"...skip second place, sucka, we need top ranking..."

(People keep asking me if I've recovered. And I will. I just gotta get some stuff off my chest. It's the blog that I didn't want to write. To be honest, I really didn't think I would write. But I definitely would have written something had the Mavs won, so let me be fair. And for all you non-sports fans, rest assured that this will probably be the last sports' blog I write until college football season starts.)

(As long as you realize that college football is a year-round sport.)


The Mavs lost. That pretty much sums it up. They lost in six games to the Miami Heat. Let me first do the proper thing and congratulate the Heat for winning the championship and their fans for being able to enjoy it. Let me give an extra-special congratulatory salute to Nick for being the one Heat fan I know to treat the series with respect. And for all you anti-Mavs, people who called, texted or emailed me immediately after the game, let me just say that we're not as cool as we were a few days ago. I am not even in the slightest joking about that. I can respect anyone rooting for or against a team. That's your prerogative. But to try to rub it in immediately is low-class. On the flip side, thanks to all the Mavs fan who were on this journey with me. And everyone who was apathetic about the whole thing but still tolerated me, thank you all the most.

The sentiment in Dallas-Fort Worth is that the Mavericks got screwed out of the championship. I've never been a conspiracy theorist. I've never even complained about NBA officiating because, by and large, I think that they have an incredibly thankless position but do a very good job (there are exceptions of course--the refs completely screwed over the Kings in the Western Conference Finals in 2002 when they pretty much just handed the series to the Lakers). Even after Game 5 of Mavs/Heat, I thought that the refs had done some things wrong but that, for the most part, the Mavs lost the game more than they got cheated. I had a long argument with Apollo about this. He was livid at the officials. So I decided to do some research. And I discovered something: Apollo was right. Let me just point out a few things:


* the Mavs had a player suspended in three straight series. I challenge anyone to find an example of this happening ever before. I won't say anything about Terry's suspension because the replay clearly shows him making a fist and punching Michael Finley. However, explain how the other two make sense. How is it that Mbenga gets a longer suspension than Antonio Davis when he was on the bench in street clothes but Davis actually left the court. Really? This makes sense to people? And Stackhouse was suspended even though the refs who officiated the actual game only assigned him a "flagrant one" and didn't eject him. On top of that, opposing players from the Heat said themselves that the foul wasn't that bad and didn't merit a supension.

* Dwyane Wade getting every single possible call imaginable. I know he attacks the basket. I know that home court often gives players the benefit of the doubt. But the extent to which the refs were bowing down before him is utterly unforgiveable. There is absolutely no excuse for it. Of course, the worst of it was in Game 5 where he took 25 free throws, culminating in that foul called against Dallas with 1.9 seconds to go in OT. I have yet to find someone who can watch the replay and actually see where a foul was committed. Had the refs not bailed out Wade, there is no way he would have made that shot. And while we'll never know what would have happened afterwards, since there were three Mavs right there and one off them stands eight inches taller than Wade, I'm guessing Dallas would have gotten the rebound, won the game, taken the 3-2 series lead and forced Miami to be the team playing on its heels. And of course, the favorable treatment of Wade continued into Game 6, highlighted by Marquis Daniels' getting called for a foul when he was at least a foot away and then in the final 30 seconds of the game (when the outcome was still very much up in the air) Dirk getting called for a foul after he was elbowed by Wade. [And I know someone's gonna try and bring up Game 3 of Mavs/Spurs when Dirk made 21 of 24 free throws. Two differences: 1) Dirk was playing in the post where there's a whole lot more contact and 2) the Spurs actually took more free throws than any one player on the Mavs.]

* I've heard different people making a joke about the fact that Chris Webber is happy because now he doesn't have the stupidest timeout call of all time. From what I see, yes, Howard made a timeout gesture, maybe more than once. What I do not see is Howard ever looking at the ref, as the officials later claimed. Greg Anthony, who picked the Heat to win the series, said that in a situation like that, refs would always double check with the coach to make sure he really wanted a timeout. Why was this instance different?


If any one of the situations had occurred independent of the rest, it could be a forgiveable offense. After all, referees are humans and they often have to make snap decisions. But when you put it all together, it seems very suspicious. But why would that be allowed to happen? Of course, you must know that I have a theory.

