Feb 28, 2002 12:39 PM EST
Tony Cubes, what would you do differently?
"Nothing!'' Cuban swears. "I've learned a lot, about how the league works, how people relate, how to trade, how to work the cap, the luxury tax, and how all those things impact the business and the people. But I look at it in an old-fashioned way: Turn an imperfect situation around and make it a positive experience. So everything that's happened, even the negative things, I've needed.''
"The purpose of Rodman was to help us defensively. It didn't work. But I learned so much from that experience, especially about dealing with the media, about what the focus is, about how sometimes, for fans, it's not just about winning or losing but about being entertained. I learned about what kids related to, about merchandising, about putting on a show.''
"With Calvin Booth, what we did wrong was pump up Calvin's value because we wanted to pump him up as a player and make him feel good about himself. We didn't love him as much as some people did. The lesson is, don't pump the guy up in the media. Because once we did that, we conveyed an amount of support that caused his agent to be very unrealistic. We did it for Cal, but that's a lesson we learned.''
But, Cuban adds, he finds it impossible to reflect on the last two years with any negative feelings.
"Let's flip it,'' he says. "It'd December 1999, and I'm getting ready to buy the Mavs. If you told me that 25 or 26 months later, we'd be talking about contending for the NBA Finals, would you take it? Hell yeah, you'd take it.
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Feb 28, 2002 12:25 PM EST
The Mavericks are good. Really good. They haven't made their mark where it counts, in the postseason, but what appeared to have the makings of a nice young club last year built around Dirk and Steve and Mike has a legitimate chance at the league's best record.
"We're a team that's made the playoffs once in 12 years," said owner Mark Cuban, plowing the high road. "We haven't done anything yet."
The Stars are average. Really average. The record may say they are five games above .500, but in a screwy league where one team can win a game and its opponent can tie, 10 out of 15 teams in the West are above .500.
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Feb 28, 2002 12:22 PM EST
By JODIE VALADE / The Dallas Morning News
Understandably, the focus has been on the other new guys. Nick Van Exel and Raef LaFrentz were the headliners of the Mavericks' trade with Denver. Avery Johnson has been a vocal supplemental piece.
Tariq Abdul-Wahad has been relatively ignored.
But the fourth player of the four newcomers acquired by the Mavericks in last week's trade has received some of the highest praise a week after the deal was completed.
"He could be the key to the whole trade," Mavericks coach Don Nelson said. "He's a defensive kind of guy, a guy who can run the floor. He's looked very good. We're pretty excited about that for the future."
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Mavericks Feb 2002 Archive
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| Feb 28, 2002
By DWAIN PRICE
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
DALLAS - Count Memphis Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley among those who believe Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is a smart businessman.
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| Feb 27, 2002
Tim Hardaway's stay in Denver could last only through the rest of this season.
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| Feb 27, 2002
By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.
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| Feb 27, 2002
Woody Paige of the Denver Post is always worth a look.
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| Feb 27, 2002
There was a lot of talk, from Nick van Exel and elsewhere, that he was willing to give up the last 2 years and $26.
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| Feb 27, 2002
DALLAS - This is how far the Mavericks have come over the past two years.
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| Feb 27, 2002
Avery Johnson has edged ever closer back to San Antonio.
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| Feb 26, 2002
By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.
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| Feb 26, 2002
The mystery behind those self-inflicted punches in Clipperdom.
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| Feb 26, 2002
The new guys look at what surrounds them and can't help but gush.
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| Feb 26, 2002
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports: Add another name to the growing list of candidates interested in owning the Orlando Magic.
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| Feb 25, 2002
The long-suffering basketball public in Denver, or what's left of it, probably doesn't see this yet.
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| Feb 25, 2002
For all the grief they have received in recent years -- the Mavericks' maverick owner and the maverick coach -- Mark Cuban and Don Nelson should take a bow.
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| Feb 25, 2002
And neither can remember the last time they were in a loud, playoff-like atmosphere like the one at sold-out American Airlines Center, or the last time they beat the best team in the league so convincingly with so many weapons – as the Mavericks did with their 111-97 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday.
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| Feb 25, 2002
While Tim Hardaway recognizes and respects that the trade was a business decision, he nevertheless feels betrayed by the Mavericks and Don Nelson, writes Jodie Valade of the Dallas Morning News.
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| Feb 25, 2002
DALLAS - It was not that long ago that the Mavericks lamented their lack of rebounding.
