Does the NBA lockout help or hurt the Dallas Mavericks?

"It'll be OK, lil' buddy"

Short-term, yes. Long-term, no.

Friends, we are in dire straits. We are a mere months away from becoming really huge hockey fans.

As of 11 p.m. Central Standard Time last night, the NBA owners locked out its players. Of course, the NFL is also in a lockout situation. Come October, the only sports we may have are college football, NHL and MLB playoffs.

Locally, the question is where this puts the Dallas Mavericks. I've heard that Mark Cuban is part of a contigent of owners wanting to really hold out and stick it to the players. The general complaint is that owners are losing money (a reported $300 million last season) and its due to player contracts (mostly).

I don't know how Cuban feels. He seems like a "player's owner," someone who has faithfully (sometimes, by fault) stuck by his players and tried to treat them as well as possible.

He's also a businessman, who talks constantly in the cold language of business and making money.

As for the team, this is how I think this lockout could affect them:

Short-Term Effects
This is one of the oldest teams in the league coming off playing 103 NBA games and winning an NBA championship. The reason winning back to back championships is so tough isn't because you're no longer any good. You're tired. And you might not be as hungry. Right now, who's thinking more about the 2011-12 Finals: Kobe Bryant or Dirk Nowitzki? I'm not doubting Nowitzki's desire to win. I'm doubting that as he's hanging with old friends and family in Germany, drinking and partying that he's got all his focus on another championship. Same with all those guys. Some -- Tyson Chander, Joe John Barea, DeShawn Stevenson -- are all thinking about free agency. Others might be thinking about playing overseas and settling their financial status if the lockout goes through.

Let's assume the lockout ends, either in September, October or November and there's an abbreviated season, of sorts. Teams play, say, 52 games. That's 30 less games going on the tires of Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry and Shawn Marion. It's also another several months for Roddy Beaubois to get sufficiently healthy for his return in 2030.

Right now, a shortened season is maybe the most ideal situation for the Dallas Mavericks. It's time to get rested, healthy and, maybe most importantly, focused.

Long-Term Effects
Let's assume some more. Let's say the 2011-12 NBA season does not happen (clutch the motherfucking pearls!). The next NBA tip-off will be in October 2012. Nowitzki will be 34. Jason Kidd, 39. Jason Terry, 35. Shawn Marion 34.

You're not talking about young guys here, and this is a fact we already were aware of. Historically, those are the ages were players begin to drop off. Kidd's an amazing athlete. Still, he is not nearly the player at 38 than he was at 28. Still good, yes. They're not getting younger and, for the most part, they're not getting better. Those four guys have peaked. That "peak" was as high as you can go as a professional basketball player, but it's still a peak and the only way off a mountain is down. Missing another season will not be a good thing and I don't think it plays out well for Cuban's apparent disregard for the "rebuilding process," which is noble, but requires the subtle exchange for quality youth over fading experience.

Also, consider whether an extended lockout affects the status of guys. Kidd, for example, will be almost 40 and he's already hinted that retirement has crept into the back of his mind. What if missing an entire year -- all that time on the couch -- convinces him it's time. How does an extended lockout affect free agents like Chandler or even Caron Butler, if the idea is to bring them back? Lot of idle time for these guys to think.

If you are a Mavericks fan, you hope the lockout lingers a little, but that it comes back at a point where they can play at least a half-season in 2011-12. We might not like the looks of things in 2012.

Gay as a parade

There was an apparent parade this morning in downtown Dallas.

There was not enough money in the world to get me to go to this. I hate people, parades and heat.

Classiness of classy

Someone was already at the kiddie urinal

Sunday night when the classy Dallas Mavericks won the classy NBA Finals over the classless Miami Heat, the common thread amongst Maverick supporters was that the "classy" team won.

In short, the Mavericks celebrated in a way that the Heat would not have celebrated: With class.
Since, DeShawn Stevenson's been seen with a T-shirt with the most juvenile of dick jokes, Mark Cuban's been photographed taking a piss with the Larry O'Brien trophy and, now, Stevenson's been arrested for public intoxication.

