Its a flag football game....

It's simple. Those who freak out about how much of an athlete Lebron is based off of video from a flag football game, have NEVER played sports on their life. It's FLAG FOOTBALL!! Why was espn playing the Lebron/Durant flag football game highlights all last night?? Lebrons catches actually made the top ten list! Really? I used to make the same plays in intramural football every Wednesday night. No big deal. It's called being athletic. But it doesn't mean that you start drooling at the mouth saying that Lebron should play in the NFL and making a big deal over the fact that he can catch a football and outrun a bunch of kids. Plays like that are made all over the U.S. They're made on intramural fields, in streets, in backyards, at family reunions, and on Thanksgiving Days everywhere... All the time.

Who cares about lebron playing flag football and making routine plays? Apparently Espn does.

TC-YA!!!

I just don't get it, how is it that we lost Tyson Chandler? Already? How do we not have enough to keep him? Didn't he just win a title in Dallas? Now he's leaving for greener pastures? What's greener than the team that just got you a ring? If we cant afford him, who can? Im sure we'll learn more as soon as teams and players start negotiating and talking contracts again. A lot more to come over the next few days. Hopefully this opens the door for Dwight Howard next year. Maybe it frees some money up for CP3 or Deron Williams in 2012-2013. But it's such a gamble to let Chandler walk and hope that CP3, Dwight Howard, or D Wiiliams comes to Dallas. Chris Paul is going to New York, we all know that. Dwight Howard could happen, but i see him going to the Lakers if Bynum gets injured again (which is highly likely). Getting Deron Williams may happen, but is it worth losing Tyson Chandler? No way. Tyson wants a long term deal, but the Mavs can only offer a one year, max contract. But Tyson wants security if he gets injured. I can't figure out if I should be pissed at Tyson for leaving Dallas, or just chalk this up to the business of pro sports. Either way, it's a loss for the Mavericks.

All I know is that the best Center the franchise has ever had, is gone. And probably to some average team that has money to spend, like the Clippers. Can you imagine Chandler and Blake Griffin side by side? Or what about Chandler, Cousins, and Tyreke Evans on the same squad in Sacramento? Potential, yes. But why not stick with a proven champion? I guess legacy means nothing to Chandler because the Clippers or Kings aren't winning anytime soon.

So long TC, can't say it wasn't good while it lasted.

No Respect.......

The NBA has been back for a whopping 2 days and already I'm sick of the Mavs haters. The "Experts" are saying that we got lucky last year. They're saying we have zero chance of a repeat. You don't have 11 straight 50 win seasons because the team is a fluke. You don't beat the blazers in 6 games after the world picked against you by catching some "lucky breaks." You don't sweep the defending NBA champs, Lakers, by things "luckily falling into place". You don't beat the up-and-coming thunder in 5 games just because the "thunder didn't show up". You don't beat the team pre-destined to win not 5, not 6, not 7 titles, in 6 games by "being a washed up team of veterans who managed to put it together".

I've never seen the media trying so hard to downplay a teams title run. It was the greatest over all team effort the league has seen in a while and I'm not sure why the media doesn't recognize and appreciate that.
Do these "experts" not realize that we won our Championship WITHOUT Caron Butler? Do they not know about Roddy B and his potential? Do they not realize we added Rudy Fernandez? Do they forget that Tyson Chandler (if resigned) is the 2nd best center in the game? I just get exhausted from reading and listening to big market, big name player, biased sports media (i.e. Colin Cowherd). Even our own Dallas media (Ben Rogers) says our title run was lucky. It just blows my mind that we finally win a title and it's STILL not good enough.

