Brandon May's 3 Cheers - Mavs Land Musings

No Brainer

Less than a week away from the start of training camp, and the Mavs just took care of priority A #1:  Sign Dirk.  I was going to talk about the Terrell Owens thing that's going on right now, but listening to the developments on the radio is starting to sound like if I listened to a telenovela on the radio.  I have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on.

1. I've always found it interesting that in the normal world, people generally choose not to discuss their finances or salaries among strangers . . . unless they're insanely loaded or pretending that they are.  Perhaps that's why I can open my sports page and see that Dirk Nowitzki signed a 3 year, $60 million contract.  But in my business section, I didn't see that Edith Bloomer of Ardmore, OK, was just hired by the Watson Burger for $300 a week.  Regardless, Dirk's rich.  More importantly, Dirk's rich in Dallas.  Even more importantly, Dirk's rich in Dallas, and he's young.  Dirk and the Mavs agreed to this deal right after the season, but didn't sign on the dotted line until yesterday.  Not a bad sign, though, because Dirk called the deal a "no brainer" but needed to cart off to Germany to play hero to the national team before he worried about crossing "I's" and dotting "T's".  No brainer?  You're the young stud, number one player for an elite team that is coming off a Finals appearance, and they are offering you a contract extension that will mean that from 2001 to 2011, when the extension expires, they will have given you $120 million dollars.  That's about as "no brainer" as it gets.  Now we need to get him into training camp and let him show us how much better he has become.

2. Dirk signing means that the only issue still hanging out there before the start of camp is getting Josh Howard signed to his extension.  Technically, we have all of training camp to get a deal done, but Mark Cuban has had a history of only doing contract stuff during the offseason.  The start of training camp is the start of the season, in his mind, and if they don't get anything done in the next 5 days, they probably won't rekindle the talks until July of next year, when Josh is getting fistfuls of money thrown at him by just about every team in the league.  I would rather get this done now, because the scrutiny will only build over the course of the season, especially if Josh continues on his growth curve.  If they do get something done and sign him to a 5 year extension, which is the max, then they will have just about everyone locked down for the next two years.  The only guys on our team going into the last year of their contracts this season are Jerry Stackhouse, Austin Croshere and Greg Buckner.  Devin Harris will be due for his 5 year extension then, too.  In other words, the Mavs are not just becoming the model for how to play basketball, they are becoming the model for how to build a basketball team.  Let us rejoice.

3. Now I have to apologize.  I promise that this isn't something that I will do often, and something that I hope I don't have to do often.  I don't want to bring the mood down, but it's something that I have to do.  It's cathartic for me, so bare with me.  When I was 10, my grandmother on my mom's side passed away.  This was painful, because it was the first time in my life that I lost a family member.  That loss, however, turned into a huge gain for me because my grandfather, Roderick Vernon Gass, now living alone on his land in Temple, TX, would come up and stay with me and my family sometimes twice a month.  He became one of my best friends during that time and almost a second father figure.  I was 15 years old when he passed on, and 14 years later, nearly half my life ago, I still ache from that loss.  My first car was his old truck that he used to drive around his land, a bright orange 1975 Datsun pickup.  Most kids would have been embarrassed to drive something like that, especially in Plano, TX, but I was proud to drive my grandfather's truck.  It meant more to me than any car my parents or I could have purchased at that time.  Fast forward another 7 years to when I proposed to my wife in college.  I met her extended family shortly after we got engaged, and I was introduced to her grandfather, Elmer Lavoy Bledsoe.  Not only did the guy look like my grandfather, but he was warm, kind, and personable like my grandfather.  He could be an ornery old guss at times, and he could be the sweetest, flirtiest little kid at others.  Either way, he was a person that you wanted to be around.  His biggest problem when he was diagnosed with diabetes was that the doctors wouldn't let him drink his Bud Lights anymore.  In other words, I took to him immediately, and he took to me.  Lavoy was laid to rest yesterday, Tuesday, September 26th, 2006.  He was 84 years old.  Lavoy, if Heaven has the internet, and you're reading this, then I want you to look up Rodrick Vernon Gass in the Pearly Gates Directory.  I think you two would get along quite well.  Good night, Lavoy.  You will be missed.

