A Dirty Dozen Years: Will a North Texas Sports Team Ever Win Another Title?

With 29 seconds remaining in Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals, Dirk Nowitzki whooshed down the lane past LeBron James and lofted a gorgeous lefty layup that gave the Dallas Mavericks an 11-point lead and clinched their first championship. Overcome with emotion, Nowitzki then hopped over the scorer’s table and, face buried in jersey, wept his way to the locker room in Miami’s American Airlines Arena. 

At the time, they were unprecedented tears of joy for a team – and a superstar – who had never won a title before.

In retrospect, they might as well have been the ominous first trickles of ensuing despair for a city that may never win one again.

The anniversary of the Mavs’ championship arrives June 12. In the 12 years since, Dallas-Fort Worth sports team haven’t won diddly poo.

A dirty dozen, indeed.

It can’t be that damn hard, can it? In 2020, the city of Los Angeles won two sports championships (baseball’s Dodgers and basketball’s Lakers) in a span of 16 days, turning Tinseltown into Title Town. Over a 10-month period spanning 2020-21, the NFL’s Buccaneers and NHL’s Lightning won three titles to rebrand Tampa Bay as Champa Bay. In the past two years Atlanta has toasted a World Series with the Braves and two college football national champions with the University of Georgia.

Don’t look now, but it’s happening again, as this week Miami will root on both the Heat in the NBA Finals and the Panthers in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

If this reeks of jealousy, so be it. Guilty, without pleasure.

In our land of have-nots, DFW hasn’t lifted a meaningful professional sports trophy since Jason Kidd was a player and Luka Doncic was 12. The Texas Rangers got within one strike — twice! — in 2011; the Dallas Stars within two games in 2000 and 2020. And then there are the once-proud Dallas Cowboys, who haven’t sniffed a parade since winning Super Bowl XXX a whopping 27 years ago.

The last year titillated, but ultimately only teased. Again.

The Mavs advanced to the Western Conference Finals last summer; same for the Stars last week. The Cowboys even won a playoff game in January. But with what happened recently at American Airlines Center, this … feels like rock bottom.

We’re mired in a record drought, with no end in sight. The next-to-last home games for both the Mavs and Stars will go down in infamy. Because, let’s face it, they both quit.

Pathetically penultimate.

While still mathematically alive for a playoff berth and with a healthy Doncic and Kyrie Irving available, on April 7 Mavs management decided to sit the stars and purposely lose to the Chicago Bulls so they could hang on to their draft pick. Doncic played one quarter, but only because it was “Slovenia Night” at AAC. What ticket-paying customers were treated to was nothing more than a glorified YMCA pickup game with seldom-used scrubs jacking up 55 3-pointers and owner Mark Cuban sheepishly wincing for a miss as his team shot for overtime in the final seconds of a three-point defeat.

Even for a team that once was held to an NBA-record two points in a quarter, it was one of the most embarrassing and insulting games in franchise history. For also “tanking” the season finale two days later, the Mavs were fined $750,000 by the league for actions that “undermined the integrity of our sport.”

The chicken-shit Mavs lost because they didn’t believe they could win. Even with Doncic and Irving and several holdovers who made it to the NBA’s final four a year ago, the Mavs didn’t think they stood a chance to advance through the Play-In Tournament and deep into the playoffs.

You know who thought – and believed – the opposite? The Heat, who have gone from Play-In to NBA Finals.

As ugly as that Mavs’ mess was, May 23 on the ice might have been even more hideous. Down 2-0 in the West finals to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, the Stars in Game 3 orchestrated one of the most humiliating nights in D/FW sports history.

The lowlights of the 4-0 loss included giving up a goal one minute into the game, having captain Jamie Benn ejected for almost decapitating an opponent, pulling starting goalie Jake Oettinger in the first period, a fan getting hit in the face by a wayward puck and the crowd pelting opposing players and the ice with so much beer and popcorn that the second period had to be delayed.

Trash.

Cherry on the sad sundae: Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott was in attendance in a suite, and when shown on the AAC video screen, he was loudly booed.

The Stars recovered to win two games to make it interesting but then were again embarrassed on home ice, losing Game 6 with an almost unfathomable 6-0 score. In the last two games he played in the series, Benn’s Stars were outscored 10-0. Co-star Tyler Seguin failed to register a single point against Las Vegas. The classless fans were even worse.

With professional tournaments from McKinney (Byron Nelson) to Fort Worth (Colonial) and the new PGA of America headquarters in Frisco, DFW can boast being a serious hub of golf. The Cowboys may not be good at football, but the World Cup of futbol will invade AT&T Stadium in 2026. And since beggars can’t be choosers, perhaps we should toss some confetti for a local pro winner: the XFL’s recently crowned champion Arlington Renegades.

Alas, there might be real hope.

Despite playing without injured stars in pitching ace Jacob deGrom and leading hitter Corey Seager, the Rangers are off to one of their best starts in franchise history. In May they won 18 games overall and 13 on the road, both tops in the Major Leagues. They have won a team-record six straight road series. And they’re on pace for the first 100-plus win season since arriving in Arlington in 1972.

“This is a remarkable start, considering the injuries they’ve suffered and the bullpen struggles,” said Bally’s Sports TV analyst and one-time Texas Ranger Mark McLemore. “It’s a long season. But because of this team’s depth, you have to look at the Rangers as a team that can realistically win the World Series.”

Are we finally due?

Or futilely doomed?