Media Day!

The Fish isn't as much of a sunshine pumper as some folks on The Boards make him out to be, and I trust his analysis of what's really going on. On Media Day, all appears well . . . or as well as can be for a team that's been more or less written off (serious, check the power rankings on ESPN).

I'm clinging to the signs of hope. As a fan, what other approach should I take? I've lived without hope or expectation before. This is better.

Things I Like:
- Josh Howard finally acting like a grownup. Thanks in part to the Mavs's PR guys, who made sure the atmosphere stayed cordial, and thanks to J-Ho's sincere apology, I feel much easier in my mind regarding his judgement. A strong preseason and some good regular season games and this entire mess goes back to being yesterday's news. Nobody'd hate another All-Star season, either.

- On the question of how he would handle J-Ho, Coach replied, “I don’t handle people. If I worked in a zoo, helping with the giraffes and the lions and the horses, I’d handle. Here, you work with men.’’ Touche.

- Having a specific plan of action . . . or at least the appearance of one. One of the things I didn't like about last year is the vagueness from some of the leadership, generalities about what was wrong and no real plan on how to fix it -- yes I'm looking at you Mr. Johnson. Say this about Coach Carlisle; for the moment he seems to know what the hell he's doing and he's being concrete about how he's going to do it. After two months of generalities about execution and lack thereof, that's a relief.

- The mental image of Jerry Stackhouse high-fiving Champ. It makes me smile.

Things I'm Not Crazy About
- Mark Cuban badmouthing Avery Johnson. We already know he'd lost the players' allegience. Rehashing it now seems . . . counterproductive. And I don't like the idea that a third of the roster had, either directly or through their representatives, presented Mr. Cuban with get-me-out-of-here ultamaitums. That begs the question of which players, and I don't like where those thoughts go. Further, if the team discord was that bad, how seriously should we take the MBT's (Mavs Brain Trust) assurances that everything's fine now?

- The buzzcut. No, I'm not okay with it, I'm never going to be okay with it. So there. Myah! Grow it back, man! Please!

I can't wait. Seven more days!
-BJ

Weasel Words

I try to be rational where Dirk is concerned. I really do. You wouldn't believe some of the blurbs I haven't posted.

But the idea that he's looking forward to free agency -- implication being he wants to leave the Mavs for another team -- fills my head with flames. I'll accept retirement, or a repatriation back to Germany, but seeing him in the NBA as anything but a Maverick? Not in this or any other lifetime.

But anyway. Today is Press Day, and our man Fish is on the case. The team had physicals on Saturday, and training camp starts tomorrow. I believe the players will play their guts out -- that's what they do. The nerves come from the idea that the organization's upper levels -- coaching and management -- do not have a strong history of making sure the team's effort doesn't go to waste.

If this line of reasoning is flawed, please explain why: championships can't be won at the organizational or coaching level, but they can be lost there.

More later,
-BJ

Things To Know

I'd wondered about that:

Hack-a-Shaq
A defensive strategy in which the defensive team delibrately commits a foul on an offensive player with a poor free-throw percentage. Disrupts offensive flow and reduces the chance of a score. Strategy named in dubious honor of Shaquille O'Neal, who is a Mighty Man and a Hall of Fame lock but is utter crap from the line (.524 according to Basketball Reference).

So basketball's not a gentlemen's game. Psh.
-BJ

Can We Make Scrimmage Shirts Vs. Skins? Please?

Squee!

The Morning News, absent anything new to print about the Mavs (I'm avoiding Mr. Cuban's blog, because I don't have anything to add to the arguement and reading it will just annoy me), is rehashing the point we all grasped way back in May; everything depends on how the players mesh under the new coach. Nothing we haven't read or intuited.

At the end, under Mavericks Key Dates:

Sept. 30 -- Training camp opens with two practises.

Oct. 4 -- Two-a-days end.

Oct. 7 -- Preseason opens vs. Washington at AAC (7:30 p.m.)

Oct. 17 -- Fan Jam at AAC (5:30 p.m.)

Oct. 27 -- Rosters set for opening day (5 p.m.)

Oct. 30 -- Regular season begins vs. Houston at AAC (7 p.m.)

Italics mine. Fan Jam!

Ticket for the first preseason game is bought and paid for and will be waiting for me at the AAC. I can't wait.
-BJ

The Subtle Taste Of Sneaker

Wah!

Dude. Please. For the love of God, I am begging you.

Shut up!!!
-BJ

Quick DFW Say, "Football? Let's Talk Mavericks"

Yes. Let's.

I could seriously learn to love Coach. He appears to have his head on straight. I like the battlefield concept; it's an attitude that seemed to be missing under Avery Johnson.

Training camp starts on the 29th over to SMU. Does this mean they're not going to be holding Fan Jam this year? God for-bloody-bid. Coach is talking about utilizing a more up-tempo game pace and whipping everybody's ass into shape. Two sessions a day, everyone goes home at night.

I'm pondering this a little more deeply than I perhaps ought to -- God knows the guys over on the DB.com Boards are picking Coach apart phrase-by-phrase. I just got done reading a short-attention-span (but fun to read) memoir by Jayson Williams, Loose Balls, and in Williams's opinion coaches don't matter that much. It's the player's responsibility to maintain their bodies, so he says, and training too long and practising too much is counterproductive.

I can see that. One of the news blurbs from the Olympics noted that Shawn Johnson only practises a couple hours a day. She even goes to a public school, which is unheard-of for an international level gymnast.

On the other hand, it could be argued that this is a team that hasn't been on the same page for a while now and needs the extra time. Once more, we have to trust that Coach and his staff know what they're doing.

It makes me wonder though . . . when Dirk said at Coach Carlisle's PC about the NBA being a player's league, not a coach's one . . . was that an indirect dig at Johnson? Because Johnson went pretty much straight from being a player to an assistant, then he was picked by Don Nelson to take over as head coach. The transition was PDQ, less than two years. It makes me wonder; is the root of his troubles as a coach the fact that he was reacting to situations as a player? Like he really wanted to be on the floor and got frustrated because he couldn't?

I'm shooting from the backcourt again, so I'll shut up.

Wishing Manu Ginobli a pain-free, prolonged (like the entire season) recovery from his foot injury, and praying to God somebody fucks Kobe's pinkie up royally . . . and permanently.

Later,
-BJ