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A few days after the post below about Dirk, The Dallas Morning news posted an interesting article about him. Eddie Sefko compared him to some of the greatest power forwards of all time. Below is part of the write up.

“…we thought it would be enlightening to see where Nowitzki ranks on some of the key statistical lists for power forwards.

These lists are confined to players who spent most of their careers playing power forward, though some might have also played center or small forward at times.

We used 15 power forwards: Charles Barkley, Tom Chambers, Terry Cummings, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Elvin Hayes, Jerry Lucas, Karl Malone, Bob McAdoo, Kevin McHale, Nowitzki, Charles Oakley, Bob Pettit, Jack Sikma, and Buck Williams. Players who specialized in one area (think Dennis Rodman) were omitted for this exercise. Nowitzki, Duncan and Garnett are still active.”

NOTE: For the sake of time, I have not listed all 15 players and their stats.

There are a few things I take from this.

1) Dirk is special. We are in the midst of greatness. He is not last on any of the lists and is middle of the way on most. And here is the thing: he is only 30. He has, barring injury, a LOT of basketball left.

2) I hope Dirk gets another chance to win a ring…preferably with the Mavs. Back to my previous post, please get Dirk some big-time help!

3) Karl Malone was good. He was 2, 1, 4, 10, 1, 1, 6, 1, 9 in the lists respectively. Only mark against him was 0-3 in Titles/Finals trips.

This was a fun topic, tell me what you think by posting a comment below.

I painfully sat by while the Mavericks lost all steam, blew a 15 point lead, and lost to the World Champion Boston Celtics last night.

Dirk had a monster game and drew a few chants of “MVP” from the crowd. In the end, though, all the Celtics had to do was to stop one person. And they did just that and secured the win.

Dirk’s performance made me think of other Maverick greats. There are, as you see in the picture above, exactly two Maverick numbers retired; the #15 of Brad Davis and the #22 of Rolando Blackman. Obviously, Dirk will be there someday. Does anyone else deserve to be there?

If Jason Kidd had been here for his entire career, you could make a case for him.
Mark Aguire? Given his icy relationship with the organization, I think not.
Jamal Mashburn? No.
Jimmy Jackson? No way.
Shawn Bradley? *laughing* Uh, no.
Jason Terry? Nice player but probably not (barring a championship in the next few years)

Any one I am missing?

*crickets chirp*

Which leads me to my final point…PLEASE get Dirk some help. Paul Pierce was a nice player until they put a superstar (Garnett) and one of the best shooters in the league (Ray Allen) with him. Now Pierce is a Championship MVP. Could Dirk be the same? I would love to find out.

This weekend was the Play It Again Sports Open (PIASO) in Crowley, Texas.

The format of the tournament was unique in that we played two rounds of 30 holes. Typically, the big tournaments are four rounds of 18 or 21 holes. Apparently, last year’s PIASO was too long in the hot Texas sun and thus, the shorter format.

The other unique aspect of the weekend was that the groups of golfers all started their rounds on hole one at certain tee times. Most tournaments are shotgun starts where players start at different holes of the course. This was nice because I got to sleep in but it also meant that I was stranded in Crowley from 4pm on Saturday until 11:30 am on Sunday. This would have been plenty of time to drive home but the 106 mile round trip at $3.95 per gallon had me looking for other options.

Thankfully, my brother and sister-in-law Pete and Sara live exactly 8 miles from the course. They were going to be out of town camping for the weekend but they graciously offered their house to me. Turns out they did come home on Saturday night around midnight but still insisted that I sleep in their bed. I resisted but they would not take ‘no’ for an answer. Thank you guys SO much for the place to crash!

As for the tournament, I had a bit of a rough first day…9 bogeys with only 3 birdies. What saved me was that I did not have a single double bogey on the day. Also, I finished with 8 straight pars…consistent, yes. After day one, I was 6 over par, tied for 12th place, and in the money.

Day two played from shorter tee boxes but they had their challenges. I was somewhat erratic with my throws and went out of bounds a couple of times resulting in 2 double bogeys for the round…ouch. I did put together some nice holes to obtain 10 birdies including the last two holes which played 345 and 330 feet respectively. I finished the round at 5 under par…an 11 shot swing from the day before.

I finished the tournament tied for 7th place in my division winning $30 worth of merchandise.

