04/26/24
May 31, 2011
Writer: Hate the Mavericks, Not the Heat: The Dallas Mavericks are the real villains of this year's NBA Finals, writes Tom Ziller for SB Nation. "Mark Cuban and the Mavericks have been abusing the NBA salary cap and trade rules for years, completely ignoring the standards by which teams are supposed to abide for the good of the league, for the good of the fans," claims Ziller, who also says Cuban and his "ilk" are causing the looming NBA lockout.
posted by rcade to basketball at 12:29 PM - 8 comments
Yeah, gonna pass. Cuban is a Local boy I hope gets the chance to buy the Pirates soon. Plus, My A/C broke this weekend so I have had alot of practice saying "screw the heat"
posted by Debo270 at 02:30 PM on May 31, 2011
Teams work the salary cap. That's quite the news flash. I think the shadiness that resulted in the Heat being formed is worse. Plus, Lebron said he wanted to take his talents to South Beach in a televised news conference. What more can one need?
posted by bperk at 02:43 PM on May 31, 2011
People want their owners to do everything they can within the rules to obtain the top talent. The fact Cuban has been allowed to do these transactions -- despite being one of NBA Commissioner David Stern's least favorite owners -- suggests there's nothing wrong with them.
posted by rcade at 02:48 PM on May 31, 2011
If you hate the Heat just because they apparently colluded, I think you are missing some low hanging hatefruit.
Does anyone think Ziller actually believes what he is writing? I think he's just reacting to what he perceives as unfair (or unfair levels of) criticism being dealt towards the Heat.
posted by tron7 at 03:18 PM on May 31, 2011
This is interesting. Over the weekend, I started thinking of the Heat in a bit different light.
The player-driven team building approach has worked out better than some of the moves that "win now or bust" oriented front offices have pulled in the past.
And it's light years better than what Pitino and Isaiah did to their franchises.
The principals took less money to make it happen. They put the project above their individual success.
The team didn't implode when the going was rough. If Magic had been one of the 3 amigos, Spoelstra would have been fired 5 times by now.
The players want to nurture the thing and keep it going rather than win and shed salary ASAP as some GM's would do. Dang, it's almost starting to take on a down home family feel.
But forget it. I still dislike them because of the way they handled everything. The TV special and the blazing coming out party in their new unis and all the rest. Make me ill.
If only they had just kept their mouths shut and just gone about their business. They would still be hated, but not nearly as much.
But instead, they went ahead and totally blew Tim Hardaway out of Biscayne Bay on the franchise asshole meter.
It was illuminating to read the story and I am not a fan of Cuban. But I still need to see the Mavs prevail.
posted by beaverboard at 03:36 PM on May 31, 2011
Given the SpoFi membership I was thinking about how cricket teams, at least the national sides as I understand things, are captained (managed) by one of the players. I realize like promotion/relegation this completely antithetical to American mindset but how terrible would it be if more players tried to do this kind of thing?
At least it would be an interesting experiment.
posted by billsaysthis at 04:10 PM on May 31, 2011
how cricket teams, at least the national sides as I understand things, are captained (managed) by one of the players.
Well, that's evolved considerably in the past couple of decades: I don't think anyone looks at Andrew Strauss and his relationship with the ECB's selectors and coaching staff and thinks he's working in the same framework as Mike Brearley, let alone Douglas Jardine. A glance at the pavilion, towards the number of people doing analysis with laptops, says a lot these days.
posted by etagloh at 09:42 AM on June 01, 2011
Thanks but no thanks, I will continue to hate the Heat. Why, because it is so much more fun, the Mav's don't talk a lot of shit, and are just more likeable.