5/7/7  Don't Dis My Mavs!

With my history of opposing the Hicks/Perot arena, some may be surprised at how much I love the Mavericks.  I love Coach Avery Johnson.  I love Josh Howard.  I love Dirk Nowitzki.  I love watching them play -- most of the time. 

I love Basketball.  Worked my way through college as the Basketball coach's secretary at North Texas State University (now University of North Texas).  We were in the late and great Missouri Valley Conference.  I loved the games, watching them play in the old Snake Pit.  We sat so close to the action, you could see all the emotion in the players' faces.  No helmets, no padding -- just athletes exposed as individuals, with good and bad moments.

Until the last few years, I've never really liked professional basketball.  So many of the top stars were (and are) thugs pretending to be athletes.  Not the case with the current Mavericks team.  No weird hairdos, no bizarre tatooing, no busts at topless clubs, no wife abusing, none of the stuff that is typical of several other teams.  The Mavericks under Avery Johnson are not ego hounds, they are just fantastic athletes who seem to have balance in their lives.

Like everybody else who has been watching their 67 wins season, I assumed they could pull the rabbit out of their collective hat.  Did not expect or want the season to be over last week or next week. I expected Dirk Nowitzki to continue to get that look in his eye, take charge and save the day.  Super German sans cape and mask -- out there, individual and part of a team, his emotions exposed.  It didn't happen last week.  It probably would have happened this week.  But, this is the playoffs, not the regular season, so there's no this week.

I am absolutely outraged at some of the stuff that's been written and said about the Mavericks and Nowitzki in particular.  These so-called fans seem to have forgotten how much fun and excitement the Mavericks delivered for us all year.  None of it would have happened without Dirk Nowitzki.  None of it would have happened without Coach Johnson.  Some of it would not have happened without Josh Howard or Jason Terry or Harris or Stack -- but it all did happen.

It was amusing to read Stackhouse is worried about not having a job next year (Stackhouse wants to remain a Maverick | Dallas Morning News), and that he got paid $9.3 million for this year.  That much money could sure help me plan a retirement getaway.  But, it's not about the money for athletes of his character and calibre.  He'll be back.

There is a huge difference in a sports fan and a jock sniffer.  The fan loves to watch a game and knows there will be some losses.  The jock sniffer thinks he's entitled to a win.  A fan sees the players as human beings doing really incredible physical things.  Jock sniffers see players as robotons who function on cue and respond to pre-programming.  How else can you explain the vicious level of criticism this week, from the same jock sniffers who were panting for a championship last week?  Thought they were entitled to a championship!

Professional sports is a business.  I still maintain it is not the responsibility of taxpayers to build business facilities for sports teams.  The fact that Dallas taxpayers have been forced to invest so much of our sales tax revenue into the arena where the Mavericks play may be why some jock sniffers have the misconception they own a piece of the team.  That is just not the case.

We don't own the Mavericks.  We don't have an ownership interest in any of the players.  They don't owe Dallas taxpayers anything.  They have given us a rocking good time for two seasons in a row.  There's more to come.

When our only daily uses its editorial page (A Hole in the Heart) to criticize a sports team owner (Mark Cuban) for saying he was sticking with his team and coach, you know we got troubles -- right here in River City.  Having a bunch of shallow, out of towners at The Dallas Managed News call the Mavericks "a team that showed so little heart when it mattered most" pretty much exemplifies the difference in jock sniffers and sports fans.

There is no one in the Belo organization with any heart, neither a little or a lot.  They are all a bunch of robots.

The Mavericks are not robots.  They are not commodities.  They are human beings, very physically gifted human beings.  To treat them or anyone in the team organization as if they are expendable extras would be like an auto mechanic pulling the spark plugs and expecting a very expensive BMW engine to fire up anyway.  They delivered 67 wins for us as a team of human beings.

The Dallas Managed News editorial board has the same lack of understanding or compassion for Angela Hunt's desire to fix the Trinity Project.  In the Belo mindset, it's not about what's best for the public or the city, it's about how the ODB/Belo are going to profit at the taxpayers' expense.  It's the same mindset that elected officials and the well-connected in New Orleans had about their levees BEFORE KATRINA.  In the Belo mindset, there is money to be made now and someone else can deal with the consequences later. 

The people at Belo/The Dallas Managed News are robotons.  They are heartless.  Those still standing at Belo are the ultimate "yes men" (or "yes women").  Anyone with any heart or character or an original thought has been forced out, or left voluntarily.  The ones remaining at Belo just carry ODB water.  They are not reporters.  They are good little soldiers.

