Don't Mess With Dallas

Let me start off by making this very clear. I did not just see Dallas get hot and all of a sudden hop on the bandwagon like many other people. I didn't pick them just because they blazed past the Blazers and dominated the Lakers. I respect Dallas and am rooting for them because I love watching the way they play basketball. Of course, once the season ends, I will be a full time fan of the Jazz/whatever team moves to Anaheim. With that said, here are my thoughts:

Let's start off at the top with the owner, Mark Cuban. This is a guy that gets criticized a lot, but honestly is a great owner who players want to play for. He is one of the few that really cares about his team and his players, not just the profits they make for him. The fact that the Mavs' winning percentage has increased nearly 30% since he bought the team doesn't hurt, either. The model for building the team has been impressive as well, and Cuban and GM Donnie Nelson deserve a lot of credit for that. While most teams have following Oklahoma City's model and loaded up on young players and draft picks, Dallas has snatched up experienced veterans for cheap contracts. In fact, ten of the fifteen players on the roster have been in the league for at least eight years. This team is a group of vets who have been around the block, and are hungry for a championship.

Obviously, the first person to come to mind when you think of this Mavericks team is Dirk. I fully believe that nobody on the planet wants an NBA Championship ring as bad as Dirk Nowitzki does this year. The man has been named MVP, gone to ten All Star games, and the Three Point Contest, but has never won the big one. If his performance against Oklahoma City in Game 1 was any indication, he is determined to finally win it all. What makes the team fun to watch is how everyone plays like that. Jason Kidd, Shawn "The Matrix" Marion, and Tyson Chandler are all big name players who have had a lot of success, just not in the Finals. These players are the guys to trust deep in the playoffs.

The biggest reason that the Mavs are so popular, other than their highly proportional amount of Europeans, is that it is fun to watch teams shoot lights out. Watching Jason Terry and Peja make it rain never gets old. Combine that with an unselfish distributing point guard and a seven footer who can spread the court, and you can put on a great show. There is also the fundamentals factor which makes them more appealing. Had he not been a foreigner, it would have brought a tear to the eye of Moose Lewis seeing Dirk knock down free throw after free throw (24 in a row, actually) in Game 1.

In conclusion, I will be honest. While I think Dallas will take out OKC, I realize that they might struggle in the finals, as both Chicago and Miami create some serious matchup problems (Wade for the Heat and Rose for the Bulls, particularly), and they conceivably could just be out of their league. Either way, though, this is a very fun team to watch, and one that seemingly impossible to root against. Unfortunately, as we have seen with teams like Phoenix and Detroit, people age quickly in the NBA, and teams loaded with veterans are very questionable in the long term. This could very well be the last season that this core group of players plays this well, and I suggest we just enjoy it.