Everyone has "class" until they don't. Or, everyone has "class" when stood up next to the "classless." I also point to Stevenson posing in front of the Miami Heat bench in game 6. Again, if he were not a Maverick, we'd aboslutely hate him.

On the whole, I have no problem with any of this. I'm not interested in watching Cuban (the king of classlessness) pee or Stevenson get drunk. However, the Mavericks fandom (nor the team itself) has any right to call themselves "classy" after the last four days.

Stay classy, DeShawn Stevenson

Classy

When the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA title, it was generally thought that the Mavericks had class and the Miami Heat, I guess, I didn't.

This has nothing to do with what happened on the court. It has everything to do with last summer.

Still, I would guarantee you that most of Miami absolutely hate DeShawn Stevenson and Brian Cardinal. 100 percent.

Now, there's photos of Stevenson wearing a T-shirt that asks "Hey Lebron! How's My Dirk Taste?"

At the bottom of the shirt is the HD Net logo. Which is owned by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the king of class.

"Class" is a fragile thing. Dick jokes are not classy.

Just goes to show that its cool if your team is doing it.

Evan Grant: Breakin' necks, cashin' checks

In a pear tree

Evan Grant has a fantastic little column clearing up some mistruths surrounding Colby Lewis' paternity leave and the subsequent brouhaha in the media, especially from Richie Whitt. Interesting is Grant's clear hatred for Whitt's column.

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Jon Mayo on Neil Ramirez' phenomenal year.

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Mark Cuban was hit in the face last night with something. That's kinda funny. You talk enough shit in an opponents' arena ... during a loss ... you're bound to get hit by something.

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John Canzano on game three.

The Dallas Mavericks: Team for the ages!!!

Look at that leaping ability, the grace! There's no way the end of this play went wrong!

The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Denver Nuggets, 104-96, last night.

However, there's no story there.

Or is there?

You might consider the Dallas Mavericks the greatest franchise in the history of organized sports. I certainly would.

Think about it like this: The Dallas Mavericks are better as the losing competitor than all other teams in history when they win.

Let that sink in.

Look at the glorious and awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping performances from our Mavericks. There is Brendan Haywood with 19 boards and five blocks. Dirk Nowitzki -- the ol' stalwart and world-renowned athlete -- had 20 points.

Teammate and all-around good guy, Shawn Marion, had 21 points. Of course, Marion could care less about starting. Given the choice, Marion would rather be caring for refugees in Sudan or volunteering at a soup kitchen instead of playing professional basketball.

J.J. Barea and Jason Terry -- terrific defenders, both -- combined to go 10-22 and 27 points off the bench.

Even Ian Mahinmi collected five fouls, tied for most in the game with Denver's Nene Hilario. The difference? Hilario got his five in 35 minutes. Mahinmi got it in 15 minutes of play. Beat that, assholes.

At halftime, spectators were honored with owner Mark Cuban went to midcourt, unbuttoned and pulled down his dungarees and took a shit right on the horse logo.

And it smelled of roses and Febreeze!

God bless Mark Cuban. God bless the Dallas Mavericks. May they find immortality and edify humanity until the planet collides with the sun.

The Mavericks are winning the NBA title. Any other conclusion is plain lunacy. Just give them the trophy.

Mark Cuban has it all figured out

I still love you, Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban's biggest problem is that he's an emotional fellow.

He yells at opponents, pretends like he's part of some sub-cultural of athletes because he owns a basketball team, he picks fights, he throws tantrums, and he will love you forever, but he reserves the God-given right to cross his arms in front of his chest, get in a huff, take his ball and go home.

We all know Mark Cubans. We've seen them, played with them, been friends with them and slowly distanced ourselves from them our whole lives.

They're the kid that will take their ball and go home. They are willing to not play at all rather than lose.

