Mavs Donuts: 'The Problem Is Ours,' Says Cuban; Back-to-B-Ball Notebook
DALLAS - Dallas Mavericks Donuts has owner Mark Cuban accepting (and placing) blame as the NBA ramps up to get back to basketball ...
DONUT 1: "DEAR WHITE PEOPLE'' Mark Cuban has a message: “The problem is ours.”
Racial unrest in America, featuring protests fueled by the death of George Floyd, front-and-center, and Cuban has become a vocal activist - and he says, a listening one.
Cuban used social media to refer to an open letter titled “America Is on Fire” written by Emerson College president M. Lee Pelton, and then tweeted:
"Dear White People: We are the ones that need to change. This is not one man's story. This is almost every black man's story. Which is why the problem is ours. We need to find OUR way to change what we do. There is no quick fix. It's a moral imperative.''
DONUT 2: DIRK'S ACTIVISM Not surprisingly, flanking Cuban is Dallas' beloved Dirk Nowitzki, who has taken to the streets with a broom and a paint brush, literally working to clean things up.
NBC5
More on Dirk's participation here. And his pal Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys is involved in a noteworthy manner - to the tune of $1 million. That story is here.
DONUT 3: ON TO ORLANDO? The NBA's Board of Governors will convene in the noon hour on Thursday to give a thumbs-up to the plan to re-start league play with a 22-team format, with games to be played in Orlando, as our Matt Galatzan explains here.
DallasBasketball.com broke the story last month of the league's desire to get 70 regular-season games in in order to trigger home teams' contracts with local TV outlets ... so that's a money thing.
We also wrote about play re-starting in late July. And that is indeed the plan.
What we didn't want, from an MFFL perspective, is for Dallas - which has earned the No. 7 spot in the West - so somehow get screwed out of what its earned.
So far, so good.
DONUT 4: LUCKY 13 The plan, per Woj, includes 13 Western Conference teams and nine Eastern Conference teams. Consider that recognition that "seventh in the West'' and "seventh in the East'' aren't the same thing.
DONUT 5: 8-BALL The eight regular-season games (thus fulfilling those hometown contracts) means that the Mavs will likely have to face eight of the following 11 participating teams for a chance to climb in the standings: The Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Portland Trailblazers, LA Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets, and Oklahoma City Thunder of the West, and the Milwaukee Bucks and Brookly Nets of the East.
Dallas was scheduled to play both Houston and Phoenix each twice more before the hiatus began.
While that is indeed a tough slate of games, the homer in me says that chance is a good one, and Dallas has earned it.
DONUT 6: THE FINALS It seems the last possible date for an NBA Finals Game 7 to be played would be Oct. 12 - and that the NBA would start up the 2020-21 regular season again on Christmas Day ... and following a recommendation from Cuban, might start NBA seasons on Christmas Day going forward, a concept we first wrote about here.
DONUT 7: SAFETY MEASURES Obviously, they will exist. There will surely be some balance between a "social life'' and "social distancing'' for the players, coaches, and staff present in Orlando. There will also reportedly be daily testing for COVID-19 for all involved as well.
DONUT 8: AN ASTERISK? Amid lots of speculation about a "real champion'' or an "asterisk,'' we'd offer two thoughts:
a) We rarely remember the circumstances that led to a crowned champion. What we remember is the champion. Right, Spurs?
b) This unprecedentedly odd season isn't making it easier to excel as basketball; it's making it harder. The 2019-20 NBA champion will have overcome as many obstacles as any title team ever.
This year's champ will deserve the trophy, the rings ... and whatever the opposite of an asterisk is.
DONUT 9: THE THRILL OF THE UNKNOWN Our Bri Amaranthus offers up a personal account to demonstrate how a little bit of "unknown'' - a muddy track, say - can alter the direction of these NBA Playoffs. How does that help the young Mavs? Her explanation is here.
DONUT 10: LUKA'S READINESS Time heals all wounds, they say. I don't know about that. But time has healed Luka Doncic's hand/thumb soreness, as we detail here.
DONUT 11: RICK'S TRICKS Mavs coach Rick Carlisle didn't get to show off much of his on-court basketball skills during his cameo in Michael Jordan's "The Last Dance.'' But re-living it all was a positive experience for him ... and maybe a teaching opportunity, too.
"I think the thing that was interesting about the series as a whole was that, to me, it’s all about the obsession to win championships,” Carlisle said. (Full story here.) “During that era, the dominant teams and the dominant players of that era… These guys knew that their ultimate legacy was going to be about the number of rings. And that’s something that I think is such a great message to today’s players.”
DONUT 12: THE FINAL WORD "You have my commitment. You have my support. You have my ears and you have my voice.'' - Dirk Nowitzki.
