Saturday, May 05, 2007

Guess Who Else Is On Vacation


How do you lose Game 7 at home? That's what the Houston Rockets did tonight. Therefore, one side of the Western Conference playoffs is between the Utah Jazz and the Golden State Warriors. Bizarre.

As a Dallas Mavericks fan, I can say: At least Houston had a Game 7.

Looking forward to that series between San Antonio and Phoenix...

Turn Back the Clock



From the archives of CBS, ESPN Classic, and YouTube...

This is the intro to Game 7 of the 1975 Western Conference Finals, between the Chicago Bulls and the Golden State Warriors. This is a long time before hip-hop and the NBA became intertwined with each other. Heck, this is even slightly before disco. Some things to notice:

1) The cheesy opening intro music, complete with lyrics and 70's-style silhouette animation. "You'll see the best in basketball, when you watch the NBA..when you watch the NBA on CBS.."
2) A young Brent Musburger, when he was becoming the voice of EVERYTHING for CBS. He was better then, before his ego got in the way. He's now been with ABC/ESPN longer than he was with CBS, but ESPN has cheapened him by placing him on those spare Tuesday night Big Ten games, among other things. He is, however, filling the shoes of the once-great Keith Jackson on college football, and is the subject of a drinking game.
3) The Bulls in the Western Conference? Yes, they were. The Bulls and Milwaukee were in the Western Conference until 1980, when the Dallas Mavericks came into the league. When the Mavs came into the NBA, Houston and San Antonio moved to the West with them, and the Bulls and Bucks went east.

This video clip is really good stuff. By the way, the Warriors went on to win this game, then won the championship in the next round by sweeping the Washington Bullets, four games to none.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Knee-Jerk


The Mavs are down 12 with 6:39 to go in the 3rd quarter. It doesn't look good.

When in the world are the Warriors going to stop hitting 3's? Everything they throw up goes in the hoop.

Ouch!

4th quarter update: Mavs still down 23. I'm going to bed.

Where's Dirk? He's sure not in Oakland tonight.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

League Of Nations


Recent years have brought us the description of fan bases as (Your Team Here) Nation. These are not nations in the sovereign sense, but definitely every bit as tribal as any ethnic group. Many fans identify with teams deeply, just as they would with a country or ethnic group.

I do not know the origin of (Your Team Here) Nation. I first heard it in 1995, when new football coach Howard Schnellenberger referred to Oklahoma fans as the Sooner Nation. That was the only thing I liked about Howard's reign in Norman. Now, it seems there are more (Your Team Here) Nations than there are Native American tribes. Kentucky has the Big Blue Nation. Texas has Burnt Orange Nation. Virginia Tech has the Hokie Nation. Boston has Red Sox Nation. Florida uses Gator Nation as a marketing tool for its entire university, calling itself The Foundation for the Gator Nation, marketing itself to Florida residents and fans that never went to school there.

I think all of this is pretty funny. It reminds me of a guy I saw on a Kentucky message board, who is currently serving our country in Iraq. He used as a signature on his posts: "Fighting in Iraq for the Big Blue Nation. And, the United States, too".

As long as another civil war doesn't break out, it's pretty cool.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Stayin' Alive


Up 21 in the first half. Down 9 with less than 3 minutes to play. I can't handle the suspense any longer. Great 15-0 run by the Mavs to close it out. (or was it a meltdown by Golden State-those 3's aren't going to fall forever)

Back to California for Game 6..

Monday, April 30, 2007

Ugly Uniform of the Day


I caught these threads while watching this past weekend's coverage of the NFL Draft.

The University of Pittsburgh wore these all-gold threads last year in their season finale vs. Louisville. They played like puke, losing to the conference champion Cardinals, 48-24. Worse than that, they looked like puke in these uniforms. This combination just doesn't work. Yuck.

At least they didn't wear an all-gold version of the shade of gold they wore in the 70's and 80's. (Pictured is an autographed replica of Tony Dorsett's helmet) That would have looked like butterscotch candy.

Train Wreck


There is a train wreck of Biblical proportions occurring in the NBA playoffs.

The Dallas Mavericks, winners of 67 games in the regular season, are down 3 games to 1 in their first round playoff series with the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors. Over the weekend, the Mavs lost two winnable games near the City by the Bay. I cannot describe how upset I am with them.

The Mavericks are on track to totally blow two entire seasons. Last season, they won the first two games in the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, then blew a lead late in Game 3, as they lost the last four games of the series and the title to the Heat. While that was embarrassing and disheartening, the little Mavs bounced back to post the third best regular season record in the history of the league. At this point, though, that doesn't matter. They're getting their butts kicked by ex-coach Don Nelson and the Golden State Warriors. The window for a championship is closing, faster than the Road Runner can say, "Beep, Beep".

This series is not over. This team is capable of winning three games in a row, in spite of the matchup problems. After all, this team had a 17-game winning streak and two 12-game winning streaks.

But, it is so easy to knee-jerk over this thing, and that's what I'm doing here. If the Mavs blow this golden opportunity, where do they go from here? Does Mark Cuban fire Avery Johnson after winning 67 games? Do the Mavs trade Dirk Nowitzki after a possible MVP season? Heck, does Cuban get sick of it all, and cash out and sell the team?

This is bad. Really bad.