Ranger Danger

June 2, 2011 and October 27, 2011. One of the greatest and one of the worst dates in Dallas’ sports history. Each of which will be burned into the heads of Dallas sports fans for a long time. One associated with happy thoughts, the other with sad. There was a time during the NBA finals run that I would’ve sacrificed a Rangers or Cowboys title just to get that Larry O’Brien trophy. But little did I know that it would happen like this.
June 2nd was the night of the 15 point comeback in game 2 of the NBA finals. We all know what happened there and how unbelievable it was. But June 2nd seems like years ago compared to what happened on October 27th in game 6 of the World Series. Images from game 6 will haunt be for a long time. Cruz’s late break on the ball, Feliz meltdown, Hamiltons almost heroic moment, and Lance Berkman sending it over Kinslers head. Casual fans and Cardinal fans will see that as one of the greatest games in baseball history. I call it D day. D for “depressed”, “distraught”, “denied”, and “devestating.”
But to keep it positive, the Rangers are just getting started. We’re away ahead of schedule. We have a top farm system and money to spend. This could actually be the perfect storm brewing. I see a team that’s sticking together with a rowdy fan base and with heartbreak on the front of the mind, and determined to never let that happen again. We could easily see one of the greatest baseball dynasties of all time being groomed in front of our eyes. This seems impossible in today’s free agency and with teams like the Yankees and Red Sox getting in the way with their money. But all the signs are pointing to a dynasty. Much like the 90’s Braves’ runs, but with a few more titles. Maybe its wishful thinking, but it’s far from impossible.
With the NBA lockout and the Cowboys struggling (constantly), I see Dallas turning into a Baseball town. And that’s a beautiful thing.

Dallas Mavericks, World Champions.

The media will try and make you forget about this championship. They’ll make you wonder what lebron is doing next and they’ll debate his postgame press conference in an attempt to save any spec of grace the guy has. Afterall, he is the face of the networks in a NBA perspective. Of course he is, why should they talk about Dirk? Hes foreign and he actually had to work for 13 years before a title………BOOOORING! Lebron was the annointed “King” in his first year of the NBA. Why? Because he dunks hard? He’s a freak, I'll give you that. But the focus is on the wrong King. ESPN and the major media will want you to forget all of this. But we’re mavs fans, and we wont forget.

Anything before 2003 is important, but I wont get into it. You all know that we were the laughing stock of ALL professional sports in the 90’s. I don’t have to get into the 11 and 14 win seasons. No need to talk about the Dennis Rodman experiment. 2001 was great in that we beat the Jazz and there was a Calvin Booth sighting, but the spurs instantly smashed that little dream in the next round.



The magic/terror started in 2003 (in my opinion). Thats when my passion for the Mavericks got to an unhealthy level. This is when i realized I could no longer watch the mavs in a public setting where the "beast" comes out. Im an easy going guy until some spurs fan opens his mouth. Then rage comes out to play. It was in this year that Dallas met San Antonio in the Western Conferance Finals. I never really cared one way or the other about the spurs, and I actually like David Robinson. But after this series, I HATED them. With a passion. I watched as Dirk and his buddy Steve Nash worked the spurs defense and took them by surprise. Michael Finley was at the party and streaky Van Excel kept us alive too. Then Dirk got hurt, and Steve Kerr and the spurs moved on to the finals. From this point on, it was Mavs or bust. Cowboys and Rangers were on the back burner.

Its June 20, 2006. My roomate and best friend Rio is on the couch shaking his head in disgust. Im laying on the floor watching Jason Terry miss the game tying 3 pointer in the nba finals. My head goes face down in the carpet, misty-eyed. Just 4 minutes later, a pair of Ferragomo sunglasses are smashed against my bedroom wall. We had blown a 2-0 lead in the NBA finals. We lost to a team with Antoine Walker. Miami Heat were world champs. Only the mavericks would do this. Only the mavs would be the first team to blow that lead. It was heartbreaking. But little did we know, it wasnt over.



2007 was a dagger no other NBA fan base has suffered outside of the 94 sonics. (lost to the 8 seed nuggets). But im sure ours was worse. Mavs lose to #8 seed Golden State in 6. The mavs had the leagues best record and league MVP. This meant smooth sailing through the playoffs right? Nope. Little did we know that Baron Davis would shoot 127% from the field.


2008, yada yada, CP3 alley opp x24, yada yada
2009, yada yada, Denver Thuggets, yada yada
2010, yada yada, George Hill, whos he? yada yada

Hold on......im watching the last 3 minutes of game 6 of this year's finals on NBA TV's playoff replay. Will i cry again? Its possible.

Damn it, i did.

Anyway....

