Why I like the Mavericks

Well, it's 4:00 p.m., EST on a Tuesday, and I could be doing work for my noon deadline tomorrow, but I think I'd rather explain to you, the loyal fan (I'm still not entirely sure if anyone other than me has read this blog, but hey, I'm as loyal to myself as they come) why exactly I like the Dallas Mavericks.

After all, I have lived most of my life in the Washington D.C. metro area, I hate the other major team based in Dallas (the Cowboys, sorry NHL, you still have some work to do, like getting your playoffs on national TV), and I've never been to see them play, aside from a preseason game against the Wiz this year.

Let's start at the beginning. I really liked watching Larry Bird in my formative years. I started really paying attention to him around 1991 or so, so I caught him on the down part of the hill. But he was still fun to watch, and he still got me interested in the sports where big guys throw a rubber ball through a circle.

Then Bird left, and MJ began dominating the game. And let me tell you about MJ. I hated him. I hated the Bulls, and when they both kept winning, I stopped watching basketball.

I've always been like that as a sports fan, and I don't think I'm unique. Nobody wants to see a dynasty, unless the ruling team is their team.

So while Chicago was being whipped in a frenzy unlike anything this side of Russell's Celtics, I couldn't have cared less. After all, all my loser friends loved Jordan, loved the Bulls, so I had to be different.

After the Bulls came the strike, then a Lakers three-peat. Boooooooring! But it was around 2002 that I started watching the playoffs again, and I did like watching Kobe and Shaq play together, even thought they became basketball versions of the Yankees (who were fresh off of four rings of their own). So I told myself I would only watch the playoffs, because it guaranteed the best games.

What did I miss by this logic? A few things. Paul Pierce, Jason Kidd, Dirk, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, allen and Pau Gasol for one thing. Since they didn't even sniff the playoffs, I didn't know who they were.

I wasn't an ESPN.com junkie like i am now (thank you 28.8k modems) so I couldn't get that deep in the league.

And during the 2003 playoffs, guess who was the most fun to watch. Not the three-time defending champions, but the Sacramento Kings and the Dallas Mavericks.

The Kings had Mike Bibby (great name, also helped me like Chauncey Billups), Doug Christie, the shell of Vlade Divac and C-Webb, still in his prime (or as close to it as he ever got). They were fun to watch, plus since they had been in the shadow of the Lakers for so long that they even had my sympathy vote.

The Mavericks had the troika of Steve Nash, Michael Finley and the Dirkinator. While I loved Finley's jump shooting and Nashie's passing, there was something incredibly fascinating about this 7 foot German guy who reminded me of Alan Rickman from Die Hard.

He had a wicked jumper (probably should be 'jumpah', just to be safe), could hit the three, could rebound, and though it often was overshadowed by Nash's skills, he was a pretty good passer.

I rented a video game after the Finals that year, and I ended up playing mostly has the Kings (as I have been known to choose sports teams, see: Gretzky's Kings in 1992 NHLPA Hockey for the SNES).

Sometimes I wake up in a cold sweat, wondering what my life would have been like if I'd been a Kings fan. As much hell as the Mavs have put me through in the past few years, it beats the cold indifference of mediocrity that the Kings, T-Wolves, Heat (except for the dreaded '05-06 season) and Clippers have been through.

Okay, I don't really wake up in a cold sweat, but you get it.

Tomorrow, the story continues. Why did I stick by the Mavs as the trio I loved gradually went away?

Until manana.