In 2003 Detroit drafted Darko Milicic and traded him for Kelvin Cato and a non-lottery pick.

[lefty]

Don't forget, the mavs passed up karl malone for detlef schremf.

Sure, Detlef was no MVP, but at least he wasn't a bust like Bowie or Traylor

Detlef :
2 consecutive 6th man of the year with Indiana
All-Star
To sum up, a terrific all-around player who had no luck playing for chocking, underachieving teams (Sonics before they made the Finals, Blazers in 2000)

[jacobdrj]

Wow... people obsessed with the bandwagon... what the is wrong with a bandwagon? Your professional teams have to get their fans SOMETIME... The fact is, if you team looses, makes and makes no attempts to win, you are bad fans for continuing to support your team... ala- Detroit Lions' fans...

[Purple & Gold]

Wow... people obsessed with the bandwagon... what the is wrong with a bandwagon? Your professional teams have to get their fans SOMETIME... The fact is, if you team looses, makes and makes no attempts to win, you are bad fans for continuing to support your team... ala- Detroit Lions' fans...

The bandwagon has spoken.

[Dirkadirkastan]

The main problem I have with the bandwagon is not the people jumping on when things are going well, but jumping off when things aren't. As Jacob said, people have to become fans at some point. But they shouldn't pick and choose a new favorite team every year just because they feel like winning.

[mardigan]

I have to admit, as much as I am a diehard Spur fan, I used to LOVE the Mavs when they had Mashburn, Kidd, and one of my favorite players ever, the great Jimmy Jackson. Back then you couldnt find a Mav fan, but now? Like -a-roaches

[mardigan]

Wow... people obsessed with the bandwagon... what the is wrong with a bandwagon? Your professional teams have to get their fans SOMETIME... The fact is, if you team looses, makes and makes no attempts to win, you are bad fans for continuing to support your team... ala- Detroit Lions' fans...

Bandwagons are for fans that either A)dont know anything about sports so they jump on every good team, B)dont have the balls to stick with their team when they arent doing that great. The whole basis of having a team in your city is to become a fan of that team regardless how bad or good they are doing. Look at Disgruntled Lions fan or ChumpDumper, sticking with the Lions or Hawks, as hard as that might be, shows true love for their teams. No respect for bandwagoners.

[lefty]

I have to admit, as much as I am a diehard Spur fan, I used to LOVE the Mavs when they had Mashburn, Kidd, and one of my favorite players ever, the great Jimmy Jackson. Back then you couldnt find a Mav fan, but now? Like -a-roaches

I remember Kidd's rookie season ; Mash and JJ averaged 26 ppg each ; they both had 50 pts games each ; Mash scored 50 on Pippen ; pretty impressive ; plus, he scored some sick baskets that season

[mardigan]

^^Yeah, I will never understand why they didnt keep that team together

[monosylab1k]

^^Yeah, I will never understand why they didnt keep that team together

That team played well together for about 2 months and finished Kidd's rookie year with a 36-46 record. And that's as good as it got. The very next year JJ and Mash were exposed as not being that great, Kidd still couldn't shoot for , and all three of them had huge ego's and a WAY OVERBLOWN view of their own value. On top of all that, Toni Braxton came into the picture and Yoko Ono'd that team into the ground (lol). That team never would have gotten any better with them. When Don Nelson came into town and shipped them all outta here, he did the right thing. It's just unfortunate that he put all his faith in Shawn Bradley.

[monosylab1k]

The main problem I have with the bandwagon is not the people jumping on when things are going well, but jumping off when things aren't. As Jacob said, people have to become fans at some point. But they shouldn't pick and choose a new favorite team every year just because they feel like winning.

That's exactly it. Everyone in Dallas was Mavs fans in the 80's, switched to Rockets/Lakers/Bulls fans in the 90's, and back to Mavs fans. I love the Mavericks, and I love the crowds that are here now...but I know that as soon as this team falls back and starts to suck, whether it's 5 years or 10 years from now...all these so-called Mavs fans will go back to supporting whoever wins the championship that year.

[mardigan]

That team played well together for about 2 months and finished Kidd's rookie year with a 36-46 record. And that's as good as it got. The very next year JJ and Mash were exposed as not being that great, Kidd still couldn't shoot for , and all three of them had huge ego's and a WAY OVERBLOWN view of their own value. On top of all that, Toni Braxton came into the picture and Yoko Ono'd that team into the ground (lol). That team never would have gotten any better with them. When Don Nelson came into town and shipped them all outta here, he did the right thing. It's just unfortunate that he put all his faith in Shawn Bradley.

Cant say I agree with you on your analysis of Jimmy or Jamal. Jamal was a career 19 points a game, and was injured the entire next year you speak of, the same year that Jimmy averager almost 20 a game, so niether were exposed. I agree that the franchise wasnt getting better, and Kidd and Jackson were always fighting, but the Mavs traded Mash and Kidd in seperate deals that pretty much got them Finley, and thats about it. Jackson, Cassel and Gatling for Bradley? Yeah it eventually worked out, but you cant tell me that trading those players did anything for the franchise.

