Mavericks Blogs to Check Out
Fellow SB Nation site Mavs Moneyball.
Tim MacMahon - Check out his posts on Dirk/Pierce and Dirk/Garnett.
It's Sort of connected to the Mavericks
Last summer I put forth the argument that NBA Jam destroyed the 1990s Mavericks and Hornets. My theory was so revolutionary and earth shattering that people ignored it because they couldn't handle the truth. To be a tragic genius... All kidding aside it is still one of my favorite posts on Green Bandwagon. In case you missed it the first time:
Okay that was a complete fabrication. But I really believe that seemingly trivial issues like this matter. If I've taken anything away from books about NBA players, besides the fact that groupies are not a myth, it has to be that they have a strong opinion about who can and can't play in the Association. It is as if every NBA player is on a sliding scale of ability and they are all cognizant of who is below them. So while everyone now realizes that giving Shawn Kemp a mere $300,000 more than Jim McIlvaine is probably a bad idea, it is important to pay attention to perceived slights as well. For example in his book Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns, Jack McCallum touches upon Shawn Marion's frustration stemming from feeling unappreciated in Phoenix. Marion felt, and probably still feels, that Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire received all the attention. After one game he was upset that the Phoenix dance team only wore Nash and Stoudemire jerseys. So it's not out of the realm of possibility that NBA players knew who was in NBA Jam and who wasn't. Keep in mind that it was one of the first games to get NBA approval and use the likeness of its players. NBA Jam was much a bigger deal than any one of the numerous games out there today, particularly when it was unveiled as an arcade game at the 1993 All Star game."
It's funny how since that post Kidd returned to Dallas and Marion happily left Phoenix for a dreadful situation in Miami.
YouTube Fun
This really might deserve it's own post. I thought this type of thing died in the 80s. And check out Cuban at the end. Fantastic!