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No, I think the word is out on Dallas that it's not some cornpone backwater.
Caron Butler and Stephenson
No, I think the word is out on Dallas that it's not some cornpone backwater.
You never know the way people talk about Dallas on this site like it's a right wing city.
So right-wing that it went for Obama and Kerry in the last two presidential elections. North Dallas is right-wing, conservative christian suckitude, but no black NBA player would ever go as far north as Plano.
IMO there are 2 kinds of players -
1. Those who primarily want to win and
2. Those who want to make a lot of money without having any compe ive objectives (yes, this latter category does exist thanks to the player-friendly CBA).
For category 1, Dallas represents a nice city with a good owner etc, but they know that the Dallas FO is mediocre, although they have deep pockets. They know that while expectations will always be high, the team hasn't been constructed well enough (except 2006), and will likely struggle to build a winner in the future. Look at the Mavs' moves since reaching the Finals (the next part of this post is actually copied from a Mav fan poster on another site):
06-07
sign Devean George
sign Greg Buckner
sign Pops-Mensa Bonsu (D-League)
draft Mo Ager (D-League)
Result: 1st round exit to GSW
07-08
re-sign Devean George
sign Eddie Jones
re-sign Stackhouse (3yrs @ > MLE)
draft Fazekas (D-League, waived)
Result: 1st round exit to NOH
08-09
trade Devin Harris, 2 first rounders, $3MM for Jason Kidd, Antoine Wright
sign Diop @ MLE for 5 years
Fire Avery
Hire Carlisle
Result: 2nd round exit to DEN
09-10
trade Devean George and Wright for Marion + filler
trade Howard, Gooden, Singleton, Ross for Butler, Haywood Stevenson
trade Stackhouse for Buckner
trade some trash for Najera
Result: 1st round exit to SAS
Activity <> Achievement. Players probably sense that Cuban and Donnie enjoy shaking things up but it doesn't normally work. Also, they may be traded out if they fail to win a le, even if they had played their role well enough (e.g. Devin Harris. The Mavs actually draft well, but apart from that they have underachieved as a front office.
For category 2 players (the likes of Corey Maggette, Jerome James, Al Harrington et al), losing has never been a problem. They are very happy taking money from the Clippers or the Knicks knowing that the team is not going to contend anyway. They probably prefer earning their guaranteed money without having any kind of pressure to contend. IMO they would prefer to sign with the Sixers or Wizards and coast through a losing season.
Where's Preston Hollow? Isn't that in Highland Park somewhere?
You didn't catch the sarcasm in that post
No, I got it. I guess I was just stating the obvious.You didn't catch the sarcasm in that post
Tollway and Walnut Hill, just north of Northwest Highway and Love Field.
Why are there 26 guests viewing this thread? Is it linked somewhere else?
Ex-Mav Popeye Jones does. I see him out carousing the bountiful Plano nightlife all the time. And supposedly Terry lives in Frisco.
Doesn't George Bush live there? Or is that a rumor?
I don't know enough about Dallas's political leanings, but it doesn't bode well for the citys liberal image when you name a major highway the President George Bush Tollway, and then refuse to rename Industrial Blvd. "Ceaser Chavez"
Well they are older guys who have put down roots here. If I had Terry's money I would live in Kessler Park, not mothereffing Frisco.
Dallas city proper is liberal. The surrounding DFW area leans a bit to the conservative side.
Fair enough, I thought you were saying more of the metroplex was liberal
The mavs problems with attracting free agents are about the franchise and the guy who owns it, not the city.
1. There's no tradition of winning there. A decade's worth of 50+ win seasons are all overshadowed by embarrassing playoff disappointments.
2. The mavs are constantly shaking up the roster with trades. I'm sure some free agents are leery about making long term commitments to a team that is constantly turning over it's roster. Guys have to be wondering whether a 5 year commitment to the mavs means they'll be stuck spending 3 or 4 of those years playing somewhere else.
3. The maverick alumni club, guys like Nash/Finley/Nellie/Avery, sure aren't going out of their way to say a bunch of nice things about their tenures working for Mark Cuban. One has to wonder if Cuban is one of those guys who is easy to get along with when he likes you, but will stab you in the back once he thinks he doesn't need you any more.
I am sadly forced to agree with a lot of this. As much as Cuban is a part of the solution with his deep pockets and his passion and commitment to winning, he is also a part of the problem with his way of doing things. I'd love for him to hire Pritchard and then sit back and count his money.
Not sure, tbh. I've grown to love the D/FW. There's plenty of things to do and surrounding cities to do them in not far at all from downtown. There's plenty of ritzy areas to flaunt obscene wealth and, maybe it's simply due to the fact that I live in Denton, but the area has never struck me as off-puttingly conservative. To the contrary, actually...
...not to say that liberalism is necessarily off-putting either, TWU and UNT notwithstanding, of course.
Outside of a few teams, everyone has the same problem drawing marquee players Dallas does. Truth be told, luck is more important than any other part of winning a championship. There's no proven method that leads to getting players who can be the alpha dog of a contending team. Nothing about the city of Boston was why they got KG for pennies on the dollar. Nothing about the city of Phoenix was why they got Barkley for pennies on the dollar or why they didn't get the 1st overall pick in 1969. Nothing about the city of San Antonio is why they got the 1st overall pick in 1997. Being the only team with enough cap room and being the team with the most loyal player was way more important to getting Bosh and Lebron than the city of Miami itself. Unless you're the Lakers and you have a knack for drawing franchise players, you have only so much control over who your team can get.
Hey don't dog out Frisco. That's my turf.
The truth!
As an organization, only the Clippers surpass Dallas in magnitude of the stench of failure surrounding the franchise. Even just as a fan, the words 'Dallas Mavericks' have become synonymous with failure and choking. So I can only imagine the way the players view it. That, and the pouty, rambunctious, and almost flamboyant nature of Mark Cuban. The Mavs are a spectacle....and not in a good way. Every time we enter a season the question is not "Will the Mavs get over the hump?", its "How will the Mavs embarrass themselves this year?".
Nothing against the Mavs, personally. I honestly have nothing against them at all.
Thats my honest opinion why Dallas is never a free agent hotbed. The city is probably great, I dont know i've never been there, but it seems like it would be a good city. They've got the Cowboys there, there are no shortages of attractive women from what I hear, the weather is great, etc.
Its the stench of failure and the tradition of the team and its owner losing in the most remarkable ways possible that keeps players away.
Okay, now we have the dumb opinion...or the spot- ing-on opinion if it were still 1998.
I lived in Portland for almost a year and I can say it's one of the prettiest cities in the US. I loved it there. Sure, it rains quite a bit, but you have the Pacific beaches for the summer and skiing in the winter. There's a lot of green there, plenty of parks, etc. Nightlife was good enough.
Yeah, but for your typical NBA player, it's a lily-white town that rains nonstop in the winter. They don't care about that other stuff.
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