Get Smart

11 days until the Mavs media day to kick off training camp.  That means that this forum will begin to get back to basketball, with less random thoughts.  Okay, okay, I will still vent when the spirit moves me.  As I've always said, I don't believe in guns, but I'm not above flaming arrows.  Truth be told, I've never said that before, but go with me.  Speaking of which, Alex Rodriguez has just become the Kobe of baseball.  Granted A-Rod doesn't have the whole "I'm a rapist that got off because I'm an athlete, and I paid my victim to shut her pie hole" thing going on, but that doesn't mean that A-Rod didn't just make sure all parties were paid before they went to the authorities.  If you haven't heard, and I'm sure most of you have, A-Rod was quoted in Sport Illustrated as saying, "When people write [bad things] about me, I don't know if it's [because] I'm good-looking, I'm bi-racial, I make the most money, I play on the most popular team . . ."  First of all, I think that very quote sums up EXACTLY why people write (or think) bad things about you, Alexandra.  You're a pompous, fraudulent, pretty boy jackass that wants the whole world to love you but gives them every reason not to.  Secondly, why would anyone be jealous of you because you're bi-racial?  I don't think I have ever looked at you and said, "No fair!  He dipped into different gene pools!"  You're bi-racial, you're not the $6 Million Dollar Man.  Actually, that's a bad reference, because you are a $25 million a year man, but you get the point.  Arrows, flame on!  Back to basketball.

1. Interesting happenings to keep an eye on this weekend:  NFL and NCAA football outcomes, whether I will actually get out and mow my lawn, and how things play out in Winston-Salem, N.C., where Josh Howard is dedicating a brand new outdoor basketball court at the rec center he grew up playing at.  The interesting part of all of that is that I work 6 days a week, and every time I try to get out there, it's either 110 degrees outside or it's raining tigers and wolves (that would be worse than cats and dogs.  Did you catch the connection there?  Tigers are a larger form of cat and wolves are, never mind).  Now the interesting thing about the Howard situation is that Mark Cuban, Avery Johnson, and Donnie Nelson are traveling out there to represent the Mavs during the ceremony.  Josh Howard is about to enter into the final year of his rookie contract.  That means he is eligible for an extension from the team.  I'm not sure how the years and salary maxes work on that, but I know that if you have just found a diamond in the rough, future star player, you make this work.  If nothing comes of this, then Howard is a restricted free agent next year.  Restricted means that if another team offers him a contract, we have the right to match it and keep him.  Problem is that if another team has loads of salary cap room, and we don't, then we can only match up to a certain point.  They can essentially out bid us for Howard's services, and he would walk without us getting a thing in return.  With the exception of Steve Nash's departure, this team hasn't had a single major blemish on their record of personnel moves over the past 6 or 7 years.  There might have been a mistake here and there, but minor mistakes that they have been able to unload to the better of the team a year or two later.  I won't get into that, because I don't have the time, and you probably don't either.  You also might not care.  Back to Howard, Nash walking was a sucker punch, which was followed by two major upper cuts and a solid groin kick when he won back to back MVP awards, but Nash was sent packing because we didn't want to hamstring ourselves on a long term contract with a player who might just have a few good years left before injuries set in.  Howard just finished his third year in the league, and he could have at least 10 more good years, if not great ones.  Not only does it hurt the team talent-wise to let a promising, almost proven talent walk, but it causes the other players to wonder if the team is really committed to winning.  That's not a doubt that the organization has had to deal with in a long time (except for the Nash thing, which obviously isn't a concern given what they've done since).  It would be wise on all accounts for Cuban, Johnson, Nelson, Howard, and his agent, to sit down this weekend and get something done before training camp.  I trust that they are all smart enough to do so.

