Game 2

I've been staring at this black screen trying to come up with something to write, but I just don't know if i have it in me. I love the Dallas Mavericks. I have since I was a wee little boy. When Starter pullover jackets where the shit, and it must be noted that I lived in a town north of Austin, Everybody had one. There were plenty of Cowboys, Lakers, Rockets, Yankee's, and Red Wings ones, but I had a Dallas Stars, and a Dallas Mavericks. While my love for hockey has faded quite a bit as I have grown, my love for the Mav's have always been there.

We didn't get alot of Mav's basketball where I grew up. Mostly because they sucked, and FoxSports Southwest wasn't quite running yet. But I still followed them in the paper with box scores, played as the Mav's when I played NBA Live and NBA Jam. I loved me some triple J's, and truly thought that was the beginning of a dynasty. One of the better surprises when I came up here for college was the ability to watch EVERY SINGLE Mav's game on TV. It was great. Watching Calvin Booth put that offensive rebound back in to beat Utah in the first round of the playoffs was the single most excited I have ever been watching a sport at the time, and now it's still in my top 10.

When the Mav's got good, and I became an alcoholic Drinker, I watched the Mav's and Spurs series at my bar with friends of both teams, and that was some of my fondest memories of college.

It's all those things that make me hate what I see when I turn on the Mav's right now. It's not that their losing, I can take that. Its that it just doesn't seem to matter to them anymore. They play scared, they shoot too many jump shots for fear of getting hurt in the lane, they don't look like they are even trying to get rebounds.

Its like if you thought your boss was the perfect man. He could do no wrong. He didn't always win the battles he fought, but damnit he did his best and he made you proud to be a part of his company. Then one day, corporate comes in and tells your boss that he has to fire his best employee. Without as much as a "why?" he just does it. You lose all respect for your boss then right?

This is what the Mavericks have done to me. I have put so much faith in them over the years to have them put up sorry ass games like they have over the past few years. Where you at, Jason Kidd? Where you at, Josh Howard? Is your pride not hurt? Are you so scared of failing that you don't even want to TRY anymore?

I'm not saying that everybody on this team is awfull, they just don't have any heart. Dirk's play over the past 3 months has been fantastic, but I think this team stopped looking to him after last years series vs the Warriors. The front office thought maybe Jason Kidd would bring heart, but that hasn't worked. I don't know what it will take, but something has to change.

So look down Mav's, see that you still have a pair. I don't give a damn if you lose, just go down swinging.