Mark Cuban HATES blogs. That's cool. It doesn't matter. What? Is he going to sue me out of my mom's basement? Hardly. All he can do is disallow "bloggers" from getting media passes and going into the locker rooms before and after Dallas Mavericks' games. And it burns the shit out of him that that's all he can do.

All the while, "bloggers" continue to write dumb-ass shit on the Internet.

In his latest little diatribe that reeks of ignorance and oozes this unquantifiable distaste for the Internet media, he takes on the media.

I don't mean hacks like me or any other asshole with a Wordpress account. I mean the Richard Durretts, Tim McMahons and other bloggers attached to mainstream media outlets.

Here's a guarantee: Some "blogger" wrote a nasty little piece about his Mavericks shitting the sheets the other night in Portland. Cuban's a vengeful, nasty little turd.

There are a few problems with his ideas.

1. Mainstream media will be blogs. They will be Twitter feeds and whatever else comes next. Texts or whatever. "Print" journalists are going online. They've been told to write more concise and shorter for the past 20 years. The convergence of media and new media was exactly what was going to happen.

2. Cuban hints at the needless journalists, saying as an organization they can get information to the fans and public.

True. That's called a PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT. Guess what? They're as full of shit as every other PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT. Send out all the press releases you want about Roddy Beaubois' "two-month injury," but we still need McMahon, Eddie Sefko and whoever digging and learning why Beaubois' not coming back until February.

3. According to Cuban (remember, this guy is a billionaire), "I’m a firm believer that their interests are not only not aligned with sports teams like the Mavs, but in fact are diametrically opposed. They tend to look at the number of page views they get for any article as ‘their ratings.' More is better. Which in turn leads them to gear their work towards generating more pageviews."

No shit. The media outlet whose "interests" (advertising dollars, readership) is every "aligned" with the Mavericks' (winning championships) are not a media outlet. It's a PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT. If the Dallas Morning News or The Big Lead had the same interests as the Mavericks, they would have told Cuban not to throw $50 million at Brendan Haywood.

4. Mark Cuban is a hypocrite anyway. He pays this douche to run this online swill.

What I truly don't understand about Cuban is that, relatively speaking, the Mavericks skate in this city, with non-media blogs and with the mainstream guys. No one hardly questions the bad drafts and bad free agent signings. No one questions why the Mavericks can't make a trade.

No one questions the abilities (or lack thereof) of Donnie Nelson and Rick Carlisle. As long as the team is winning 50 games a year, most deficiencies are swept under the rug, even by the haters.

Hating blogs and the bloggers who blog on them isn't such a bad thing. Why you rail on them over and over is a mystery. Why there must be fighting and strutting on YOUR OWN FUCKING BLOG about how you don't need the media is shockingly sad.

Cuban thinks he's proving some point, making some grand acknowledgement. Instead, he's taking his ball and going home.

While the rest of us shrugs, goes to our moms' basements and blogs about it.

Trade deadline creeps, Dallas Mavericks can't make a trade

Why can't we get Carmelo Anthony?

I had a friend tell me all morning about all the "deals" the "Dallas Mavericks" were allegedly on the brink of making and I wondered, "So, is Donnie Nelson the worst general manager in the NBA?"

The trade deadline came and went today and the Dallas Mavericks stayed put. I guess Roddy Beaubois coming back from injury and trading for Peja Stojakovic is enough for them.

Of course, the Mavericks weren't alone. The Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs stayed put. The Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz got worse.

The Memphis Grizzlies added a handy Shane Battier. Oklahoma City added Kendrick Perkins an subtracted Jeff Green. The Portland Trailblazers added Gerald Wallace to the Nicolas Batum All-Stars.

I don't know if I feel any better or worse about the Mavericks. I think they're significantly worse than the Lakers and Spurs.

My problem is with all the bullshit missed opportunities and rumors.

When was the last time the Mavericks signed a marquee free agent? When you think about that, think about how bad that sucks.

When's the last time the Mavericks were on a receiving end of a blockbuster trade? Have the Mavericks ever made a trade on the level of Carmelo Anthony or Deron Williams?