2. ESPN.com has been running a 5-part Q & A with some sports writers, and each day is a different question, with each writer providing an answer (prediction).  One was which top 10 team will wind up out of the playoffs in the next two years.  One was which bottom 10 team will wind up winning it all in the next two years.  The one I saw today was which player will surpass Dirk as the best foreign player in the NBA.  Some said Yao Ming, some said Darko Millic, but all said that it's a relatively stupid question because by the time Dirk is surpassable, some of today's foreigners might already be out of their prime to do so.  The simple fact that they would ask such a question proves that Dirk is finally starting to get national respect.  True NBA beat writers would always speak well of Dirk, but the "experts" that probably all reside in New York, California, or Florida, and didn't catch anything about a Mavs game except the box score would poo-poo him as soft.  Now that he has led his team to the Finals, played on a national stage, and forced people to realize that he has a complete game and has just entered his prime, people are starting to jump on the Dirk train.  They better ride coach, because some of us were here first.  Another dotcom-er listed Dirk as the best power forward in the game right now.  That's tough competition.  He listed Dirk ahead of Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Elton Brand.  Dirk wouldn't have gotten that kind of love last year.  In fact, he didn't get that kind of love last year or any year prior, for that matter.  Could 2006-2007 be the year of the Dirkster?

3. You can rely on three things in this world: death, taxes, and NBA players running afoul of the law.  I love basketball, and I love the Mavs.  But I love the NBA for all the super talented dumbasses that can't even count as high as their bank accounts go.  I told you about the player that tried to conceal his pot from airport metal detectors in a ball of tinfoil, right?  Lee Nailon, a former TCU standout and NBA journeyman, was fined $300 and community service for, get this, elbowing his wife in the face.  No word on whether or not he claimed to be boxing out and securing the rebound.  If I was his wife, I would be little offended if my husband elbowing me in the face was only worth $300 and picking up trash.  Who knows?  Maybe she asked him for $300 and told him to take out the trash, and that's why he elbowed her.  Now that, my friends, would be irony.  Also, frequent ne'er-do-well Zach Randolph, was exonerated on his current charges.  I say current because he appears to think that misdemeanors are like a Subway Club card.  He plays for the Portland Trailblazers, the team that the movie The Longest Yard is loosely based on, so that explains a lot.  He once challenged a teammate to a fist fight in the locker room after a game, but the teammate would not engage in combat.  Why?  Because he was afraid that fighting Randolph would be violating his parole.  Way to take the high road, huh?  The reason Randolph was not charged in connection with a sexual assault report from last month is because the authorities didn't think he was a suspect, but that he was just "involved".  These must be the same cops that figured just because Ray Lewis watch two guys get stabbed to death doesn't mean he did anything wrong.  Maybe it happened at his house without his prior knowledge, but I'm not entirely sure how you can be considered by police to be "involved" in a sexual assault, or assault of any kind, and not be considered "suspect".  Lucky him, I guess.  Stay tuned.  As sure as the sun sets and the moon rises, NBA players will get busted doing something wrong, usually in the categories of pot, sex, and public disturbance.  When it happens, I will be here.

Thanks for reading, and take 'er easy for all us sinners.  The Dude abides.  I'd take comfort in that.  Can't wait to get you all on board the Mavs train again this year, and if you enjoy the ride, tell a friend about 3 Cheers.  Just tell them they might have to ride coach.  Go Mavs!

Things are looking up?

Only 12 more days until Mavs training camp starts, but NBA and Mavs articles are starting back up again.  David Moore of the Dallas Morning News had an article today about how Devin Harris has been taking 600 to 700 jump shots a day for the past month to make sure he can keep defenses honest enough to keep them from shutting down his bread and butter drives to the basket.  More importantly, it means that he's not assuming that he will be handed the starting point guard spot along side Jason Terry.  That's good news for his development, good news for the Mavs improvement on a 60 win season that took them to the Finals, and good news for the intensity of training camp with multiple players fighting for playing time.  When you get really good players competing against really good players on a daily basis, it means that your whole team will get better.  I can't wait.

