The frustrating thing about Dirk Nowitzki’s injured finger? It happened on a play that wasn’t a foul. “I thought I stripped him clean,” Dirk said after last night’s 92-84 Game 1 loss to the Heat in the NBA Finals. “Then I kind of looked down and I couldn’t straighten my…
[jump] 5. When the Heat are in The Finals, Miami brings out the big hitters. And who might they be? Jimmy Buffet. Gloria Estefan. Queen Latifah. And Ludacris. Yes, those are ranked worst to first. 4. If the Mavs’ bench can’t obliterate the Heat’s sorry subs, this will be a…
USA Today directs our attention to agent Leigh Steinberg’s kick-off column for the Los Angeles Times’s small-paper spin-off The Daily Pilot, which ran last week. In it Steinberg tackles the subject of concussions, which, he writes, have become an “undiagnosed health epidemic … sweeping athletic fields across the country …..
Charles Barkley is 3-0 picking the Mavericks in playoff series this spring. ESPN’s Bruce Bowen is 0-3 picking against them. Me? 2-1. I picked Mavs over Blazers and Thunder but had them losing to the Lakers. In Miami for tonight’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals, I’m having difficulty viewing this series…
Two videos just landed in the in-box via Friends of Unfair Park. Let’s lead with The Association’s Official Ramp-Up to Tonight’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals recapping the post-season that was, so far, for Your Dallas Mavericks. On the other side is Fort Worth filmmaker-slash-puppet master Erik Clapp’s latest…
Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James are the two best active NBA players without a ring. Jason Terry has a tattoo of the Larry O’Brien trophy on his right arm. Dwyane Wade is trying to depress Dallas. Again. Jason Kidd is the oldest point guard (38) in NBA Finals history. It’s revenge,…
Sorry to pee on your Memorial Day barbecue, but you gotta get mad one more time before we can get even. Revenge, after all, is best served … in South Beach. I know only Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry remain for the Mavericks and Udonis Haslem and Dwyane Wade remain…
Sources telling me this afternoon that the Texas Rangers will today fire rookie play-by-play voice John Rhadigan. We knew Rhadigan was off to a rough start, but this seems unfair. He went into the season with zero play-by-play experience and it showed. Not sure what the Rangers expected. But not even…
After last night’s Game 5 door slammer against the OKC Thunder, your Mavericks are now 12-3 in the playoffs and awaiting an opponent in the NBA Finals. Not bad for a team that about 50 percent of prognosticators picked would lose to the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round. I…
There’s no game out at the Ballpark today — shame too, since it’s likely The Last Lovely Day before summer slams into high gear. Nevertheless, at 11:30 this morning Nolan Ryan and Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington will find themselves at home plate, where Ryan will give Washington the keys…
We’re rooting for the Chicago Bulls in tonight’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Right? I know, in the regular season the Mavs were 2-0 against the Miami Heat and 0-2 against the Bulls. But the longer the series goes — it’s currently 3-1 Miami — the more rest the…
10. Much as I’m giddy over the victory and the Mavs’ second berth in the NBA Finals, I’m almost as happy for the way they handled the win. No confetti on the floor. No champagne in the locker room. Not even a drop of celebratory Ginger Ale. Says Dirk Nowitzki,…
OKLAHOMA CITY—Kevin Durant, meet Harold Camping. And Dallas Mavericks, reintroduce yourselves to the NBA Finals. Camping is an 89-year-old scam artist, a religious zealot with a troubling propensity for predicting the end of the world and then living to tell about it. Durant is a 22-year-old NBA superstar, the league’s…
As the Mavs prepare for tonight’s Game 5 clincher at American Airlines Center, a cardiac comparison: Down 15 with 5:06 to play. On the road. Game 4 of the 2011 Western Conference Finals. Or down 6, 1:47 to play. At home (sorta). Game 5 in the first round of the…
Didn’t see this with my own eyes, but apparently around 1 a.m. this morning the Ranger who just spent six weeks on the disabled list with a broken arm suffered in a head-first slide … slid three times head-first in one memorable, moronic trip around the bases in Texas’ weather-ravaged 8-6 loss…
Well, this is certainly is disappointing — there goes my first book. While using the Google Machine to find something Tom Hicks-related this evening, I came across this: a review published two days ago in The Independent of a book called An Epic Swindle: 44 Months With a Pair of…
Tied in the final minute of overtime after erasing a 15-point deficit in the final 5 minutes of regulation. Jason Kidd’s defense on Kevin Durant, leading to a Shawn Marion steal. The Mavericks’ veteran patience, systematically setting up of a Dirk Nowitzki elbow isolation they’ve run a zillion times. Dirk’s aggressiveness…
Yesterday I surmised that the Rangers’ offense would suddenly improve with the returns of sluggers Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz. But not me — nor even Texas — thought it would happen that fast. Or that far. Fresh off the disabled list, Hamilton homered in his first at-bat and Cruz added…
A few days ago Erik Clapp, the Fort Worth-based filmmaker who maintains the Bobbie Wygant Archive, sent me the short-short you see on the other side: “Dirk Will Destroy Your Heart.” ‘Round the office it elicits awkward, bemused titters; figured it ever there was an appropriate time to post up…
10. Battle scars. The Mavericks are fueled by them. As of last night, the Thunder now have one of their own. Who feels worse about their closing confidence this morning: Harold Camping and his May 21 oops or Chokelahoma and its 15-point implosion? 9. Whether it was an epic meltdown or…
On July 6, 1947, it was announced that George Herman Ruth would be coming to Dallas on July 9. The occasion: an appearance during a double-header at Rebel Stadium in Oak Cliff on behalf of the American Legion junior baseball program. That Wednesday would be known, according to the ad…
A day short of six weeks after breaking his arm, Josh Hamilton is back. So is Nelson Cruz. And with them, will the Rangers welcome the return of their offense? After a weekend in Philly in which they were outscored only 5-4 over 27 innings of, let’s face it, boring baseball,…