Its not major news to mavs fans that we were picked to get bounced out in the first round of the 2011 playoffs to the Blazers. Actually a prominent NBA writer for Yahoo Sports, Adrian Wojonowski, picked Portland in 4, LA over Dallas in 5, OKC over Dallas in 5, and Miami in 6. Naturally, he lost his prominence. And coincidently enough, he just wrote an article about the mavs and congratulating our efforts. I scanned the article looking for the part where he eats crow. Of course, no crow insight. There’s Chris Webber, Mr Timeout himself, who said before game 6 that “The Mavericks are not a good defensive team, and have never been agood defensive team”. Webber’s just sad because we put up 84 points in one half against his Kings in the 2003 playoffs. Theres Colin Cowherd and Skip Bayless. These guys deserve to be in the same sentence because theyre just media blow-hards that are always looking to shock an audience. Bayless to this second hasn’t given the mavs credit and we don’t need him to. Dallas kicked him out of town in the 90’s for starting the “Troy Aikman is gay” rumors. Bayless has an agenda and Cowherd only picks the big city/bigmarket teams. He represents all that is wrong with ESPN. Last but not least, the ABC crew of Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, and Marc Jackson were bad (understatement of the year). These guys were infatuated with every opposing player on every opponents roster. Van Gundy wanted to marry Jeff Harden, Marc Jackson wanted to have D Wade’s baby, and I'm pretty sure that Breen had a Heat jersey on under his suit.. Ive never witnessed such bias in-game announcing in my life outside of Sean Elliot (Spurs play-by-play guy).. Im still not sure how these guys have a job. “BANG”. I've come to realize that analyst know nothing. The truth is that the Mavs will not get as much credit as expected. We’re all learning together how it feels to be the champs in this age of TMZ and manufactured drama. Ive already read the headlines 2 days after our title, "Can the Mavs repeat”, “Did the window open and close in the same year”, “The Heat are the favorites to win in 2012”. And the ole, "did the Mavericks win it, or did the Heat lose it"?. Interesting how the media loves the Cowboys but it treats the Mavs like some small market, Cinderella franchise. Although both share the same city. I just don’t get it.

Charles Barkley is THE only media personality that believed in Dallas and saw our strengths as a team. He was the only analyst that wasn’t wearing Lebron glasses and knew that with our style of basketball and a team full of hungry vets, we could take down the 3 headed circus side show. Barkley called our win over the Lakers too. Get the guy a parade float.



But as fans, we have to block out all the negative publicity. Focus on what just happened. The Dallas Mavericks won it all, they’re WORLD CHAMPIONS. It happened so quick, so stressful, so magical, and so perfect. It couldn’t have happened a better way. Blowing it in Portland and thinking the same ole mavs were back, then winning that series. Sweeping the Lakers, how huge was that? (again, the media said that the Lakers werent "themselves". Theres no way the Mavs could actually beat their precious Lakers right?). The comeback over OKC in game 4. The Dirk-walk-off at the WCF ceremony. Then theres the comebacks vs Miami and ultimately the win on THEIR home floor in game 6. We returned the favor and then some. We pimp-slapped EVERY hater there ever was.

We’ll never forget this team and the way in which we accomplished this. Even if we reach the finals again next year and win, it wont be as gratifying as this one……ever. What we just witnessed was basketball at its finest. Not just basketball, but all of sport. It was perfect, seamless teamwork. It was guts and heart and eventually it paid off for the glory. The media can try and rain on our parade, but the forecast says sunny with 100% chance of awesome.

The mavericks did it. They finally did it. We can all sleep easy.

Stupid things are funny to me......

Zoolander, Team America, Bears, Beets, and Battlestar Gallactica. These things are so stupid yet genius. These are 5 of the funniest shirts I found online tonight.


The funniest part of this shirt is how sad he looks. A funny idea would be to show him on Saturday the 14th with his wife asking him where he was all night. And he's sitting there in a robe and coffee looking annoyed.


Who would win, an elephant with a knife, or a Giraffe with an ax?


Scissors. All day. Wouldnt "Scissors" be an awesome nick name for a Bad Ass or some movie villian? Or maybe a good name for a stuffed bear.....I dont know.


Probably the least funny of the bunch, but just the pure random-ness of it makes it awesome. I probably would've added a merm.....oh wait......that chick IS a mermaid. Ok, it's complete.


Saving the best for last. I laughed out loud when I saw this one. Makes no sense, yet perfect sense.

Jet Setting the Tone......

Talking trash can be a flip of a coin sometimes. You can talk mess and back it up on the field. Or you can run your mouth and promptly get run off the field....Chad Ochocinco knows a little bit about this. Although some, not to name names, Bill Belicheck, frown upon talking a little trash before a game; it was proven that it can be awesome if executed properly. Not saying that the words from the Jets mouth put on pads and dominated Tom Brady, but the talk leading up to the game gave the Jets an extra shot of life before Sunday nights game. Led by the trash talkin-ist head coach of all time in Rex Ryan, the Jets took care of the Spurs of the NFL 28-21. Not to mention, in New England. By the way, I refuse to make any reference to the New York/Boston rivalry in this post. ESPN has successfully beat the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry down harder than Ike did Tina.
Trash talking is nothing new, Joe Namath did it when he guaranteed a win over Baltimore in '60 something. Belicheck benched Wes Welker for the first few series of Sundays game for his use of creative trash talk, and on the other sideline, Rex Ryan encourages it.