1. The Mavs happen to be in the toughest division in the Western Conference, which means that 5 really good teams will beat up on each other all season long.  In keeping with the training camp scenario, when really good teams compete against really good teams, it makes all the teams better.  The long and short of it is that a few good teams will be left out of the playoff picture, and those that make it in will give all the other teams a real fight.  We all know how good the Mavs and Spurs are.  The Grizzlies will probably take a step back after losing Shane Battier and Bobby Jackson, and Pau Gasol broke his foot in the World Championships and will be out for at least the first few months of the season.  The Rockets picked up Battier, and if Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming are healthy, they will get back to their winning ways quickly.  The Hornets, regardless of whether they play in New Orleans or Oklahoma City this year, have finally committed money to upgrading their team to complement Chris Paul, one of the most electric point guards to enter the league since Allen Iverson (I don't count D-Wade as a point guard).  Last year, the Mavs, Spurs, and Grizzlies all made the playoffs.  The Hornets were right in the hunt, but faded a bit towards the end and barely missed out.  The Rockets were injury plagued, and could never get on track.  Then Marc Stein, a great NBA writer from ESPN and former Mavs beat writer for the Dallas Morning News, ranked the 15 Western Conference teams based strictly on their off season moves.  The Hornets were number 1, the Mavs were number 2, the Spurs were number 3, and the Rockets were number 6.  The Grizzlies pulled up the rear at 15.  I wouldn't be surprised if 4 of the 8 teams that make the playoffs in the West come out of our division.  I say this because if the competition is that fierce in our own division, with those teams playing each other more often than other teams, don't be surprised if the Mavs overall record isn't as good as last year, but it won't mean they have taken a step back.  Instead of focusing on overall wins and losses, keep an eye on each of these 5 teams' division record against each other.  That will go a long way in projecting which teams will go a long way in the post season.

2. Speaking of Devin Harris, it will be interesting to see how the depth chart of the Mavs backcourt plays out during training camp.  Erick Dampier may regain his starting center spot, but only if DeSagana Diop regresses.  The Mavs season took off last year when Avery Johnson moved Dampier to the bench, so expect that to stay the same next year.  Avery has said in interviews that Dirk, Josh Howard and Jason Terry are starters no matter what they show in camp, so that leaves us with one more starting position.  It can go either way.  My guess is that Avery would prefer to play Terry off the ball at the 2 (shooting guard), and have either Harris or newly acquired Anthony Johnson running the point.  However, if neither of those guys prove that they can handle the ball, distribute the ball, call plays, and most importantly score on penetration AND jump shots, then don't be surprised if Avery reverts back to his strategy last year by moving Terry back to the point and putting a defensive minded Greg Buckner (a younger, faster, more reliable scoring version of Adrian Griffin from last year) at the 2.  Stackhouse will come off the bench, guaranteed, because they like his scoring boost as the 6th man, and at his age and with his injury history, they need to keep his minutes low during the regular season.  My personal preference is for Harris to win the job outright at point (you don't trade up to draft a guy with the 5th pick to have him be your backup), with Johnson backing him up, and having Stackhouse and Buckner backing up Terry at the 2 guard spot.  We will have a lot of really talented players battling for 3 players worth of minutes.  Again, that kind of competition will only make you better.

3. From the Department of Sarcastically Saying "I Never Saw That Coming": Willie Nelson got busted for pot possession.  Good old Uncle Willie's tour bus was pulled over, and they found 1 1/2 pounds of pot and 3 ounces of what the newspaper referred to as "narcotic mushrooms".  Say it with me . . . "Wow!  I never saw that coming!"  What's next?  A rapper gets busted for unlawful gun possession?  First of all, Willie's 73 years old, and he's rolling will 1 1/2 pounds of pot.  He was with 4 other people, but still, 1 1/2 pounds of pot is A LOT of pot.  That's like Sam's Club quantities.  "I would like this 6 gallon jar of mayonnaise, this 50 pack of tube socks, and 1 1/2 pounds of pot, please.  Can I go through the flat bed cart aisle with that?"  Either you plan on being entirely useless for the next 23 days, or you're stocking up for Armageddon.  I'm not sure if 3 ounces of "narcotic mushrooms" is excessive, because I have made it a personal mantra to not intake any product that is cultivated from cow turds, regardless of how good it might make me feel inside.  Aside from that, to tie this all back into sports, some athletes might need to take a lesson from this.  Now, some athletes have already taken a page from this by rolling with a hand truck's worth of weed on them, but that's not what I'm talking about.  Shoot, Damon Stoudamire thought he could conceal his dope from the airport metal detectors by wrapping it in aluminum foil.  But in this day and age, more athletes are worried about themselves than the good of the team.  Selfish athletes take note: with the amount of happy grass and "narcotic mushrooms" that the cops found on that bus, Willie would have been charged with felony intent to distribute.  Since there were 4 other people on the bus, one of whom was his OLDER sister Bobbie, they all claimed that it was a shared stash.  The authorities had to divide the amount over the 5 people, which reduced the charges to misdemeanor possession for all.  Now THAT, selfish athletes, is what I call teamwork.  There's no "I" in team, there's just "high" in team.