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| Feb 24, 2002
It takes a special front office to put one of its players on the rack and torture what few fans it has for four months just to end up with basically the same deal it could have had in training camp.
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| Feb 24, 2002
DALLAS -- At least there is no need to search for the problem.
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| Feb 23, 2002
DALLAS - Jim O'Brien might want to consider polling his players at the start of the fourth quarter.
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| Feb 22, 2002
Kiki Vandeweghe's introduction to the GM ranks was pretty cold but did he expect this kind of dunking in icy waters? First Dan Issel does a triple lutz pratfall, then Nick Van Exel pouts like a Russian Olympic official and finally Mark Cuban sends him down the luge sitting atop the NBA's equivalent of the Swedish goaltender, Juwan Howard.
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| Feb 22, 2002
Friday, February 22, 2002 - The Van Exel soap opera ended for the Denver Nuggets in the Nick of time.
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| Feb 22, 2002
Forward Peja Stojakovic said he was not surprised by the deal that brought Nick Van Exel, Raef LaFrentz, Avery Johnson and former Kings first-round pick Tariq Abdul-Wahad to Dallas.
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| Feb 22, 2002
ALLAS - The timing looked so perfect.
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| Feb 22, 2002
The Midwest Division just got a little scarier for the Spurs.
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| Feb 22, 2002
When all else fails, defense can still help a team win.
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| Feb 22, 2002
So what did Mark Cuban and Don Nelson do with the local basketball team on Thursday? They did what they didn't have to do.
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| Feb 22, 2002
Strange world, the NBA.
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| Feb 22, 2002
Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.
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| Feb 21, 2002
Jackson got is wish and will now team with Kevin Garnett
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| Feb 21, 2002
Mavs and Nuggets talking, maybe with Knicks involved
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| Feb 21, 2002
By Derek Harper -- DallasBasketball.
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| Feb 21, 2002
Jodie Valade of the Dallas Morning News writes that Don Nelson and Mark Cuban continue to deny they'll make any blockbuster trades before the deadline.
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| Feb 21, 2002
DALLAS - If the Mavericks don't pick up the pace on the defensive end of the floor real soon, that trip to the playoffs this season might be short and painful.
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| Feb 21, 2002
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle writes that the Rockets have two commodities playoff teams are especially interested in: Walt Williams and Kevin Willis.
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| Feb 21, 2002
Could the Mavs move Juwan by the deadline?
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| Feb 20, 2002
Olden Polynice, now out of basketball, has been emailing Mark Cuban about the possibility of being a Mav, reports Dwain Price of the Dallas Morning News.
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| Feb 20, 2002
As losses go, none this season was worse for the Mavericks than Tuesday's 117-100 defeat to the undermanned Minnesota Timberwolves.
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| Feb 20, 2002
If Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders is to be believed, neither he, his staff nor the Wolves players thought much about forward Kevin Garnett's absence heading into their game against the tremendously talented, dauntingly deep Dallas Mavericks Tuesday night at the America Airlines Center.
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| Feb 20, 2002
The Timberwolves, without star forward Kevin Garnett, were given an outside shot, at best, of beating the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night.
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| Feb 19, 2002
With nine of the next 10 games at home, the next step the Mavericks take includes improving the thing Minnesota became known for this season: that matchup zone.
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| Feb 19, 2002
A mere 18 months ago, the Mavs were simply hopeful of making the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade.
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| Feb 18, 2002
It began Saturday with an attempt with Don Nelson's promised big lineup, and with facing one of their biggest fears – a spookily athletic Los Angeles Clippers squad.
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| Feb 18, 2002
PHOENIX - With tired legs and weary minds while playing the final game of a brutal six-game road trip, it would have been easily understandable if the Mavericks would have gone through the motions Sunday night against the Phoenix Suns.
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| Feb 16, 2002
It's time that Donn Nelson -- son of 'the DON -- get his props!
Let's take quick inventory as to the impact that Donn has had on the basketball masterpiece that continues to unfold before our eyes in Dallas.
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| Feb 16, 2002
After Friday's practice in Los Angeles, guards Michael Finley and Steve Nash and forward Dirk Nowitzki were swept away in a black limousine to shoot film and read a few lines for their cameo appearance in this summer's 20th Century Fox movie, Like Mike.
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| Feb 16, 2002
Finley isn't going anywhere according to Cuban
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| Feb 15, 2002
PORTLAND, Ore.