[clambake]

I enjoyed watching Perkins, Harper, Blackman, Donaldson and even Aguire. I hated watching the self destruction of what could have been greatness of Tarpley. Brad Davis was all heart. "F" Kiki.

[lefty]

I enjoyed watching Perkins, Harper, Blackman, Donaldson and even Aguire. I hated watching the self destruction of what could have been greatness of Tarpley. Brad Davis was all heart. "F" Kiki.

Kids, stay way from drugs

Dallas pushed the mighty Lakers to a 7th game in the 1988 WCF

[mardigan]

I enjoyed watching Perkins, Harper, Blackman, Donaldson and even Aguire. I hated watching the self destruction of what could have been greatness of Tarpley. Brad Davis was all heart. "F" Kiki.

Yea, its funny to think how bad the Mavs have been in the past with some of the players they have had. Got to blame it on managment, except for Tarpley, what a waste of talent

[Findog]

I hate to admit it, but I hated this trade at the time.

95% of HONEST Mavs fans will admit much of the same.

At the time, when Traylor was drafted everyone was thinking "Yes! A big bruiser who can dominate down low!"

And when they traded him for Dirk, everyone was thinking "WTF??!?!?! Some in' German kid??!?!?! YOU Don Nelson!!! YOU UP YOUR ASS!!!"

The rare few who actually followed the Mavs before the massive bandwagon came around will remember this.

Yes. The context for this is that at the time it appeared Nelson had a boner for drafting unproductive foreigners, like Chris Antsey. And they could've taken Paul Pierce instead of trading for Dirk's rights. So there was that angle as well. It took Dirk about three years to render this line of thinking obselete.

[Findog]

I don't see how Mavs fans COULDN'T admit that a gigantic ass bandwagon has developed. There obviously aren't too many who remember 10 years ago when barely 6000 people would show up to Reunion Arena. There aren't too many who remember that the team's advertising campaign used to be "Come Grow With Us"....which basicallly means "come watch a bunch of young players that aren't any good get murdered every night".

The bandwagon Mavs fans showed mild interest the one year when the Three-J's had a halfway decent (actually pretty mediocre) season. They took a peek, saw that the team still sucked, and went right back to rooting for the Lakers.

And, to me, the biggest thing of all.......only a bandwagoner would ever boo Michael Finley. Anybody who's been a fan of the team for any real length of time realizes just how much he did for the Mavs organization back when the Mavs organization couldn't do anything right. The man deserves a standing ovation every time he steps foot in the AAC. It was probably the most embarrassing moment in Mavericks history when he got booed.

Good Lord. Somebody else who has suffered through Mike Iuzzolino, Greg Dreiling, Randy White, Walter Bond and Doug Smith. It's hard having to share this special season with the bandwagoners, you know, the kind of people who post things like "MAVERCICKS R THU SHIZNITT! DIRK RULEZ!!!! THE HEAT!"""" I went to the game last nite, I would say a good 2/3s of the people at the AAC are bandwagoners. Our home crowd sucks -- they don't show up until halfway through the 1st quarter and they started clearing out with 3 minutes left thinking the game was over.

[clambake]

In Pat Riley's book he wrote that he had no answer on how to deal with Tarpley.

What a waste.

[clambake]

Randy White was as special as a root canal. Don't forget whats his name, Farmer?

[mardigan]

Good Lord. Somebody else who has suffered through Mike Iuzzolino, Greg Dreiling, Randy White, Walter Bond and Doug Smith. It's hard having to share this special season with the bandwagoners, you know, the kind of people who post things like "MAVERCICKS R THU SHIZNITT! DIRK RULEZ!!!! THE HEAT!"""" I went to the game last nite, I would say a good 2/3s of the people at the AAC are bandwagoners. Our home crowd sucks -- they don't show up until halfway through the 1st quarter and they started clearing out with 3 minutes left thinking the game was over.

I repect the out of Mav fans that have stuck with them through the years. I used to drive up with my dad to see Spur games in Dallas in the mid 90s, and there werent ever fans there, even prompting my dad to wonder once how they kept that franchise their. I hate the guy, but I have to give it up to Cuban for seeing something in the city and franchise that no one else saw. I am happy for all the true Mav fans that you finally get to see your franchise on top, and I guess we shall see what happens in the playoffs!

[mardigan]

Randy White was as special as a root canal. Don't forget whats his name, Farmer?

Popeye Jones was the best, no athletic ability or muscles, all hustle

[Findog]

In Pat Riley's book he wrote that he had no answer on how to deal with Tarpley.

What a waste.

I think his upside and potential was even higher than Karl Malone's. He would've worked his way into discussion of the best power forwards of all time given the chance.