Count it down, folks.  The best time of year is almost upon us.  Those emails that got you all hooked on this little rant and rave blog were unfiltered reactions to how a crazed Mavs fan thinks during and after a game.  Granted those playoff games were a little more intense, but I will be that way to just a slightly smaller degree during the regular season.  I can't guarantee that I will be able to report on all 82 games (my wife would not appreciate that), but I will say that I have never missed more than 5 games a season in the past 15 years.  That's dedication, passion, and borderline manic obsession.  Don't judge me.

Getting Closer

18 days until media day, 19 days until training camp starts.  I will do my best to get to a preseason game so I can give my annual preseason review.  That email is kind of what started this whole beast to begin with.  I would go to a preseason game, then critique every player on the preseason roster before the final cuts were made.  I would list pros, cons, a few predictions, and then send it off to some basketball fans that I'm friends with.  It was a request for my season ending review this past summer that prompted me to start reviewing each playoff game, and here we are.  Have you noticed how gas prices are falling?  The heat isn't so bad?  Your beer tastes a little crisper, and your reflection in the mirror looks prettier?  That means it's almost fall.  It's football time.  It's almost time for all your favorite television shows to start new episodes.  And most importantly, it's almost Mavs season.

1. The Mavs have announced that they selected 10 home games this year to sell tickets at discounted prices.  $48 tickets are $32, $33 tickets are $20, $18 tickets are $10, and $9 tickets are $2.  Sure $9 tickets are nosebleeds, but $2, man!  Even the $9 tickets are reduced from what they have gone for the past 3 years.  Cuban's good about that.  He's always said that as soon as he got his payroll back in check, he would pass the savings on to the fans.  I would take advantage of that.  Now a lot of these games are reduced because they are playing crappy teams (see: New York, Seattle and Minnesota), and some are reduced because they are playing teams that are mediocre but don't draw much fan interest (see: Washington, Philadelphia, and Toronto).  If you go for the players (or in my case, just to watch the Mavs kick the crap out of someone), then these six teams offer stars such as Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Gilbert Arenas, Allen Iverson, Chris Bosh, and (insert overpaid prima-donna Knickerbocker here).  But if you want more than to watch a good player bogged down by a bad team, then check these out.  Houston on Oct. 17th.  Two superstars, Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, that had injuries last year and kept a good team from being much better, plus I think they are still a little raw about us taking them down in the playoffs two years ago.  Chicago on Nov. 14th.  Chicago is a good young team that likes to play rough defense and fundamental offense, sort of like the Pistons.  Guess what?  They just signed the Pistons' starting center, Ben Wallace, in the off season.  Chicago could probably finish in the top 3 in East next year, and would like to validate themselves by beating the best in the west on their home court.  Not a bad match-up for $2.  Golden State on Nov. 6th.  Nellie returns.  The Warriors always had talent, but never got much from it.  With Nelson on board, look for run and gun, highlight reel basketball that will be very exciting.  Also, even with a bad team last year, their athleticism allowed them to be the only team in the league to beat us 3 times in the regular season.  Finally, Indiana on Jan 4th.  Indiana is now in a rebuilding mode, but they are the team that we made 2 trades with this off season.  Watch Jermaine O'Neal go against Dirk.  Watch Marquis Daniels try to prove we made a mistake.  Watch Austin Croshere and Anthony Johnson prove the Pacers made a mistake.  In other words, if you aren't a huge Mavs fan, but have become one because of my emails and this blog, then take advantage of the reduced prices, get yourself to a game, and experience the Mavs fever in person.  I gotta tell you, there's nothing like it.  Just be sure to get there before tipoff.  The player introduction will make you feel happy to be alive.

