Mavs no longer laughingstock
DALLAS – Like most longtime Dallas Mavericks fans, Mark Cuban remembers the bad old days, when “postseason play” meant being part of the draft lottery.
Boy, how times have changed.
Injected with Cuban’s cash, Dirk Nowitzki’s jumper and Avery Johnson’s leadership, the Mavs are headed to the NBA finals for the first time, starting Thursday night at home against the Miami Heat.
“We’re excited, obviously,” Johnson said after the Mavericks erased an 18-point deficit to beat Phoenix 102-93 Saturday night and earn the silver trophy that goes to the Western Conference champion. “Nobody is ripping their shirts off or going too crazy, but they should celebrate.
“But we know we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”
With the Mavs taking Sunday off and several days after that to delve into how they will try slowing Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal, it’s worth looking back at how far this franchise has come, both over the long term of its 26 years and the short term of an uncertain start to this season.
The Mavericks were born in 1980, became contenders amazingly quickly, then faded faster than you can say Roy Tarpley. They were so bad in the 1990s that they had the lowest winning percentage of any team in major pro sports in North America – yes, even worse than the Clippers.
“You could walk up two minutes before game time and buy a front-row seat for $10,” said Cuban, a cheap-seat regular long before he became an Internet billionaire.
When he bought the team in January 2000, Dallas was 9-23 and well on its way to collecting lottery pingpong balls for a 10th straight year.
“Just to speculate we would make the playoffs in the next five years was heresy,” Cuban recalled Saturday night, wearing his new Western Conference champion hat and T-shirt. “Now, we’ve gotten to this.”
Beyond making the finals, Dallas has re-established itself as a playoff perennial. The Mavs have made six straight trips to the playoffs, the longest run in team history, and done so with only one constant: Nowitzki.
While the players, coaches and even the home court have changed, the most important shift was the dedication to defense that Johnson brought when he replaced Don Nelson late last season.
“He demanded it,” said Donnie Nelson, the team’s president of basketball operations and Don Nelson’s son. “That’s the difference.”
Dallas wound up tying a franchise record with 60 wins. The Mavs were the only team to pull off a first-round sweep, then they outlasted the defending champion Spurs in seven games. They knocked the Suns out in six games, despite losing the opener at home and dropping Game 4 by 20 points.
And there’s still one round left.
“The expectations just grow,” Cuban said. “Now, we’re not a team that couldn’t make it, we’re not a team that’s soft. We’re a team that’s going to the finals.”