I haven’t always been a Mavs fan. In fact, when I was younger I wasn’t much of a sports fan at all! My mom was one of 4 daughters of an OB/GYN. She never played sports but still has a face shield and a foil in the garage from the ONE semester of fencing she took at Boston College. My dad was from NYC and played hockey at Boston University and grew up loving Mickey Mantle and the Yankees. I grew up in Austin where we didn’t have a whole lot of rinks that didn’t end in “mall” to go hit the ice and so hockey never really took off for me. Unlike my Dad the Yankees fan, I was born in Boston and my first sports team was the Northwest Little League’s Red Sox so we had something to talk about there but I was kinda fending for myself on BoSox coverage and aside for knowing how to read the box scores and standings in the paper pretty much you just knew that the Red Sox lost a lot while the Yankees won a lot. It wasn’t that much fun for me. Living in a college town we met somewhere in the middle by being big UT fans. Going to games at Royal K. Memorial stadium watching the great Shea Morenz take snaps (also a stud in the outfield at Disch-Falk), or checking out Sonny Alvarado and Reggie Freeman at the Frank Erwin center was my sports world. I loved going to the games and watching all the people on the Drag honk their car horns all day whenever UT won (or A&M lost) at anything. Aside from that, I was pretty oblivious. Sure I watched the Superbowls, but didn’t know a whole lot other than Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin were Cowboys and they were in the superbowl like all the time. Anytime the Bulls were playing on TV I would watch Michael Jordan but I didn’t follow the NBA, I just watched cuz growing up in the mid 90’s that’s just what you did when Mike was on. As I got older and started playing basketball I was watching games more and following the playoffs, even had a Grant Hill Pistons jersey to wear to school. I could name every player on my dream team poster (Remember these guys). I played sports a lot and wasn’t some dorkball kid sitting in his room playing Mortal Combat or doing homework… I just never really followed sports a whole lot.
In 2000 my family relocated from Austin to the Big D. I was new in town but luckily basketball made the new kid transition a lot easier. Right out of the gates I had guys that I didn’t really have to work to hard to be friends with. We hooped together and had a few classes together and we all thought the same 10 girls were hot. In High School that’s pretty much all it takes… One night midway through my first semester my dad came home with a couple of tickets to a Dallas Mavericks preseason game against the Jazz. I knew of the Mavericks but I they hadn’t been to any finals and didn’t have anyone from the dream teams or anyone really that famous so I was excited to watch basketball but not much else. The game was in mid-October so I had a couple months head start but this was a great opportunity to invite a friend and really get on the in. There was one guy on the team who I knew was a huge Maverick fan and if I offered him tickets he would think I was cool and he would invite me to a party. It made sense to me at the time? Sure enough Joe, accepted the offer and after we had practice that day we both went to check out some preseason hoops. Joe was a MFFL and a member of the Reunion Rowdies. These things were new to me but he seemed to enjoy it so I followed along. We got to the game and were watching the guys warming up and it wasn’t the first NBA game I’d been to but the first one I’d been to in a long time. I remember walking around the floor level well before the game and realizing how giant of a man Gary Trent was and how tall (and ugly) Shawn Bradley was. I believe it was at this exact moment of seeing GT at 6’8” 250lbs and Shawn at 7’6” that I realized 6’7”185lbs. wasn’t going to be good enough for the NBA (especially not with a 21” vertical).
Joe and I eventually made it to our seats and the place was kinda spotty. In retrospect it was a preseason game for a team that was coming off a sub .500 season so the fact that anyone was there was good enough. First couple minutes go by and nothing really jumped out at me a whole lot. Just “eh” basketball with some really hot chicks dancing every 3-5 minutes of game clock. Then, someone checked into the game that changed my perspective on Mavs hoops. This guy came out of the gates on fire. As soon as he checked into the game I think he had a blocked shot, a couple rebounds and put backs, showed off some mid range face up and even dove for a loose ball. I thought this guy was the complete package. The fans loved him and he was an absolute ANIMAL on the court. It was at this point (in the 5th of 6 preseason games) that I knew Eddie Najera was the greatest Maverick of the year or of all time as far as I was concerned. Sure I could only base that assumption off the 17 minutes of the game I had watched so far but the team sucked before so clearly no one good was on the team and this guy was going to WORK. I couldn’t tell you what the final score was but after that game I was on board with the Mavs movement and even more so for the 2nd round draft pick out of Norman.
The next day in the locker room, my buddy asked us how the game was. We talked about getting close to the court and about the hot dancer that was looking at me (though he thought she was looking at him) and about the game in general. “How did Dirk do?” my buddy asked us. “Who?!” I said. Joe told Collin that he played ok but didn’t play much. I said “Yeah he stunk he didn’t play at all, but you know who did play? Eddie Najera, and this guy is awesome!” They both laughed. I didn’t get what the joke was. In a preseason game this Dirk guy didn’t play hardly at all and Eddie played pretty much the whole game? How was there a question as to who was better? I may have talked a little bit outside of what I knew but I had faith in my man Eddie. “Dude, that Dirk guys sucks, I bet you a million dollars Najera has a better season that No-Wit-Ski has.” “First of all its German so its pronounced No-vit-ski… If you’re gonna be a fan you’re gonna wanna figure that out. Second, of all you’re an idiot. Third, since I know you don’t have a million dollars on it how about $10.” “DEAL!” I said rejoicing the easiest money I had ever made. I knew deep down after watching 48 minutes of preseason basketball that Najera was gonna be way better than that dork with frosted tips (no the tall one, not the one from Santa Clara).
G | GS | MPG | FG% | 3FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG | |
Player A | 40 | 4 | 10.8 | 0.523 | 0.333 | 0.424 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 3.3 |
Player B | 82 | 82 | 38.1 | 0.474 | 0.387 | 0.838 | 9.2 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 21.8 |
Guess which line is Dirk from the 00-01 season and which one is Eduardo from 00-01 and you tell me who won the bet. I figured out quickly what the Mavs were all about and how perfect a 7’0” jumpshooter that couldn’t defend fit into Nelly-ball. For 4 years of college I had a poster of a tall blonde on my wall and it wasn’t Charlize Theron. I am now a MFFL and even tried to wear #41 the next year in high school. It was taken so I went for my second favorite #34 to try to emulate Mike Dunleavy from Duke (notice a pattern yet in my favorite players?) Same thing happened again when I played in college so it wasn’t in the stars for me to ever wear #41 but if you asked me today what number Eddie Energy wore, the greatest Mavs of… that night, I wouldn’t even know where to venture a guess.
…..Being the Google addict that I am I had to look it up. #14, the complete opposite of #41. Eddie owes me $10.
Greg G. aka Ghostwriter
No comments:
Post a Comment