2. Now on to the other home team that makes me wonder why living is worth it.  The Rangers are basically trying to drive me away this year.  After all this time, they finally have an offensive explosion last night.  When do they decide to do it?  When they are hitting against my fantasy baseball pitcher, that's when.  Why don't you light up the other guys?  I'm closing in on first place in my league with very little time to spare.  If you're going to suck every other night, why not suck on the night that it at least helps me out?  Kudos to Gary Matthews, Jr. for hitting for the cycle, though.  I like this guy a lot, which basically means that I hope they trade him to a real team.  Also, he became only the third Ranger to hit for the cycle since they moved here in '72.  That's right.  34 seasons.  5,508 games.  Only the third to hit for the cycle in team history.  The other one is Mark Teixiera, who did it 2 years ago.  But the other is Oddibe McDowell, one of the greatest names in all of sports.  I'm just glad Matthews did it so that I got a chance to see McDowell's name in the paper again.  One more time, just for fun.  Oddibe McDowell.  It's like an annunciation exercise.

3. Finally, at Northern Colorado, when they say cut the kicker, they really mean cut the kicker.  The starting punter for the Northern Colorado Whatevertheyares was stabbed in his kicking leg outside his apartment Monday night.  The assailant?  The backup punter for the Northern Colorado Whatevertheyares (in case you haven't figured it out, I have no idea what Northern Colorado's mascot is).  The backup punter was arrested for second degree assault, and in a move of great irony, cut from the team.  Was that joke too easy?  How about they kicked him off the team?  Either way, this O.J. wannabe had just transfered to Northern Colorado because he lost his starting job at his previous school to someone else.  No word on any stabbings of punters from that school.  I love the stories that write themselves.

I will try to give another posting next week if anything pops up, but if not, get yourself ready for Mavs season.  Once that starts up, this blog will come fast and furious.  Be well.  Go Mavs.

Tough Talk, Tough Love, Tough S***

So I understand that Justin Timberlake is bringing "sexy" back.  That's a pretty large endeavor, if you ask me.  First of all, I didn't realize that "sexy" had ever left.  I think there is a whole chain of stores revolving around a girl named Victoria and her "secret" that beg to differ with that notion.  As a side note, some of that merchandise is anything BUT secret.  If Vicky wanted to be secret, she'd wear a ninja outfit to bed.  Second of all, who anointed Mr. Timberlake as the savior of "sexy"?  The last time some dude that sang in a high falsetto and had a penchant for dance numbers was trying to bring sexy back, he wound up with a carnival in his backyard, about 20 new noses, Elephant Man's bones, and a "glove" box full of unpaid child molestation charges.  Sexy, indeed.  Third of all, if Mr. Timberlake can do it, then I would like to bring something back, too.  I want to bring back "gregarious".  It's a fun word to say, it makes you sound smart, and if you ARE gregarious, it basically means that you're a really cool person that everyone wants to be friends with.  Who wouldn't want a revival of that?

1. Tough Talk: So here we are with a little less than a month left in the annual Texas Rangers Summer of Attrition, and now owner Tom Hicks decides to blame the season on a lack of "toughness" and "leadership".  If he was trying to fire up his team, he should have said this about two months ago when our 3 game division lead was slowly slipping away.  If he's trying to point fingers, then I would like to hear this speech from someone in the organization that was actually tough and showed leadership.  This is the same owner that sat idly by a few years ago while the manager and the pitching coach coerced him into railroading Grady Fuson, who was widely regarded in the league as the next great talent scout/general manager.  They did this in favor of then-current general manager John Hart, who had done nothing for this team but put them in debt with overpaid, under-talented egos that were more concerned with boosting their 'Roid numbers than playing like a team.  With that little nugget in mind, the "toughness" and "leadership" that Hicks speaks of is obviously directed at his players, since manager Buck Showalter can do no wrong in his mind.  Buck could stab Hicks in the leg, spread the wound open, pour in some salt and lemon juice, then slap him in the face, and Hicks would say, "Great strategy, Buck.  Let's go coach some ball!"  I don't want Hicks to fire Showalter, because they deserve each other.  I want him to fire Mark Teixeira, Michael Young, Hank Blalock, and general manager Jon Daniels, only because I like those guys, I respect those guys, and they deserve to work for a winning organization that supports their efforts over the ones that are the real problems.

