They bring it back to San Antonio on Monday night to end the series.
In San Antonio, today, there is a pallid sense of optimism about Monday night’s game. No one seems quite willing to commit to a win, and yet, all seem to expect one.
“Of course, they’re going to win,” said one. “They’re the Spurs. They always bring us to the edge but they always pull it off.”
Others were not so expectant. “It’s going to be a hard win. Dallas hates us,” said another. “It’s that Avery Johnson and Mark Cuban. They want to beat us, big time.”
Indeed, there has blown up around this series an ill wind, a quiet curtain of animosity, a thing not unlike the bad blood that drew gunslingers out onto the dusty streets to gun each other down.
Everything started out so friendly, too. Well, except for Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. He’s hardly ever friendly when it comes to San Antonio. Before game 6 he was quoted as saying that they would kick the Spurs back to that "muddy-watered thing they call a Riverwalk." He wants a rivalry and he doesn’t care what he has to do to get it. Add to this head coach Avery Johnson’s history with the Spurs. He was on the 1999 Championship team. Back then the Spurs were still led by “The Admiral” David Robinson, and winning that title was all about him. When Robinson retired the following year, A.J. (“The Little General”, we called him, since he was “co-captain” of the team) continued in his capacity as on the court coach.
This didn’t sit well with many of the new faces on the bench, particularly Malik Rose and Tim Duncan. It was reported that Avery Johnson got his bell rung by Malik Rose in a post game locker room brawl, and that the team sided against A.J. This led to sour grapes on his part, and ultimately led the club to cut him. A.J. made reference to having been “cut on Christmas eve” in his Q&A after game 6 when asked if he was afraid of playing game 7 in San Antonio. He also revealed that he traveled with a bodyguard, leading one to believe that he is, indeed, afraid of playing in San Antonio, and it’s starting to show.
He’s lost his cool. After being awarded the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award A.J has been riding high on a wave of his own ego. With a heavy dose of “Short Mans Complex” he’s ridden his team straight into a Waterloo in San Antonio. Now, he’s got to face his mentor, Gregg Popovich, on the Masters terms, and he’s going to crack.
Dallas has been playing dirty since the start of the series and Jason Terry’s suspension for punching Michael Finley in game 5 is just one of the many signs that Dallas is cracking up, from the Coach on down. That punch was an act of desperation, the act of a team lacking in sportsmanship, leadership, and Grit.
There’s an I-35 Shootout coming Monday night. The Mavericks boo-ed Michael Finley for having been traded to San Antonio and for having been part of the Terry suspension scandal but Terry better watch out when he walks into the AT&T center. We’re a mighty rowdy crowd and, woe-betide the Dallas Fans down here. For their information, we here in San Antonio think that they are all hat and no cattle, and Mark “the Mouth” Cuban and Avery “the little traitor” Johnson, and pugilistic Jason Terry can all take the walk of shame all the way back to Dallas, knowing that they were beaten by the better Team.
1 comment:
Other than Peter Holt, Mark Cuban is the only other NBA owner I know by name. He is also the only one I know of that makes as much noise and wants to be seen and heard as much as his players. The logical conclusion is that he has no star quality of his own so he has to live vicariously through his players.
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