(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"
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