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| Feb 14, 2002
And a ripple in that one discipline that ended the Mavericks' franchise-high eight-game road winning streak also gave them a peek at the same old flaws that emerge from time to time: a lack of toughness and rebounding.
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| Feb 13, 2002
HIGHLIGHTS: Desmond Mason came off the bench and made his first four shots.
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| Feb 13, 2002
Player of the game: Steve Nash, the Victoria, B.
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| Feb 13, 2002
They filled two sections of the KeyArena stands, their shrill little voices shrieking out to an empty court.
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| Feb 13, 2002
They are serious about seeing their season-long, four-game road trip, beginning with Tuesday's 112-106 triumph over Seattle, as a rough journey.
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| Feb 12, 2002
The Sonics are not only entering the second half of the season, but confronting one of their most difficult stretches, facing six teams that are either championship or playoff contenders in the next nine days.
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| Feb 12, 2002
When: Today, 7 p.
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| Feb 12, 2002
The All-Star break already? Man, time sure flies when you're having fun! Before departing for the mineral baths of Hot Springs, Arkansas for a few days of R-and-R, here's my take on where the West is headed -- trades, winners, losers, flops, rumors, you name it -- in the NBA season's second half.
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| Feb 12, 2002
By Mike Fisher - DallasBasketball.
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| Feb 12, 2002
For the first time since 1988, the Suns didn't send a single representative to the midseason classic or even one of Saturday's sideshows.
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| Feb 12, 2002
The trading deadline arrives on the evening of Feb.
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| Feb 11, 2002
PHILADELPHIA – They sat side-by-side on the bench.
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| Feb 11, 2002
It figures Steve Nash would thrive in an all-star game.
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| Feb 10, 2002
Richardson seems to be star-bound
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| Feb 9, 2002
DON NELSON has a theory on what has propelled Steve Nash into this NBA all-star spotlight.
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| Feb 8, 2002
Four buses full of pint-sized, wide-eyed Steve Nash fans will make the three-hour trip from Vancouver to Seattle next Tuesday to see the SuperSonics play Nash's Dallas Mavericks.
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| Feb 8, 2002
The basketball court, for instance, would make a nice refuge.
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| Feb 8, 2002
Marc Stein interviews NBA Commissioner David Stern for the Dallas Morning News to talk about Mark Cuban and his complaints about officiating.
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| Feb 8, 2002
Marc Stein and the Dallas Morning News sent out a survey to the owners (or their representatives) to ask to what extent they agree with Mark Cuban's complaints about NBA officiating.
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| Feb 8, 2002
Though the league chose Elton Brand to take injured Shaquille O'Neal's roster spot on the All-Star team, Western Conference coach Don Nelson has to decide who will take his starting center spot, reports Kevin Lyons of the Star Telegram.
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| Feb 7, 2002
The Mavs' Juwan Howard missed Wednesday's victory over New Jersey because of a suspension.
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| Feb 7, 2002
But none of that mattered to the Mavericks, for they continued their magical run of a season, defeating the Eastern Conference-leading New Jersey Nets 112-100 at the Continental Airlines Arena.
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| Feb 6, 2002
The NBA team with the most international players found those players competing for separate interests when FIBA and the local organizing committee conducted the official draw for first-round play of the 2002 World Basketball Championship at Conseco Fieldhouse.
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| Feb 6, 2002
Except for nights like Tuesday, when the Mavericks needed every point from the charity stripe, and needed every Pacers choke from their own in gritting to a 141-140 double-overtime victory.
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| Feb 5, 2002
Mark Aguirre, a three-time All-Star with the Mavericks, is now happily coaching with the Indiana Pacers.
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| Feb 5, 2002
Jodie Valade of the Dallas Morning News reports that Mavericks coach Don Nelson will start to migrate toward a bigger lineup, giving more minutes to the likes of Juwan Howard, Shawn Bradley, Wang Zhizhi, and Evan Eschmeyer.
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| Feb 4, 2002
It shouldn't come as a surprise because everyone expected this from Don Nelson from the very start.
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| Feb 4, 2002
Shaquille O'Neal does not discriminate.
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| Feb 1, 2002
Someday, perhaps soon, Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers could take on the edge of a rivalry.
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| Feb 1, 2002
So that both big men played substantial roles as the Mavericks reversed strategy in a 95-91 triumph over the Houston Rockets on Thursday was more than a bit surprising.
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| Feb 1, 2002
DALLAS -- The Rockets wanted to run with the Mavericks again.
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