"Jets head coach Rex Ryan held a conference call with New England reporters this morning, and the first question was what his reaction was to cornerback Antonio Cromartie's remarks about Tom Brady.

Ryan said he was unfamiliar with them, and asked media members to fill him in.

"First off, in this country, you're allowed to have opinions, and all that kind of stuff," he responded when told of the remarks. "Obviously, as an organization, we respect Tom Brady, there is no question about it. But hey, is there dislike between us and Brady, and Brady against the Jets? Of course there is.

"Am I going to punish Cromartie for saying something, or whatever? No. I know one thing, we respect New England, but we don't fear them. A comment like that, it's just the fact they're the enemy as we look at them this week."

Ryan was then asked if he felt those remarks crossed the line from fun trash talk to something else.

"Realistically, I'm sure that's basically what it was, just a comment that he made," Ryan said. "Trust me, they're saying a lot worse about me and others here, maybe it just wasn't printed."

A reporter then asked Ryan if he felt players followed his lead and that he incites such remarks. Ryan laughed.

"Yeah, of course," he said. "Maybe they do follow my lead in the fact that in that we can say what's on our mind or whatever. I don't say 'Whatever we do, don't say this, or don't say that.' We're a transparent organization. We let our guys speak and don't try to tell them what to say or what not to say."

Ryan was then asked if there was a risk in making such remarks, because it could make the Jets look bad if they don't win.

"We're going to be watching somebody else play, so it really doesn't matter. You either win or you don't. In this league, if you don't win, it's over. Your season's over," he said. "To think that a comment here or there is going to incite them to play at a greater level or something like that, I don't believe that's true. ... It doesn't matter what would come out of New England's locker room or anybody else's locker room, because you can't be more motivated than we are, and you can't be more motivated than New England is."

Talking trash is a way of burning your boat. Much like soldiers did back in the day by burning their boat before going into war, as in "Theres no turning back". No boat, no bitchin' out and going home. Jets were in this and they committed when they said "Brady is a F-king A--hole" and that they "want him on his back as much as possible". I LOVE IT! Maybe the Pats couldve used a little more of these means of motivation instead of being robots (yes, I understand that the Pats have 4 rings. But thats in the past). Im NOT a Jets fan, but its good to see a team finally back up some good trash talkin'. This NY and Pittsburgh matchup is going to be a doozy.

Tony's take:

AFC Championship
Steelers 24
Jets 17

NFC Championship
Bears 27
Packers 24

Get out your wallets and make the bet.

Top 5 Live Shows of all Time......

Check It.

After recently watching The Muse on Palladia (3rd best channel on TV), I decided to make a list of my top 5 live performances of all time.


5. Motley Crue, WILD SIDE. Lets get this party started right. This is the only video I could find on youtube because the "Man" at Sony took down the original. Why is this on the list? Simple, at the 2 minute mark Tommy Lee and his drums go for a ride. I remember watching this video when I was kid and thinking it was so awesome.....and it still is.



4. Coldplay, YELLOW. Me and the wifey saw this show 2 summers ago. Watching them play this song in particular made me feel more alive than ever. Thats deep, just keepin' it real. Watch this in sweet HD......



3. The Muse, STARLIGHT. This is HD from from the MTV Music Awards. Muse is hands down the best overall band in the business right now, I cant wait to see them. I still laugh every time I think of MTV and "Music". They should rename it BTYWTWHNMUYW4TV (Brainwashing Today's Youth With Trash and We Have No Music Videos Unless You're Watching at 4a.m. TV).




2. Metallica, FUEL. My favorite band of all time, they play flawless live. I saw this same set in Dallas in 1999 at what was then, The Starplex. For free bitches.....



1. Korn, BLIND. For the love of Pete Rose, look at that f'ing crowd. I, for one, have to give the number one spot to any band that has fans shooting roman candles in the air before the biggest mosh pit known to man. I once stood 10 feet from the stage at a Korn show, just sayin'.....




I love lists........