David Stern did not want the Mavericks to win the championship. The idea of handing over the Larry O'Brien trophy to Mark Cuban disgusted him. See, I like David Stern. Personally, I think he's the best commissioner in all of sports. Bud Selig and Scotty Bowman don't belong in the conversation. Paul Tagliabue has done a great job, but his task was also much easier. David Stern took the NBA from an afterthought in the mid-80s to the global, billion dollar enterprise that it is today. Sure, it didn't hurt to have Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan at their peaks, but neither should Stern be shortchanged.

Anyway, the way the commissionary is set up in the NBA, the holder of that position wields more power than that of the commissioners in the other sports. Stern has a lot of power and likes it. He also has made sure that the owners of the teams in the NBA are aware of that power. But then something happened: in early 2000, a gentleman by the name of Mark Cuban bought one of the worst teams in the league. He then proceeded to turn that team around. However, at the same time he was doing this, he was also spitting in Stern's face. Cuban was a new breed of owner who didn't quite view the power that Stern wielded the same way the old school owners did. Cuban wasn't the first new-breed-think-outside-of-the-box owner (that distinction would probably go to Pat Croce, who in 1996 made the unheard of decision to draft a sub-6'0 player who wasn't really a true point guard named Allen Iverson) but he was the first to openly defy Stern. This had to rankle the Commish to no end and he sought to pay Cuban back. (By the way, I get how non-Mavs fans feel about Cuban. If he didn't own my team I'd probably hate him too. Or at least really, really, really dislike him. Kinda like how every baseball fan outside of the Bronx cannot stand George Steinbrenner. But the fact of the matter is that Cuban does own my team and in six years he took them from the worst professional sports' franchise in North America to the NBA Finals. And for that, I am eternally grateful.)

So here's what I think: Stern didn't want the Mavs to make it to the Finals. He tried to prevent it from happening by um, persuading officials that it wouldn't be such a bad thing if the Mavs didn't make it. Unfortunately for this cause, the Mavs were playing too well and had too deep a team to fall victim. So they made it to the Finals and Stern realized something...it would be better if the Mavs won. Because 1) since pretty much all NBA teams are copycats, it would mean the return of higher-paced games and 2) the highest profile player on the champion team would be foreign born, both of which he desperately wanted to expand the interest of the sport. So now he wants the Mavs to win, but either he can't get the message to his officials without being caught or the refs are so pissed off at Mark Cuban that they've taken it upon themselves to humiliate his team, with the end result being Miami over Dallas, 4-2.

Here's the thing about that though: none of that should have mattered. The Mavs still should have won the series. If at any point over the past year, you had told any Mavericks player, coach or fan that we would beat both San Antonio and Phoenix in the playoff and in the Finals we would not be facing Detroit we would have started planning the parade right then and there (um...oops). The problem is that the Mavericks team that showed up in the Finals was NOT the same team that went 60-22 in the regular season or played in the first three rounds. And it definitely wasn't the same Dirk Werner Nowitzki. And as much as I hate to say it, that falls squarely on the shoulders of Avery Johnson.

Over the past season, I saw Avery as the LeBron James of coaching. It's what he was born to do. But when he made it to the Finals, the pressure seemed to envelope him. When his team started making stupid mistakes (taking quick jump shots instead of pushing it to the basket) he failed to make the proper adjustments. And I think that the players became too content way too early. After simply outplaying the Heat for the first 2 3/4 games of the series, they thought it would be a cakewalk. And it probably would have been had they continued to play that way. Problem is that Dwyane Wade never got that memo. But if you can't capitalize on a 2-0 series lead, if you can't sustain a 13-point lead with six minutes to go, and if you can't defend your home court when you're facing elimination in the Finals, well, you just don't deserve the championship.

People are talking about having to go through a defeat like this to prepare them for next year. I'm not so sure about that. This season was tailor-made for Dallas to win it all. Next year, the Western Conference won't be as easy. The Spurs will have Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili healthy again. The Suns will have Amare Stoudemire back. Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and the Rockets will be back. Elton Brand and the Clippers have tasted playoff success and they'll want more. It won't be easy.

Oh, and that comparison of Dirk and Larry Legend? Not yet.

Not...yet.


