It took 31 years-- its took 9 coaches-- a few owners-- countless players, and one magical night in South Florida for the Dallas Mavericks to "CLIMB TO THE NBA MOUNTAIN AND PLANT THEIR FLAG"! (Thank you Chuck Cooperstein for the quote).
The best part of the celebration however was not the realization that Dirk Nowitski was now vindicated as being one of the best players in the league! It was not the fact that the Dallas showed the rest of the league and the world that they were better than the experts thought of being ONE and DONE! as so many had predicted, it was more than seeing how the Mavericks were able to contain the BIG THREE of Miami (So hows that decision working out for you now Miami?), it WAS however, the moment when David Stern, the Commissioner of the NBA stood on the stage at center court-- at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, and proclaimed the NBA Champions Dallas Mavericks and handed the trophy to Mark Cuban who then immediately told the Commissioner to hand it to Donald Carter and his wife-- who were the original owners of this franchise in 1980!
NOW THAT WAS CLASS!
I worked with the Carters when they owned another sports franchise at the time, they were the Dallas Sidekicks, and to tell you, from the start, they were the best people to be around. I knew Mr. Carter back in the day because of his Mother, Mary Collins, who owned an interior design operation in North Dallas, Mrs. Collins was in the same Dale Carnegie class, (for those of you who do not know who Dale Carnegie is, read his book-- it will save your life in the business world)... as my father, so it was easy to be around Mr. and Mrs. Carter when they were at Reunion Arena. All those playoffs games in basketball against the Seattle Super Sonics, the Moody Madness, the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers only to come up short, then the move to American Airlines Center, and another trip to NBA History in 2006, only to come up short in that outing with the Heat, and then five years later the rematch that pretty much everyone wanted, even with the big 3 in the lineup, of James, Bosh, Wade. We now see how that turned out... the O'Brien Trophy is coming to Dallas and that pretty much sums that up!
Mr. Jones over there in Valley Ranch will boast that they have FIVE Trophies, in their case, Mr. Hicks will claim to have gotten to the top of the mountain first with their Stanley Cup win in 1999 over the Sabers in Hockey, the Rangers took the American League Pennant just 8 months ago! NOW the Mavericks can add to that number of championships to this community, this Metroplex! The City of Champions! Now that has a nice RING to it!
Mr. Jones over there in Valley Ranch will boast that they have FIVE Trophies, in their case, Mr. Hicks will claim to have gotten to the top of the mountain first with their Stanley Cup win in 1999 over the Sabers in Hockey, the Rangers took the American League Pennant just 8 months ago! NOW the Mavericks can add to that number of championships to this community, this Metroplex! The City of Champions! Now that has a nice RING to it!
Mr. Cuban-- you are a class act, a good owner, and a fair person when it comes to all the aspects of this team. I will congratulate you, and your team from Rich Carlisle, to Donnie Nelson, and the rest of the staff, it was an incredible year, and more so an incredible NBA Finals-- as someone said, it was indeed a Classic! One for the ages!
Just a thought!
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