Click the picture for a larger size.

In all, it was a fun and challenging course on a very warm weekend but a GREAT time. Chances are good that I will play this one again next year. Next time I hope to bring my family along with me.

In reference to my last post about the Dallas Stars (found here), the boys found themselves on the wrong side of the handshake last night ending a great playoff run, the likes of which has not been seen in this city in a long while.

Congrats to the Stars on taking a huge step toward securing the elusive Stanley Cup sometime in the near future. I will continue to be there to cheer them on.

Finally, a quote from Michael Scott, Branch Manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton Office that sums up my feelings today:

“it feels like somebody took my heart and dropped it into a bucket of boiling tears… and at the same time, somebody else is hitting my soul in the crotch with a frozen sledgehammer… and then a third guy walks in and starts punching me in the grief bone… and I’m crying, and nobody can hear me, because I’m terribly, terribly… terribly alone.”

Last night in the fourth overtime, the Dallas Stars beat the San Jose Sharks to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in ten eight years. This game took forEVER (5 hours, 14 minutes) but it eventually ended as team captain Brenden Morrow tapped in a beautiful pass from Stephane Robidas to end the game and the series.

After the game, one of the greatest traditions in sports took place — the handshake.

The post-series handshake.

No matter how intense, physical or downright dirty a series becomes, hockey players suddenly discover their inner-Miss Manners, rein in their raging emotions and shake on it - win or lose. A rugged contest will come to a civilized conclusion.

“We’re probably the most violent sport where you can get hurt at any time,” Sharks Coach Ron Wilson said. “And it’s just an incredible show of respect that when it’s all done, you can leave it right there and shake hands.

–http://www.mercurynews.com/sharks/ci_9011348

(This quote interestingly enough came from the Mercury News in San Jose. The Sharks of San Jose are the team the Stars beat to advance to the WCF.

It is great to see the Stars on the correct side of a post-series handshake…and at AAC no less. Now on to face mighty Detroit (cue ominous music.) Too bad they did not heed my previous warning here.

But, these Stars seem to be special and time will tell how far they go.

GO STARS!

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat were both experienced by Dallas sports fans (me) last night.

The Mavericks lost game five to the Hornets to lose the series 4-1. This would be their second straight year with a first round exit after the incredible high of the NBA Finals just two seasons prior. Then, today, the news comes down that the Mavs and head coach Avery Johnson have “agreed to part ways” (read fired). With no first round picks (traded for Jason Kidd) and aging players with big contracts, the future looks dim. Ouch.

Then there are the Stars.

They won game three of their series against the San Jose Sharks to go up 3-0 in the second round series. The series is far from over but can be closed out tonight with a Stars victory. And all this after closing out the defending Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks in round one of the playoffs with a 4-2 series win.

Good luck Mavs and GO STARS!

What a concept…a Dallas team moves to round two of the playoffs. Not since the Mavs beat the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals in the 2004-2005 season has a Dallas team won a playoff series. It’s good to see it happen again.

I feel like this team is the little team that could. They play hard and smart and are scoring goals to go along with great netminding and solid defense. And speaking of defense, the Stars have their historically top two defensemen out with injury and a defensive core that includes four skaters under 24 years old. I like the nucleus for the future!

Now, on to round two and beyond. (Let’s just try to avoid the mighty Red Wings, whaddya say?)

GO STARS!

I went to play disc golf the other day at lunch. The putter I use is called a SuperSoft and is very pliable. This helps the disc, in theory, to be more easily grabbed by the chains which, in turn, increseases your ability to make putts. Sometimes, though, the putter bends with interesting results.

Click the picture above to enlarge and see that my disc is actually wedged in between the bars of the basket.

In case you are wondering, that would not count as a made putt.

I would be remiss if I did not mention a significant event in my favorite team’s history…

Congratulations to Dirk Nowitzki for becoming the Dallas Maverick’s all time leading scorer. He did so with a, what else, fall away jump shot in the fourth quarter of a blowout win over New Jersey on Saturday night.

I know Dirk reads my blog so I wanted to take a moment to communicate with him…

Glückwünsche!

I have been watching this team since Rolando Blackman set the mark way back when and it has been a joy to watch you play and shoot your butter-smooth jumper. From all accounts it could not have happened to a nicer guy.

Now, lets start stringing some wins together whaddya say?