TITLE TAKEN
LA Symphony (Sharlock Poems); "Composition No. 1"

Whatever

"...I was receiving, I didn't get whippings, I got AFRICAN BEATINGS..."

- This past weekend, Xavier Carter of LSU won four golds at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. He was part of the winning 4x100 relay team and the 4x400 relay team. But what really gets me is that he won both the 100 meter dash and the 400 meter dash. Not only did he win both events but he set personal bests in both: 10.09 in the 100 and 44.53 in the 400. I know it's not the same as Carl Lewis winning four golds in the 1984 Olympics or Marion Jones winning five overall medals at the 2000 Olympics. But winning a 100 and a 400 at the same meet (on the same day and only 31 minutes apart) may be the most impressive accomplishment I've ever heard of in track and field.

- Last week I was out with a friend and somehow we got on the subject of kids. And she made the statement that she thinks that I'm not going to be the disciplinarian. That amused me. I asked her why she thought that way and she said, "I don't know. You're just so laid back that I can't really see you being the kind to discipline." Ok, I guess. But then she went on to say something that really got me bugging. She said, "I don't think you're going to be the disciplinarian because you're laid back...like your dad."

Um...nicka, what?

She thought that my dad wasn't a disciplinarian? Oh, I had to correct that misguided notion right away. Now, my dad was never a dictator, or the kind of parent to force us to do what he wanted. BUT...when it came time to mete out discipline, my father was not one to hesitate. I still remember the worst one I ever got, mostly because it was applied to all three of us.

I was probably around nine or ten (making Ayo seven or eight and Ebun five or six). In school I had learned how to play indoor balloon volleyball. That is, we'd take a regular ballon and play volleyball over some a small net. It was so much fun that I just had to teach my sibs so that they could share in the enjoyment with me. So I taught them how to play, using a table or an excercise bike as our makeshift net (isn't it amazing how much imagination children have?) One day our dad saw us and told us not to do it because we might break something. And we were all like, "Come on, old man. It's a balloon. It won't break anything." (Of course, we didn't say that out loud.) But since our father had told us not to do it, we respected his command. While he was around.

So one Saturday morning, we were done watching cartoons and we decided that it was time to engage in some balloon volleyball. So we start playing. Oh, look how much fun we're having! And then one of us hits the balloon and it starts to go up. Towards the ceiling. Specifically, towards the light fixture in the ceiling. None of us were concerned because the balloon hadn't been hit that hard and really just seemed to be floating peacefully in the air. But for some reason, when it came in contact with the light fixture, it was the fixture that decided to yield way. In other words, it shattered in pieces while the balloon lazily floated back down.

We stood there staring at our handiwork for at least five minutes. How had this just happened? But finally, I had to go tell my dad what had occurred. See, this is how stupid kids are. We were doing something that our dad had specifically told us not to do while he was in the house and could have caught us at any moment. So my dad comes out, examines the destruction that his children had just wrought, then orders me to go grab is favorite weapon of punishment: his right sandal. So I fetch it, hand it over, and since I'm the oldest I get to have the punishment administered to me first. My sister was next because Ayo's in the middle. Where she at? In the middle. After that...the fun began.

When it was my brother's turn, my dad called him to come over. But I guess that Ebun, after seeing his brother and sister get the beatings of their lives and sitting in a corner crying and letting snot run down their noses, wanted no part of that. So he just takes off running. I'm laughing at the memory because I have absolutely no idea where he thought that he could go, but hey, he was gonna give it an effort. My dad chased him at first. But then he outsmarted him. After chasing Ebun for a couple of minutes, my dad decided to hide behind a door. Ebun had just been running this entire time so he unaware that he was no longer being pursued. So he continues to run, until he runs right past the door my dad was hiding behind. And as Ebun comes running by, my dad's hand jets out, grabs his arm and now the credits are rolling on Run, Ebun, Run. The most prominent recollection I have of that is my dad trying hard to suppress a smile. I actually wanted to laugh myself. But it hurt too much.

