Game 7 Delimma

Friday, June 9, 2006

Posted by Monte Walker at 12:47 PM

As we await the arrival of our son Mahlon Cody, I’m thinking of the things around us right now that will be remembered in his scrapbook. With a due date of the 22nd of June (which happens to be the same day as Game 7!) I can see myself yelling at Presby of Dallas to please get a TV in the delivery room! I think I once said "The day I have a kid is the day the Mavericks win the NBA Championship!" Never say things like that. No doubt in my son’s scrapbook, it will say "Barry Bonds just passed Babe Ruth the month before you were born"...which is ironic because in my scrapbook it said, "Henry Aaron just passed Babe Ruth the month before you were born." My feelings about Barry Bonds and Jason Grimsley will be revealed to him at a later date! In his scrapbook will be the boxscore of the Rangers game that day (David Clyde beat Nolan Ryan at Arlington Stadium on mine). But the biggest sports happening in his scrapbook will no doubt be the fact that the "little" Mavericks have made it to the finals. Even though I’m a Rangers fan first, how can you not love the grit of the Mavs. This isn’t your father’s Dallas Mavericks...I mean "my" Dallas Mavericks. My Dallas Mavericks were Rolondo Blackman, Mark Aguire, Derek Harper, James Donaldson, Sam Perkins, Roy Tarpley, Dick Motta and the great team of the mid-to-late 80’s. I was there to watch Roy Tarpley sniff the organization up his nose and blow it out on Don Carter’s cowboy hat. Tarpley took the Mavs from the next great franchise to the worst team of the 90’s. Only Don Nelson could reconstruct this mess and make it respectable enough to sell. In comes Mark Cuban and Dennis Rodman and the Mavs started gaining interest again. The Mavs went on an immediate winning streak after Rodman left and haven’t looked back since. Go Mavs! Win in SIX!