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Love me some Dirk.

I really love me some Dirk.

Nowitzki.

Jan 25, 2012; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks power forward Dirk Nowitzki (41) shows off his NBA championship ring during the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE

Hearing his commentary of Jason Terry’s alley-oop to Brandon Wright in the second quarter of Wednesday’s game against Minnesota only cranked it up a notch or three.

It was radio gold I tell you. I kid you not. If you didn’t hear it, well I question your Mav loyalty and love, but encourage you to put it on your list of things to Google.

That is exactly what a spectator needs and what fans want to hear. The commentator into the game and so excited he is ready to shut down American Airlines center and go home.

How unfortunate we left AAC with a loss to the Timberwolves, but Nowitzki more than made up for it with his, colorful commentary, outrageous excitement and pure love of the game.

It kills me that he is out and I anxiously await Dirk’s return Sunday, hopefully, but if we can’t have him on the court then please put a microphone in this mans hands.

Who needs the TV?

I could listen to Dirk call the game any time.

You?

Saturday night was the first of four games the Dallas Mavericks will being playing without starting forward Dirk Nowitzki.

Photo Credit Source: www.ibtimes.com

So far, so good. The Mavs left New Orleans with an 83-81 lead with Dirk on the sideline in his Sunday best. Rick Carlisle spoke briefly post game regarding the why Dirk will be sitting out the next four games, including tonights match against the Hornet, while working out his sore right knee.

“This is not a rest situation. Quite the opposite,” Carlisle said. “He’ll go through harder workouts this week than he would if we were having practice days and in some cases he’ll go multiple times.”

We know it’ not too serious or a tendinitis case or they mot likely wouldn’t be working him out at all.period. It was mentioned that Dirk, of course preferred to play and carry on, but it appears other opinion prevailed. I guess we can only hope for the best. I don’t think there is any question Dirk will do all he can to get back to his own personal accepted game play efforts – which is one of the reaons he is so successful; hard-work, determination, motivation and discipline.

With Dirk not suited up tonight, we saw Lamar Odom starting and racking up 16  points for his season high. He did not finish the game and Carlisle answered that for us afterwards. Many people have been wondering why Odom has only been playing an average of 20 minutes a game, it was confirmed tonight, at least, that he could in fact play more, if he wanted to. In other words, he requested not to play, with Carlisle stating, “he said he was tired” referring to Odom.

We are getting there. Tonight was a much needed win. Keep on rockin’ it Mavs.

Fun Facts:

• Mavericks’ streak of holding opponents under 100 points breaks record and hit 14 consecutive games with Saturday’s win.
• Do you know how the Mavericks got their name? According to NBA.com, in March 1980, radio station WBAP conducted a Name the Team contest. More than 4,600 entries were received and turned over to a five-person committee. The committee narrowed the choices to Mavericks, Wranglers and Express, ultimately recommending Mavericks to owner Donald Carter.
• The Mavericks have not defeated the Hornets on the road since 3/27/07 (won a 105-89 decision).
• Became the only player in NBA history to register 150 three-point field goals and 100 blocks in a season (he had 151 three-point field goals and 101 blocks in the 2000-01 season)

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The Mavs will need Roddy Beaubois to step up this year

The Dallas Mavericks began their new season with an exhibition against the Oklahoma City Thunder.  Although the Mavs ended up on the losing end, this was not a game about wins and loses.  The absence of both Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd sent that message loud and clear.  This game was not even about working in the new team members with the returning players.  This game, apparently, was about conditioning and getting the younger players some quality minutes.

Barea will not be in Dallas this year Star Tribune, Bruce Bisping, AP Photo

As the lockout came to an end, the brain-trust of the Dallas Mavericks had some serious decisions to make about their roster. They made the difficult decision not to sign Tyson Chandler to a big contract, opting instead to do a sign-and-trade with the Knicks. But Chandler was not the only member of the team’s first championship team who would not be coming back.

How much will the Mavs miss Chandler this season?

This NBA off-season did not have the suspense and drama that was the LeBron James sweepstakes. Once the owners and players came to an agreement, and the lockout was ended, there were no big fish for NBA owners to reel in. Most of the attention has been paid to the trade demands of Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. Lost in the shuffle were several shrewd signings, and trades, that will play a crucial role in the success of several teams.

As is usually the case following a team winning a championship, other teams lined up to poach the free agents who had been a big part of the Mavericks success last season in an attempt to them lure away with the hope of duplicating that same success. With an increased penalty for going over the luxury tax, teams had to think carefully about how they will spend their dollars. The Mavericks had several difficult choices to make regarding key members of the team whose contracts were up. They would not be able to keep everyone, plus they wanted to keep cap space available for the next off-season to make a run at a premiere player.

There is a Santa Claus! Normally I would be annoyed to get an AP alert on my phone at 4:30 on a Saturday morning, but this alert brought the long awaited news: A player/owner agreement was in place and the NBA season could be salvaged.
Instead of visions of sugar plums, I guess I started seeing visions of basketball games and ring ceremonies on Christmas Day.
Although it is nice to look ahead to Christmas, there are so many issues to be addressed before the first game of the season.
First, the union must get back together and the lawsuits must be ended. Next, the agreement has to be signed by a majority of the players and owners.
Finally, here comes the big one … free agency. How many of those players who helped bring the championship to Dallas will be on this year’s squad? Will the Mavericks be able to keep Tyson Chandler, Caron Butler, JJ Barea, DeShawn Stevenson and Brian Cardinal? Or, will they have to let someone go to meet the rules of the new collective bargaining agreement? If they do have to leave someone off their roster, who will it be?
So many questions are still up in the air before the Dec. 9 training camp begins and even more remain before the Dec. 25 season opener against the Heat.
Hopefully the coming weeks will bring the answers to those questions and the Mavs can work some holiday magic to bring their Championship team back together. Until then, stay tuned.

Well, looks like the NBA players are rolling the dice on the CBA. As I was reading an article on Yahoo News about NBA Commissioner David Stern threat to players of another proposal of only 47 percent revenue sharing if the current proposal wasn’t approved, an AP news alert popped up on my phone.
Apparently the players are willing to take a chance on another offer because they turned down the one that has been on the table.
So, with another rejected deal on the table, what does this mean for us, the fans?
It doesn’t look like we will be getting that 72-game season that Stern promised with the passage of this deal. At this point, it doesn’t look like a season is in the picture at all.
Instead of highlights of alley-oops and dunks, we will be treated to more talk and less action. We will get to see the players attempt to disband the union and file an anti-trust suit against the league.
Courtroom drama instead of on-the-court drama, yep, that is the NBA we get to look forward to these days.

Today I was walking in Downtown Grapevine when I wandered into one of the shops only to find yet another reminder that it is basketball season and there is no basketball.
There amid all the other Christmas ornaments and the college sports items was an ornament I couldn’t leave without. So for $7, I grabbed a Dallas Mavericks 2011 NBA Championship Christmas ornament. Just what every Mavs fans wants for Christmas–well that and actual games.
I thought I might ought to grab it because the way things are, there may not be a 2012 champion. The ornament was just another reminder, just like no trying to find a parking place at the AAC or watching Jet sprout his wings or Dirk do one of his phenominal fall away jumpers.
I have been following the CBA situation, and it just doesn’t sound promising.
Hopefully, we Mavs fans will get our Christmas miracle, and someone will clear the roadblocks that are keeping the two sides apart.
We can all hope and wish for a miracle. Because at this point, I think a miracle is what it is going to take to bring the two sides closer.