Sometimes, after being punished, my dad would come talk to us and say, "I really don't like punishing you." Oh yeah? Sure coulda fooled me. Well, that's how I felt then. Obviously, as I got older I realized that he really didn't want to punish us but he would do so until we learned the difference between right and wrong. Or at least until we learned how to cover our tracks better. But coming from that background, it really amazes me how some parents allow their kids to act nowadays. I'm sure we've all been at the mall or been out eating somewhere and some little kid just starts screaming bloody murder. And the parents sit there and let them do it! WTF? Don't get me wrong, my mom would let us throw tantrums too. If we were at home. But if we ever tried to pull that mess when we were out somewhere...boy. We had better NOT embarass her in public. One of her favorite sayings was, "If you're going to cry, I'll really give you a reason to cry." So I dunno. When I see kids acting up in public it just irritates me.

Or when kids tell their parents to shut up. The hell!?!??!??! Look here: as I'm typing this, I'm 28 years old, I stand five inches taller than my dad and the mere thought of saying those two words to either of my parents terrifies me. Not even as a joke. "Shut up" is something you say to your peers. Parents should not be treated as peers. The closest I'll ever get to that is when I call them by their first names. And even then, it's only as a joke and I know I better not try that more than once or twice a year.

There's definitely something to the belief that parents from other cultures raise their children differently than those from within this culture. I could explain further but I think Russell Peters does a better job of it, so I'll let him tell you.

"...ain't a woman alive that could take my mama's place..."

Once again, I need you to stop what you're doing and go grab some type of beverage. I'll wait.

No thanks, I already have mine.

Ready? Ok, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go:


- Here's to the woman who gave me my nose.

- Here's to the woman who has the most distinctive laugh I've ever heard.

- Here's to the reason I respect women.

- Here's to a woman who managed to get her MBA while working full time, being a pastor's wife and raising three, um...mischevious kids.

- Here's to the woman who always knew all of my teachers.

- Here's to the woman who always encouraged our hobbies even if she didn't understand them.

- Here's to the woman with the most beautiful smile God ever created.

- Here's to the woman who has set an incredibly high standard for whatever woman gets stuck with me.

- Here's to the woman who insists on pestering me until I bring her whatever woman gets stuck with me.

- Here's the woman who is responsible for me having thinner hair than my father.

- Here's to the woman who would take that disgusting mix of flowers and feathers that I had made for her and treat it like the greatest treasure in the world.

- Here's to the woman who gave birth to three children but is a mother to so many more.

- Here's to the woman who refuses to acknowledge that I am an adult.

- Here's to the woman who shows me everyday what it really means to love.


Happy birthday, Mommy.


TITLE TAKEN
2Pac; "Dear Mama"

"...(something something) get with me (something something) like Nash and Nowitski..."

WARNING: THIS POST IS LONG AND IS ENTIRELY ABOUT NBA BASKETBALL, WITH A STRONG EMPHASIS ON A CERTAIN DALLAS BASED TEAM OWNED BY AN ECCENTRIC BILLIONAIRE. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

My Mavs are in the Finals. Do you people realize how long I've been wanting to be able to say that? Right now, all of Dallas-Fort Worth is pretty giddy with the idea that we finally have a championship caliber team again. I guess there were the Stars in the late 90s, but for some reason that doesn't seem to resonate as much. Of course, the gold standard are the Cowboys. They get respect and attention from around these parts like no other team. As a matter of fact, if Bill Parcells were to call a press conference at the same time as Game 1 of the Finals, I would not at all be surprised if that received higher ratings in the Metroplex than the game. And if any of you think that I am at all exaggerating then you really do not understand how fanatical locals are about the Cowboys. Not me though. I support the 'Boys because they're my hometown team but I really couldn't care less about pro football.

Which brings me to a thought that I've been trying to suppress throughout the entire playoffs. But maybe now I can start to just THINK it (nothing more). Anyone who's known me (or read this blog) long enough knows that I am basically a fan of just two sports: NBA basketball and NCAA football. And in each of those sports I have a team that I am fanatical about: Dallas Mavericks (NBA) and the University of Texas Longhorns (NCAA football). The Longhorns won the championship this year and the Mavs are four wins away. How am I supposed to react afterwards (after the celebrating, I mean)? The two teams I root for in the two sports that I'm passionate about will both be champions. Simultaneously. If there is any such thing as a sports' nirvana, that is where I will be if the Mavs win the championship.