Why does it always feel the Mavericks are never truly in the conversations for these type of players? However, the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls or Lakers are ALWAYS involved?

I think we're all happy with our 50 wins. Our playoff appearances. Our future Hall of Famer.

Blah. I love this team, but they suck and they will suck until Nelson is fired an accountable, smart general manager is inserted to overrule Mark Cuban, who I feel has a lot more input than is needed or desired.

Are journalists assholes?

I listened to The Ticket's vaunted afternoon drive-time show, The Hardline, today and I heard the segment on co-host Corby Davidson going to the Dallas Mavericks-Sacramento Kings game tonight and sitting beside owner Mark Cuban.

The show then talked for 15 or so minutes about how fucking awesome their lives are.

I know, I know. They sandwiched their thoughts with that "aw-shucks," how did we get so lucky rhetoric and we're supposed to believe this as a salve for the tortured and underprivileged lives that the rest of us are living.

See, The Hardline -- getting to go to World Series games in New York City, NBA Finals games and playing with Roger Staubach in a charity flag football game -- just fell into this.

That's supposed to make them not sound like complete idiotic assholes.

It doesn't. For about 15 minutes this afternoon, The Hardline sounded like complete douches as they compared notes about how all this awesome shit they get to do for free as all the stars align in their sports lives and they get to front rock bands to boot.

It's generally known that journalists get free shit. It's OK because a vast majority of them are severely underpaid. If some writer gets a free lunch at a chamber of commerce luncheon, that's the least they can get.

I was part of this rabble once. Fresh out of college making $17K at a weekly in Dallas. The free lunches and dinners were a nifty perk of the job.

And, yes, I've been to countless sporting events for free. A vast majority of them from the high school ranks. Still. Free and most include an air conditioned press box and free grub.

If you can handle making $20,000 a year, it's a sweet gig for free food.

However, there is a vast difference between the regular journalist peon and those guys on The Hardline. For one, the pay. Without looking at their income tax records, I doubt they're hurting like a lot of kids still working at newspapers living in shitty apartments, paycheck to paycheck.

Also, catching a Cedar Hill-Duncanville high school football game is vastly overshadowed by almost anything our radio heroes have gotten to experience.

Finally, you don't get to read about some print journalist bragging about some free cheese and crackers they got the week before. Some people have tact. They understand that everyone has perks to their jobs or careers. You enjoy those and move on.

Maybe it's not that big of a deal. To a certain point, many listeners to The Ticket live vicariously through those hosts. It goes beyond this relationship the station has forged with its listeners. To a point, the listeners probably look at it like this, "If I can't do these things, I'd prefer my buddies at The Ticket to experience them." Which is weird.

It's just odd listening to those guys lackadaisically talk about their exploits as if they really didn't feel they sounded like complete jerks.

Coach canned

Sighting a need for a "fresher look," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban unceremoniously canned longtime play-by-play guy "Coach" Bob Ortegal today.

He'd been there for 23 years, but hadn't been doing games for two weeks as Brad Davis and Derek Harper have filled in (Sam Perkins and Uwe Blab came off the bench).

No real word as why this change is being made mid-season. Ortegal is 70. Maybe it's a medical thing. Otherwise, Cuban kind of looks douchey firing a steady hand like Ortegal in the middle of the season.

As we'll all remember in 2007-08, Ortegal and Davis were flipped from radio and TV. Then they were flipped back. It's apparent something about Ortegal rubbed someone the wrong way. Why you just don't can him ... say ... five years ago between seasons is a mystery.

Meanwhile, Donnie Nelson is still employed.

The case of the mysterious illnesses

O, Roddy where art thou

Last year, Erick Dampier was rushed the hospital mid-season and sat out, as I remember, several weeks of games due to this illness.

It never quite came out what the illness was. Seems like they didn't know what was the matter or they were unwilling to tell anyone.

There's a lot teams and players don't want to talk about. Seems like the local media isn't asking many questions either.