2. Tough Love: I don't want to hear anything about the Texas Bonghorns, or Book 'em Horns, or any other funny zinger that comes up in the next few days, because basically nobody can say anything without looking like a hypocrite.  If you attended, root for, or have some allegiance to a college or university in the United States that has an athletics program, odds are that at some point in their history they have had scandals, improprieties, sexual misconduct, misdemeanors, felonies, or in the case of my alma mater, Baylor Baptist, straight up murder.  All I'm saying is that I think that Bob Stoops did the right thing by kicking his star quarterback off the team when he got busted for accepting illegal money.  Do I think Stoops looked the other way until it became public knowledge?  You bet, but when put in the situation where he had to either respect the public integrity of his program or try to win a championship, he chose integrity.  Same goes for Mack Brown this week.  After having to dismiss one of his star players from last year due to his ongoing academic and legal troubles before the season started, now he has suspended his star cornerback right before what might be the most heralded regular season matchup in the last 5 years.  Do I think that Brown had an idea that some of his players were having a little too much fun on 6th Street than in study hall?  You bet, but he had to do it.  He preserved the public integrity of the program, but more importantly he just did that kid a favor.  Even if the kid winds up exonerated of his charges, Brown can say he got suspended for not being smarter about the people he hangs out with.  It's called tough love.  It sucks when you get it, and it sucks when you have to give it, but if this is the new trend in college athletics, we might have something special on our hands.

3. Tough S***: USA Basketball is in an unfortunate state that I don't think they can get out of before the next Olympics, i.e. when it really matters if we lose or not.  After watching USA beat Germany, I knew that Greece would beat them in the next game.  Germany used a tight 2-3 zone defensive strategy to expose our interior weakness and force us into jumpshots.  We clanged enough to score our lowest total of the tournament so far, but made enough to beat them.  Greece doesn't have a lot of star power, but they are the Detroit Pistons of international play.  They shut you down defensively, and Germany just gave them the blueprint on how to do it to us.  I only wish that I had written this in my blog that day so that I could look like a genius now instead of a hindsight hero.  I would have looked like a sexy, gregarious genius, I might add.  Those traits are "back" now, you know.  Here's the deal: We sold our soul to the mighty gods of Mt. Olympus back in '92 when we sent our best and brightest to win back the gold.  The Dream Team!  That team was significantly better than any opponent we played that year.  Shoot, Lithuania couldn't even drum up enough money for uniforms, so The Grateful Dead had to pony up for them (more on that later).  More importantly, we weren't playing basketball teams.  We were playing a bunch of kids that were more concerned with getting Jordan's autograph than defending his fadeaway.  What we created that summer was an international basketball explosion.  Those same foreign kids saw up close and personal how to imitate their idols.  How to practice like their heroes.  How to fundamentally destroy an opponent.  They also had the whole world (and NBA scouts) watching them intently for the first time ever, seeing raw talent that was only a season or two away from being the next big thing.  Then those guys got a chance to make it to the NBA.  Next thing they know they are playing against their idols on a daily basis.  Some of them, like Tony Kukoc, became teammates with their idols.  The novelty wore off.  They got better coaching, they got better training, they took what they learned back to their countries to teach their friends.  The countries started caring more, supporting more, spending more on these programs.  Remember that Lithuanian team that couldn't afford jerseys?  I believe there are currently 3 or 4 Lithuanian players on NBA teams and last Olympics they beat us in the prelim round and gave us a hard fought battle just to win the bronze.  Not that I'm unpatriotic, but I love Dirk Nowitzki.  I was cheering for Germany.  I bet there are Grizzlies fans that were cheering for Spain, and Suns and Spurs fans cheering for France.  I'm glad that we don't still dominate, because they would have just done to basketball what they did to softball.  They would eliminate it as a competition because one country was so vastly superior to the rest of the world that it wasn't entertaining anymore.  I'm glad that we don't still dominate, because it's better for my first concern: the state of the NBA and more importantly, the Mavs.  Increase your talent pool, you increase your talent.  I'm just saying that the first Dream Team was the best and worst thing that happened to USA Basketball, and it's not going to get any better anytime soon.  That's the long and short of it.  Strikes and gutters.  Tough S***.

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend.  Great college weekend ahead of us, opening weekend for the NFL, and only 26 days until Mavs training camp opens.  And can you believe that my spell check just told me that it didn't recognize the term "sexy"?  Perhaps Mr. Timberlake is right.  It's time to bring it back.