Of course, with the Mavs advancing this far, all of a sudden everyone around me is a Mavs fan. Freaking bandwagon jumpers. I actually don't mind them all that much. It's exciting to be associated with a team that has a chance to win it all. I mean even I watched the Stanley Cup the two years that the Stars were there. So I can forgive most people for this. There is an exception though: anyone who has rooted for any other franchise within the past six years. I don't care if it's because your favorite player was there or you just thought Raja Bell was cute (and you know who you are). If you're one of those people but now claim to be a Mavs fan I would like to introduce your backside to the business end of my size 12s. (But even to THAT rule, I can understand certain things. For example, Tayo is from Minnesota and is a T-wolves fan. But more importantly, he is a basketball fan. And like most real basketball fans, the last thing he wanted to see was another Spurs/Pistons Finals. So he was pretty excited when the Mavs bounced San Antonio. Plus, and I say this with as little arrogance as I can, it's pretty hard to be around me and not get caught up in Mavs hysteria). But I also want to tip my hat to my brethren: the Rowdies who have cheered the Mavs since they played in Reunion Arena; since we went through the Roy Tarpley debacle (twice!); since they drafted Randy White over Tim Hardaway; since the Three J's imploded because they each thought they were the best player in the league (and that Toni Braxton wanted them and them only); since Quinn Buckner; since 11-71. This is for US.

Now, on to some business type stuff...

After the Spurs were knocked out, I was pretty certain that the Mavs would make it to the Finals. I wasn't overlooking the Suns (I said from the beginning, Mavs in six) but I just never thought that they had what it took to get past Dallas. I don't see Phoenix as a good team. Let me explain what I mean by that. I think that the Suns have the talent to win it all, especially if Amare Stoudemire can come back close to what he was. I just don't think they are a good team; at least not like I see the Mavericks or Spurs or, heck, even the Clippers as being a good team. Here are the Suns in a nutshell: they have a coach who has a unique offensive philosophy and they have the one player in the league who is best qualified to make this philosphy work. That's about it. The way the Suns win is by out-shooting their opponents. If they start off pretty hot, it's hard to beat them because in order to catch back up their opponents have to speed up the game, which of course falls right into the Mike D'antoni's game plan. But the reason I say that they're not a good team is because they can't win any other way. If you look at any NBA champion over the past 20 years (basically, since I started paying attention) every team that won had to win at least a few ugly games. Phoenix has yet to prove that it can do that. CAN the Suns win a championship with their style? Well, they've reached the conference finals two years in a row so they're not far off. I think that they CAN, but they'd have to make to the Finals and then somehow force their opponent to play at their speed for at least four games. I think it's possible, just not likely.

I also think that Steve Nash is slightly overrated. Is he a bad player? By no means. I was one of his biggest fans when he was here in Dallas. I remember back in 2000 when the Mavs were trying to figure out who to start at the point. My homie Rashad wanted them to start Howard Eisley. I told him that that was ridiculous. Eisley just looked better than he really was because he had played with two Hall of Famers in Utah. I knew then that Nash was a good player (although I never imagined he would become as good as he has). I had seem him play a little and knew that he had a live dribble, that he was a good shooter and that he had a knack for finding the open man. His problem was that during his first stint in Phoenix he had been stuck behind Kevin Johnson, Sam Cassell and Jason Kidd. Then when he finally got a chance to be a starter in Dallas, he got injured. When he was finally healthy and was able to start, he showed everyone what he could do.

That being said, do I think he's two time MVP worthy? Nope. Compare his past two seasons statistically with Jason Kidd's during the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons and tell me exactly why Nash has two MVP trophies but Kidd doesn't. Oh, by the way...Kidd led his team to the Finals both of those years, somewhere Nash has never been.

You know how over the past 15 years any player who has the least bit of hang time and made more than one acrobatic layup/dunk has been labeled "The Next Michael Jordan?" Well, over the same period of time every white player over 6'7 with a decent jump shot has been called "The Next Larry Bird." I've seen 'em all: Christian Laettner, Tom Gugliotta, Adam Keefe, Keith Van Horn, Raef LaFrentz, Wally Szczerbiak, Mike Dunleavey Jr, Adam Morrison. And of course, Dirk Nowitski. And here's the crazy thing. Just like Kobe finally got to the point where we started thinking, "You know, it's really not that crazy to think that he's that far off being the next MJ" Dirk has used these playoffs to show that maybe we're not all insane for comparing him to Larry Legend. There are some minor differences, of course. Although he's drastically improved his passing, Dirk is still nowhere near Bird's league. On the flip side, Legend gives up three inches to Diggler. In height, you dirty mofos. On the surface Larry Bird and Dirk Nowitski have just one thing in common, and that is they are both tall white men who can shoot a basketball very well. But Dirk has finally given us another reason to think that the gap is closing.