On Jan. 11, Josh Hamilton was admitted into a hospital due to the "early stages" of pneumonia. Initially, it was reported that he'd be out of the hospital within "24 hours."

Five days later, Hamilton was released. Why it took one of Earth's foremost humans in terms of health and fitness to go from a day in the hospital to a week is no addressed.

Then there's Roddy Beaubois.

The Dallas Mavericks' point guard broke his foot in August. We were told it'd be a couple of months and, most likely, he'd miss the first part of the regular season. Mark Cuban downplayed the injury by stating, "He broke a foot, he didn't have it amputated."

Are you sure? It's Jan. 16 and Beaubois seems as likely to play before March as I am.

Beat writer Eddie Sefko addressed the issue in a recent Q&A stating that either the media was "snowed" by the "couple-month prognosis" or there was a huge setback and that no one's "fessed up" about.

In November, DallasBasketball.com reported that Beaubois had the walking boot taken off with an apparent return to basketball activities within a couple of weeks. Again, comments from the useless Donnie Nelson and Cuban sounded as if it were no big deal.

Sports franchises can do what they want. There's no legal obligation to truthfully or forthcomingly report player injuries.

However, isn't there a certain moral obligation. No, the fans don't own the team. We do, on the other hand, buy tickets, T-shirts and watch the games on TV where a big chunk of cash is generated. A CEO wouldn't lie to investors about a company's financials nor would he or she mislead investors as much as the Mavericks have "snowed" the media and fandom regarding Beaubois.

I hate the Dallas Mavericks

I feel like a parent of a child who finishes medical school, and works for a decade and is on the brink of curing cancer, and he quits and practices at a small, community clinic giving flu shots.

The Dallas Mavericks are better than giving flu shots. They should be a team on the tip of everyone's tongue when it comes to championship. They're not.

If people talk Finals contenders (not favorites!), Dallas might make the top 10. Even then, the Mavericks aren't even considered to be in the picture.

Why not? They have a top 10 player (Dirk Nowitzki), they win 50 games a year, they get top 4 seeds in the mighty Western Conference, they have the pedigree of previous post-season success and they have an owner that'll make a move if it's there to be made.

Everything that just about any NBA fan would want out of a team and, yet, the thought of 82 games from my Dallas Mavericks absolutely bores the shit out of me.

Why? Because nothing's different. Some of that isn't bad. Nowitzki being the same is a really good thing. But that's it. Nowitkzi is not going to get better. In fact, sometime in the near future, Nowitzki will start getting worse.

Same with everyone. Caron Butler's not getting better. J.J. Barea is still on this roster. Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood aren't getting any better. Haywood, after getting paid, might look worse than he did a year ago.

Two Mavericks might get better: Roddy Beaubois and rookie Dominique Jones. That's it. And they may not see the court much due to their rookieness (you know, game's too fast or they don't play defense) or due to injury (Beaubois' foot).

That's it, Mavericks fans. Do you think Butler's going to quit settling for jumpers? Do you think Jason Kidd's going to start guarding younger, faster point guards better?

Everyone's peaked. They probably peaked in 2006. Kidd in 2002. Butler in 2007. Haywood in 1999.

There's a minimum that the Mavericks are good for and they will no doubt hit that minimum. The Dallas Mavericks will be good and competitive. They'll make the playoffs. And get beat.

It's not the 50 wins or first-round loss that I'm concerned or bored with. It's the contentedness and lack of change.

For a decade, the Mavericks' management kept evolving and changing parts out to find the right mix around Nowitzki.

There's no way Butler or Jason Terry survive in 2004. They would've been sent to Miami, Charlotte or Minnesota.

I'm not purporting trades and changes for the sake of trades or changes. It's about getting better, it's about pumping new hope into the franchise and it's about thinking about the future.

Butler, Shawn Marion, Kidd, Terry and Haywood aren't going to win now. And they are not a part of the future of the Dallas Mavericks. It's like my kid quitting cancer research to work at a dumpy clinic that he knows he's going to be at for a year before he works at a Target optical clinic.

Here's to 82 games.