Yes that’s right, My Dallas Mavericks. 19 years ago I moved to Dallas, and I needed a local team to embrace. No chance this was going to be the Cowboys, I still can’t. The Stars were not here yet. The Rangers were a possibility, but I was a more of a National League fan of the Cubs at the time. As for the American league, well my heart was with the Yankees. I grew up a huge fan. Then there was the Dallas Mavericks, a great team from the ’80s that had fallen on rough times. Since I love basketball, the Dallas Mavericks were going to be mine from that point forward and so they were and still are.
In the early days my good friend, Ron, and I use to go to the games and get cheap tickets. I believe around $5. Of course these were nose bleed seats. However back in those days the Mavs games were not sellouts and we would go sit in the lower sections. During those years we were Mavs fans, but most of the time we were attending the games to watch the talent on the other teams.
Jump ahead to the 2000s, Mark Cuban bought the team and everything was starting to turn around. We started making the playoffs consistently and there was great hope. Then came ’06, we had made the NBA Finals and we had a 2-0 lead on the Heat. Then the rug got pulled out. We lost 4 in a row to the “can I get a foul please” led Dwayne Wade team. I was at game 6 in the AAC, it was just brutal. A good friend of mine’s cousin-in-law went to the game with me. I remember saying to him as we were walking out, “This team will never recover emotionally from this and the only way to fix this is to blow up the team.”
Now the next 4 years went pretty much as I had thought, in ’07 we were a #1 seed that lost to a vastly inferior #8 seed in the first round of the playoffs. The following 3 years were similar outcomes. Good teams, not great, that could beat any team on a given night but lose just as well. In a best of seven playoff scenario this is not the type of team you want. Besides the Lakers were dominating the west, and I wasn’t sure anyone could beat them.
Then comes the 2010-2011 season. Only two players remained from that ’05-’06, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason “Jet” Terry. Arguably the two most important pieces and the two with the most to prove. The regular season goes like the last several. A few long winning streaks. Playing like we are the team to beat only to be effected by injuries, Caron Butler (2nd best player at the time) and Rody Beaubouis (the future?) and end up limping into the playoffs.
In the playoffs we were able to win a tough first series against Portland with some gritty wins. Next up, Lakers. No way right. This is what I thought going in, but we destroyed them. 4 game sweep. I will never forget being in Vegas for the 4th game watching the game surrounded by a bunch of Laker fans. During the second half most of them left and on their way out they kept pointing to their fingers. I know what they meant and you know something, they were right. I just wish I could go back now. Next series would be against the Thunder in the Western Conference Championship. I knew we could beat them if we got into their heads and we did just that. Dirk had an amazing series and one of the best all around games in Game 1 by any player ever.
Thus setting up the rematch from ’05-’06 with the Miami Heat and their Cerberus. This time was different. We had an amazing comeback in Game 2 and won 3 more by dominating 4th quarters. Mavs win the series 4-2. The ghosts of ’05-’06 are gone. Miami can now enjoy figuring out what went wrong. Terry and Nowitzki came up big time after time in the series. They had the most to prove and they did just that! The Mavs win the NBA Championship, Dirk is named MVP, the parade is on, I can now point to my finger but I probably wont, emotional recovery is truly possible when I thought not and Mavs fans can once again sleep peacefully.
To all you Mavs fans out there, Sleep Well & Goodnight!
Brian “MFFL” Clancy