We saw "Hot Fuzz" last night at AMC's Grand.  It is a hoot.  British humor, but actually funny.  It's set in Sanford (think Denton to Dallas, with a lot more history).  A coven of town leaders, like Our Downtown Betters, decided they know what is best for the town ("the common good") and gleefully and bloodily murder anyone who interferes with their plans.  They are all so respectable and hospitable, but woe unto any and all who challenge their plan to have their village declared perfect.  If you get a chance to see the movie, watch it with Dallas, the ODB-Belo-Dallas Managed News gang superimposed over the English locale and characters.  There's a tourist attraction outside of town, a miniature replica of the town -- think String Thing Bridges.
 
The cop who challenges the status quo is a guy, but Angela Hunt has the equipment to play his part.

Angela's tough enough to challenge the ODB-Belo-Dallas Managed News coven, but she's human.  She is not a roboton.  When they attack her, it does hurt.  It must make her uneasy to have all that power and ink focused negatively on her.  When she was helping Ray Hunt get his tax abatement, Angela Hunt was the smartest girl in town.  Now, the ODB see her as an obstacle to their plans to enrich their club members.  She is thwarting their "common good".  Off with her head!

When Dirk Nowitzki was doing super human stuff and pulling rabbits out of empty hats, he was the toast of the town and our franchise player.  He was getting great press for the city.  They could point to his and the Mavericks' success as confirmation of their superior wisdom in forcing Dallas taxpayers to pay for the sports arena, when we already had one.  Now, he has proven not to be a roboton, and he has failed their plan and thwarted the "common good".  Cut out his heart!

I have never been a big fan of Mark Cuban, but he has pleasantly surprised me with his grace in defeat and defense of his coach and team.  No excuses, no blame -- just back to work.  Before this recent sad turn of events, I would have placed Cuban in the ranks of jock sniffers -- no loyalty, no respect for athletes as human beings.  Cuban, however. has made it clear he is a sports fan, who loves the game and understands that sometimes the good guys lose and don't get the girl.

Since we aren't going to be glued to TV's watching the Mavericks play until next season, why don't you contact Angela Hunt and sign up for her team at www.TrinityVote.com?  If you are as mad at the Belo Maverick-Bashers as I am, you can kick them where it hurts most by making sure that Angela Hunt's movement is successful. 

Real sports fans in this town should get off our duffs, dust ourselves off and channel our Maverick misery into making the ODB-Belo-Dallas Managed News coven sorry they dissed Dirk and the Mavericks.  Make them sorry they tried to kill off any independent thought in this city. 

All real sports fan in this town should focus on the upcoming Mayoral/Council election.  If the ODB-Belo-Dallas Managed News coven is for someone, don't vote for them (with the exception of Dave Neumann -- he's great). 

If you doubt my comparing the ODB-Belo-Dallas Managed News coven to the murdering town leaders in "Hot Fuzz", look at the silence in The Dallas Managed News about Ed Oakley's real estate holdings in the Trinity Project area.  If it were not for Jim Schutze at the Dallas Observer (What a Woonerful World and Fresh Eyes),  most people would not know about Ed's conflict of interest in chairing the committee that oversees the Trinity Project.

This is all confirming my opinion that the real Laura Miller has been done away with by the ODB and/or Aliens.  The Trinity shill we see everywhere trying to thwart democracy in Dallas is not Laura Miller.  That creature is a roboton.  That creature does not have a heart.  That creature will perform on cue.

Robotons may have their place and be preferred by the ODB-Belo-Dallas Managed News coven and their soul mates, the jock sniffers.  I prefer to cheer for and support real people with hearts.  Real people with hearts occasionally stumble.  But on their good days, they can reach heights of perfection and excellence and courage that no roboton can be ever be expected to achieve.

Thank you, Angela Hunt, for exposing yourself to ridicule and personal attacks because you place the safety of Dallas residences and your fiduciary responsibility as an elected official above the wants and needs of the ODB-Belo-Dallas Managed News coven.

Thank you, Mark Cuban, for spending YOUR money to put together a team that has given us so much joy for the past two years and countless future seasons.  It must have surprised you to have the heartless robotons at Belo turn on you.  Don't expect loyalty from jock sniffers.

Thank you, Avery Johnson, for not passing the buck and for not quitting and for just being so damn cool.

Thank you, Dirk Nowitzki, for carrying such a load on your shoulders when all you want to do is play basketball, which you do better than almost anybody in the whole world -- most of the time.

Who wants a bunch of robots playing basketball?  Who wants a bunch of robots running this town?

Not me! 

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