The Dallas Mavericks have lost out on another one.
They couldn't get within intentional-fouling distance of LeBron/Wade/Bosh, the Miami cartel. No go on Joe Johnson. No thanks on Al Jefferson. Udonis Haslem turned them down. So did Al Harrington.
And now this: Greg Ostertag won't be a Mav, either. He's a Duncanville native and he's 7-2 and he's younger than Jason Kidd and the Mavs do not employ him because the former NBA center is busy...
...playing rec-league hockey in Scottsdale, Arizona.
"I know I can still play," Ostertag said, meaning "play basketball'' as opposed to "play hockey.'' "It's just a matter of getting back into shape. I can still play. I can put in 10 or 15 minutes a game, get some rebounds and block some shots."
Ostertag's fascination with the hockey thing was, last time we checked, still cooking a year ago. Since then, he got a tryout with the Portland Trail Blazers that apparently didn't go especially well.
So we're kidding about the Mavs, of course; they've made commitments to Brendan Haywood and Tyson Chandler and believe that is a top-notch rotation at center. And if Dallas needs emergency big men, they've pretty much signed up every 7-foot tall person in the entire nation of France.
So things aren't thin at center for the Mavs and things aren't as bad as they seem in terms of people not wanting to sign here ... and flashbacks to Ostertag are actually sort of comforting because of the one time he was on the Mavericks' radar: He was available in the 2005 NBA Draft and one seat-holder in the Mavs' war room really wanted him ...
That person was owner Don Carter's wife, Linda, who herself had played basketball at Duncanville High and was certain Greg could be a fixture upfront for years to come.
And Mrs. C was right: In the summer-of-2009 newspaper update on Ostertag, it's mentioned that on his Scottsdale rec-league hockey team, he plays forward.
