(AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)

When Avery Johnson took over as the Mavs’ head coach four seasons ago, he made it one of his top priorities to help the team shed their reputation as being ‘soft’.  Generally speaking, he’s been successful, as the painfully witty Irk Nowitzki jokes began to recess and even Charles Barkley ceased to constantly berate the Mavs for their lack of toughness.  Now the question has become, “What is Johnson going to do to help the team shed their reputation as ‘that team that always melts down in the playoffs?’”.

For two seasons, it was easy to diagnose the cause of the team’s postseason demise.  In 2006, it was a referee-induced meltdown.  In 2007, more so than drawing a hot Golden State team, it was the Mavs’ inability to get going again after playing a month’s worth of meaningless games.  Which brings us to 2008.

As someone who has followed the Mavericks as closely as anyone this season, watching the first four games of their first round series against New Orleans has left me in a state of disbelief.  The team that has taken the court starting with the second half of Game 1 has been wholly unrecognizable compared to the team that had built some solid momentum heading into the playoffs.  And the most frustrating part of such repulsive play for any Dallas fan in this series has to be the seeming lack of an explanation for such a poor performance.  Surely the media will say the team has been distracted by the attention Josh Howard’s comments induced prior to Game 3, which is entirely ludicrous.  To me, it comes down to a couple of things… [Read more]

Initially, I had no interest in posting anything about Josh Howard after his interview on the Michael Irvin show Friday afternoon in which he openly discussed his offseason marijuana use, and I’m still not interested in commenting on it. But I did come across something Saturday morning that I thought should be shared. Below is an excerpt from and a link to a blog entry done by Henry Abbott, the well known basketball blogger that originally interviewed Howard a year ago. The interview covered a lot of things, from Mark Cuban’s antics, to politics, to marijuana. True to form, the mass media took the drug comments and ran with them, which eventually culminated in Friday’s media circus. In this post, Abbott encourages his readers to go back and read the whole interview before passing judgment on Howard.

“On Saturday, an update to my story was in the Dallas Morning News (and subsequently on the Morning News Mavericks blog). That apparently inspired a radio interview in Dallas, that featured heavily on ESPN and elsewhere.

And now we’re in a situation where the marijuana part of the story has been separated from the “getting to know Josh Howard” part of the story. Whereas people who read the entire initial interview seemed to think Howard came off lucid and balanced. People who only know, essentially, that he told reporters he smokes marijuana occasionally in the off-season, probably think he’s just a nut.

I hope you’ll read the whole thing.

Now, I’m fine with people debating the relative merits of marijuana. That’s probably healthy.

But I’m a little sad that people will judge Josh Howard by this one element of his character.

Especially when — what is the news here exactly? It’s hard to even find presidential candidates who haven’t done what Howard says he has done. The club of people who have smoked pot has membership in the millions. Has anyone here ever spent any time on a college campus? At a rock concert? I swear I smelled pot smoke in the bathroom at the Sixers game this very night.”

Find the full article and a link to the original interview here.

If you listen closely, you can here every strip club owner in Dallas popping the cork of one of those mini-bottles of champagne. And who can blame them? After all, as of Thursday afternoon, America’s most notable gentleman’s club patron, Pacman Jones, is headed to Dallas.

[Read more]

AP Photo/Tony Dejak

After two games between the Cavaliers and Wizards this postseason, there has been no shortage of media members taking issue with the Wizards’ defense on LeBron James.  But it’s not as though the Cavs haven’t handed out a few hard fouls of their own, and Wizards coach Eddie Jordan is tired of his team being portrayed as the bad guys.  Other Wizards haven’t shyed away from chalking the perception of their team up to LeBron James’ status as the face of the NBA.  Here’s a full article from the Washington Post, naturally focusing on the Wizards’ side of the story.

“Jordan hasn’t commented directly on Haywood’s ejection but he sees a double standard in the way the games are being called and in the way the physicality displayed by both teams has been portrayed in the media.

“Well, if they are like the fouls they gave on us, you have to at least act like you are going for the ball and you can throw your body at anybody the way you like,” Jordan said yesterday. “Just watching the fouls they gave on us, it was, you know, pretend you are going for the ball and throw your body at the guy. So that’s a good technique.”

Haywood said he meant no harm to James and believes that James is receiving special attention because of Brown’s constant complaining through the media.

“If that’s Delonte West I fouled like that, do they throw me out of the game?” Haywood asked. “Probably not.”"

Read the full article here.

The Texas Longhorns announced today that guards AJ Abrams and DJ Augustin have declared for the upcoming NBA Draft in June.

The decisions were widely expected, particularly from Augustin, who is projected as a lottery selection among most experts.  The Texas point guard led the team with 19.2 points per game this season and won the Bob Cousy Award as the top point guard in the country.

“I have dreamed of playing in the NBA since I was a little boy, and I am ready to start living this dream,” Augustin said.

Joining Augustin is shooting guard AJ Abrams, whose draft position is more of a mystery.  Despite leading the Longhorns in three point shooting and averaging 16.5 points per game, Abrams is generally considered a late first round or second round pick.  For this reason, Abrams is keeping his options open by not hiring an agent.

“Right now, I have the opportunity to test the waters to see where I stand,” Abrams said. “If I’m comfortable with where I feel I’ll be drafted, I’ll stay in the draft. If not, I’ll be back for my senior year.”

The decisions could leave Texas with Justin Mason as their only returning guard with considerable experience, despite returning several players at other positions.

Everyone knew last year when Don Nelson sued Mark Cuban over a contract dispute.  And everyone knows about the pending court case between the Seattle Sonics and the City of Seattle.  But there’s also an NBA related lawsuit filed by Federal Correctional Institution Williamsburg inmate Jonathon Lee Riches against Mark Cuban and Dirk Nowitzki that you probably haven’t heard of.  Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Dallas Observer.  Be sure to check out the handwritten complaint here.

“As a few of our Friends pointed out back in January, when we first mentioned his name in connection with a nutty local sports lawsuit, Jonathan Lee Riches loves, loves, loves to sue the rich and famous — and all from his cell at the Federal Correctional Institution Williamsburg in Salters, South Carolina. Today, whilst browsing federal court documents in an entirely unrelated case, I came across Riches’ latest lawsuit involving Dallas sports figures — this time, he goes after Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and reigning NBA MVP Dirk Nowitzki.”  Read more.