See, I have this theory that Larry Bird made a deal with God. He said, "God, I want to be a basketball player." And God said, "Ok, Larry. How about this...I will make you 6'9 but you'll have to work for everything else on your own." Larry agreed to it. And then he went out and held up his end of the bargain. Larry Bird was slower than a river running uphill and had a vertical leap that would sometimes allow him to jump onto a sheet of paper. There was no reason to expect him to become a Hall of Fame basketball player. But he had an indominatable will and work ethic. He knew he was better than you because he knew he had worked harder than you. Bird was one of the most famous trash talkers in NBA history because he knew exactly what he could do on the court and whether or not you had any hope of stopping him from doing it. It is this edge that allowed him to become a three time MVP and three time NBA champion. And it is this edge that Dirk has finally added to his game. Dirk Nowitski is the best shooting seven footer ever, and he's been that for years. But this year, thanks to prompting from Avery Johnson, a light bulb finally went off over Dirk's head and he realized that yes, he's better than you and yes, he can prove it. To wit:

*with some people were whispering that Pau Gasol might be better than Dirk, he went out and made sure the Mavs swept the Grizzlies in the first round;

*Dallas had to face the Spurs in the second round. The same San Antonio team that had been the Mavericks nemesis for years, had three championship trophies, and had the one player who kept Dirk from being the best forward in Texas, the Western Conference and, really, the league. So then Dirk goes out and proves that he's in Tim Duncan's class and leads his team to an upset of Duncan's;

*in the conference finals, the Mavs took on Dirk's best friend, former teammate and "two time MVP" Steve Nash. After suffering his worst game of the playoffs in a loss, Dirk came back to have his highest scoring game of the playoffs and led his team to a come from behind win.

And the best thing about all this? Dirk is doing it with a sneer. He's shown it several times during these playoffs: he'll get the ball in the open court, fake a jumper, drive to the hoop, score the basket and draw the And One. Then he'll pull out that goofy looking sneer that is his version of: "I TOLD you I'm better than you."

Think about that for a second. A European player playing with an attitude. That's only happened once before, when the late, great Drazen Petrovic used to score at will for the New Jersey Nets (I really do miss him, he was one of my favorite players to watch). Some people might add Detlef Schrempf to that list, but I eliminate him because he spent four years in an American college before going to the NBA. But Dirk is now a seven footer who can drain a three in your face, take you off the dribble, post up, find an open man when he's doubled AND is now a good offensive rebounder. I've said it before and I'll say it now: Dirk Nowitski is the most complete offensive player in the NBA today.

And now we're about to engage in the battle of American Airlines homes. The Mavericks gets homecourt advantage at the American Airlines Center in Dallas while Miami defends at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. I think that this may end up being one of the most exciting Finals ever. While recent Finals' may have been interesting or even intriguing, I think it's been at least 10 years since one was actually exciting. That was when the Bulls defeated Seattle 4-2. Remember that this was the same Chicago team that had won 72 games in the regular season and was supposed to just dominate in the playoffs. But then they met up with a scrappy SuperSonics team (that had won 64 games, so was no slouch) led by a still-in-his-prime Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp was he was still Shawn Kemp (translation for all you newcomers to the NBA: Shawn Kemp was Amare Stoudemire first, before the drugs and his inability to keep it in his pants destroyed him). Each game was closer than expected, but Chicago's experience, and some guy named Michael Jordan, prevailed in the end. I still remember thinking that, even though his team lost, Kemp should have been named MVP of the Finals.

Anyway, here's my prediction: exciting Finals, Shaq remaining rejuvenated, Dwyane Wade being frustrated early by Adrian Griffin and Josh Howard before realizing that they really can't stop him from getting to the rim, Dirk hitting shots from all over the court and Dallas' depth perservering. Yes, Dallas in 7.

GO MAVS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


TITLE TAKEN
Lateef the Truthspeaker; some freestyle he did when he was here a few years ago