Dirk Nowitzki was obviously unstoppable with 48 points and an NBA playoff-record 24 of 24 free throws, but the Mavs were stagnant and stale offensively until J.J. Barea entered the game in the second quarter. As Thunder coach Scotty Brooks said afterward, “He’s a handful.” I’m still shocked at his…
Last night, at the end of the first quarter of Mavs-Thunder, I spoke on the phone with Flula Borg — yes, that Flula Borg. The man behind “His Name is Dirk (Nowitzki),” who, according to the press release one of his friends sent out last night, is pushing to make…
For once and all, he pronounces it “No-WIT-skee.” Has since the day he stepped off the plane from Germany back in 1998 and arrived at the Mavs’ old practice facility at the Baylor-Tom Landry Center in Dallas. You call him “No-VIT-skee”? He shrugs. Doesn’t care. Likewise, it doesn’t bother him…
The Mavericks haven’t lost an NBA Western Conference Finals series in five years. Of course we all know what happened last time Dallas advanced this far — in the 2006 NBA Finals. The come-from-ahead loss to the Heat sent the franchise into a psychological spiral from which it is just now recovering…
Execution vs. Explosion. Savvy vs. Speed. Aptitude vs. Athleticism. You get the picture. Mavs vs. Thunder. While — yeah, I know — I shoulda took my Mavs-over-Blazers first-round pick and quit while I was ahead, I predicted a Lakers’ win the West semis and, happily, sheepishly, here we are in…
Ron Springs’ fight is dead. His litigation, however, lives on. While former Cowboys teammates Roger Staubach and Everson Walls prepare to speak at Springs’ funeral in Carrollton on Thursday, the ex-running back, who died of a heart attack while in a 3 1/2-year coma last week, is still being represented furiously…
While we await some Important Documents, let me distract you with this.No doubt you recall last week’s Greatest Video Ever (as opposed to this week’s), in which German musicmaker Flula Borg pays homage to his “most favorite Basketballer from all times,” one Dirk Nowitzki. Well, so happens that Borg –…
As I’ve said before, new Rangers TV play-by-play voice John Rhadigan is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Love him as a friend. Be honored to have him as a neighbor. Or a role model. Whatever. Great dude. But as the voice of my baseball? Um, let’s see…
By the way they reacted at their fog-machine introduction last summer and their tearful over-reaction last week, you’d think the Miami Heat already had won two championships this season. But no, after last night’s drubbing in Chicago they trail the Eastern Conference Finals, 1-0. And for those of us who…
I’ll have my position-by-position breakdown complete with, yes, the highly (smirk) coveted prediction tomorrow, but let’s get this party started pronto. Back in 1994 I covered the Mavericks for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and a team that featured point guards Jason Kidd and J.J. Barea. Well, not exactly. But funny how sports works. Kidd…
Ron Springs was pronounced dead yesterday. After dying on Oct. 12, 2007. I wrote about Springs’ sad plight in a March 2010 Observer cover story. But you already knew his tale. Former Cowboys’ running back who became a national poster boy — along with Everson Walls — for warm-n-fuzzy feelgoods…
On the afternoon of October 12, 2007, former Dallas Cowboys running back Ron Springs went into a Medical City of Dallas operating room for what he and his family believed would be a simple surgery — the removal of a cyst from his left forearm. But as Richie noted in…
While we anxiously await the Mavs’ NBA Western Conference Final opponent — looks like the Thunder — a couple of matters that get, well, right to the heart of the matter. Was talking to Mark Aguirre last week in the wake of his recent health scare. Aguirre, the first overall pick in the…
Meant to get to this two days ago, when Texas Rangers Executive Vice President of Communications John Blake sent out the announcement, but it’s not too late to make it to NorthPark Center by 1 p.m. That’s when C.J. Wilson and Chanel Iman (well, hello) are scheduled to stop by…
Going to Frisco tonight for the debut of Cuban defector/Texas Rangers stud prospect Leonys Martin. Or am I? Maybe I’ll go and sit in traffic and have a hot dog and two cold ones and Martin will dazzle with a two hits and a stolen base and…then it will rain and…
Two words I never expected to hear organically and joyfully chanted at American Airlines Center: Sweep L.A.! Shocking as it was to hear, it was almost unfathomable to see. If you honestly thought the notoriously soft, choke-charred Mavericks would beat the two-time defending NBA champion Lakers, 4-0, in their Western…
You know me, the biggest Dirk Nowitzki homer in town. But Rick Carlisle even made me cringe earlier this week by tabbing the Mavs’ star as a top 10 NBA player “of all time.”Carlisle has been great in these NBA Playoffs. Keeping his Mavericks mentally together after the Game 4…
The song “Dirk41,” by German musicmaker Flula Borg, was originally released in December 2009. It’s available for purchase on iTunes, or you can listen to it on Borg’s MySpace page, where it’s received but a scant 6,709 plays in more than a year and a half. But, trust me, you’ll…
Rangers’ manager Ron Washington loves status quo. Likes the same ol’ routine of it all. When something extraordinary happens in the game he delivers his pet philosophical phrase: “That’s the way baseball go.” But in the midst of watching his team lose seven of nine games and seven of eight…
Hello, win column! third place.The Rangers started 9-1. But since Josh Hamilton broke his arm on that daring/dumb dash for home plate in Detroit on April 12, they’re 9-17.That equals 18-18. That equals — for the first time since April 30, 2010 — third place in the AL West behind…
When the Lakers’ Empire imploded on Mother’s Day in Dallas, it did it in surreal style — under a barrage of 20 Mavericks’ 3-pointers, and punctuated by cheap-shot thuggery from Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum. Was thinking about Bynum’s chicken-shit elbow to an exposed J.J. Barea. Other than the time Jason…
While the Mavs were sleeping last night, they might have won another playoff game. How’s that? Because over in Memphis the Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder played only the sixth triple-overtime game in NBA playoff history. On the heels of Saturday’s overtime win by Memphis, OKC survived last night’s marathon thriller,…
