On the Rebound

My five-step plan to get the lowly Dallas Mavericks back in the game.

by Jordan Mackay

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Illustration by Roy Tompkins

In January Internet billionaire Mark Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks, the worst team in the National Basketball Association. During the nineties the Mavericks weren't simply bad; they were the incarnation of atrocious. Their .297 winning percentage was the lowest of any pro team in any sport. The Mavericks haven't been in the playoffs in ten years, currently the NBA's longest streak. The team's eleven wins in 1992-1993 were only two off the worst record in league history. At least they showed improvement the next season: They won thirteen games. In 1997 the Mavs brought us the novelty of the two-point quarter. A joke circulated that the Mavericks should be renamed the Dallas Possums. Why? Because they played dead at home and died on the road.

So at least, you say, the Mavericks were just a shabby team that Cuban picked up off a dusty shelf at Goodwill. Wrong. He laid out $280 million, the most ever for an NBA franchise, and has promised to make his team the most pampered in the league. Most teams have three or four assistant coaches; under Cuban, the Mavs have eight. Cuban had customized chairs designed for his players' comfort during games ("I think it's crazy that guys who are anywhere from five ten to seven six all sit on the same type of chair," he proclaimed) and has outfitted each player's locker with a DVD and a flat-screen TV. Cuban had the team colors and logo redesigned to go better with blue jeans. This is boyhood fantasy writ large. It's Dr. Seuss's little Morris McGurk and his Circus McGurkus in Big D.

As he's shaken up the league with his compulsive spending, Cuban has also shaken up his team. After an off-season of record wheeling and dealing, the Mavericks found themselves entering training camp with nine new players. But the group—four of whom are rookies—contains no stars and no game breakers, just the spare parts off other teams' bodies. Veterans Cuban brought in include Christian Laettner. Laettner? It should be, "Better never than Laettner." The forward hasn't induced much cheering since he led Duke over Kentucky with a last-second shot to go to the 1992 Final Four. Center Shawn Bradley is still on the team. They could have traded his stringy unproductivity for much-needed muscular unproductivity in the form of Shawn Kemp but didn't and will suffer for it.

But for all of Cuban's enthusiasm, all of the slick toys, and the transcendent play of guard Michael Finley, basketball is still a game played by taller-than-average men on a wooden court 96 feet long. Dallas' surge at the end of last season, winning 16 of its last 21 games, was encouraging, but despite all the new DNA, the Mavericks are still the Mavericks. They must show the league, the fans, and themselves that they're not the same old losers. How can this be done? Here are some suggestions for helping the Mavs rebound.

1. Bench Don Nelson. Tied up with an eleven-year, $20 million contract as general manager and with an invitation to coach a few more years, Don Nelson isn't going anywhere. Nelson may have won coach of the year three times with other organizations, but he has never so much as sniffed a championship. The 60-year-old has a reputation as an innovator, able to make the best out of the worst, but he has also been known to be on his own planet, especially in terms of personnel, which is exactly what a GM handles. It was only last year, remember, that Nelson engineered the draft that brought Chicago high school head case Leon Smith and Red Army soldier Wang Zhi-Zhi, two players who may never even don a Mavs uniform. That's one draft down the tubes. Nelson is the man who ensured that next year's biggest free-agent prize, Chris Webber, will never be a Mav after the two got into a high-profile war when they were both with Golden State. Nelson's propensity for drafting foreign players is well known. We'll give him credit for picking forward Dirk Nowitzki, but Cuban put his foot down in this year's draft to prevent Nelson from once again making Reunion Arena the United Nations South. Regardless of his record as the GM, the media turned friendly at the end of the season and the players wanted him back. But at least Cuban should consider giving the reins to his son and Mavs assistant, 38-year-old Donnie, who has one of the brightest young minds in the NBA (his coaching of Lithuania is credited for its near upset of the Dream Team in the 2000 Olympics). But Daddy has already said no, that it would be bad for Junior to coach the team while Senior is still around. Here's a better idea: Check Senior into Sun City and let Junior run the show.

2. Get Carter. Two words are all it would take to revive basketball in Dallas: Vince Carter. The Toronto Raptors should pick up his option next season but could be persuaded to trade the guard if they think he'll jump ship when his contract runs out. Players generally don't like playing in Canada because of the higher taxes, so it's not inconceivable that Carter would head south. Because Cuban coddles his players, swathes them in the warm terry-cloth robes of luxury, Dallas has suddenly become an attractive place to come. And Carter's talent is the kind that Dallas would slurp up faster than cocktails in Deep Ellum. During the Olympics he jumped clean over seven-foot French center Frederic Weis (someone Don Nelson probably would have drafted if the Knicks hadn't done it first) for a dunk. He has a knack for draining game-winning, buzzer-beating jump shots. He's Jordanesque in that his dazzling play elevates more than a team; it elevates the whole league. Plus, when Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman vacate the stage, Dallas will need a sports superstar to fill the void. He'd even be worth dealing Finley. Scratch that. Trade the whole team.

3. Get nasty! Basketball in general is not as interesting as it used to be. When the NBA became the league to emulate, it wasn't just because there were great players—there were great characters. The Mavs have some solid players but no real attitude. Sometimes it helps to have a swagger, a cockiness that can say, "To hell with a decade of unmitigated losing—we're going to kick your butts." There hasn't been a team so capable of ticking the league off since the Bad Boys of Detroit, with Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman, and Rick Mahorn. This they did with cheap elbows to the throat and by being damn good. Love 'em or hate 'em: The home crowd gets behind a team with attitude, and the away crowds flock to see their teams brutalized. Let the Spurs be the Good Samaritans; the Mavs can be the Bad Boys II. Cuban should snag this opportunity before Vince McMahon starts the XBA and beats him to it. The Mavs already have Laettner, who has a celebrated nasty side (remember when he stepped on Kentucky's Aminu Timberlake in the 1992 regional final?). Rookie forward Eduardo Najera never shied away from getting physical at Oklahoma. Guard Courtney Alexander has spent time in jail. You've got the building blocks. Now bring in the heavy hitters. Charles Oakley has a couple of good years left in him and is still the league's best enforcer. Better yet, grab Allen Iverson. Rap lyrics or no, his combative attitude could carry this team a long way. Plus, Philly wants to get rid of him so badly the Mavs could get him cheap.

4. Bring back Rodman. Well, that might not be the best idea, but the team still lacks the three things Rodman contributed: putting people in the stands, playing smothering defense, and hauling in rebounds. Last season Shaquille O'Neal had a better chance of getting an Oscar nomination than the Mavs had of outrebounding a team. Finishing twenty-second out of 29 teams won't cut it, and sadly, all the off-season moves don't appear to have brought in a lot of rebounding talent. Laettner averaged just 6.7 boards a game last year and 3.4 the year before. Forward Gary Trent puts up numbers that are worse than Laettner's. The preseason addition of another forward, Loy Vaught, will help only if he manages to find his form from the mid-nineties, when he averaged 10.1 boards a game with the Clippers. They drafted Florida forward Donnell Harvey for this purpose, but he has looked exceedingly raw and probably won't play much. Still, he's going to have to get time if he's the only rebounding force on the team. If he can play defense and rebound, by all means, speed him along.