The game between the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder was decided by Kevin Durant’s last second buzzer beating basket. The Thunder was lucky and they know it. This morning I read comments and questions like, “Are the Mavericks the Worst Champions Since 1961?” and “The Mavericks should at least put up a fight.” This is my reaction to analyst comments like these.

The Dallas Mavericks don’t get the respect they deserve after winning the 2011 NBA Championship. The Mavericks earned the Larry O’brian Trophy. It wasn’t handed to them on a platter by poorly playing opponents. The 2012 version of the Mavericks are not the same team, but have the potential to be as good or better. I briefly discuss the changes here, but the core of the team has changed. They are having problems coming together as a team. The lockout and short preseason didn’t help. Old guys don’t bounce back as quick as young guys. Using the game against the Thunder we can analyze play of individual players and determine how well the team is integrating.

Dirk Nowitski, Jason Kid and Jason Terry played like veteran players who have been together a long time. Shawn Marion also played well, but seemed to have some trouble handling the ball—probably because of the broken little finger. These guys know their place on the team. I have confidence in this core group.

Delonte West looked impressive scoring 15 points, along with six assists and four rebounds. I don’t think he has any problem working with the team and will only get better as games stack up.

Haywood, Mahinmi and Williams rotated in as centers. I really liked what I saw. They attacked the basket, scored, rebounded and blocked six shots. I credit their effort and coaching. If they keep this up the Mavericks center play will be an asset.

Vince Carter still has some game left in him. His team integration looks a little raw, but should improve. Carter played aggressively, created shots, and made some of them. I’m not sure he understands his exact role yet.

Lamar Odom looks lost and confused. I believe he lost a little confidence in the trade from the Los Angeles Lakers. We know he is a good player. It’s just a matter of time before he embraces his role in the system. When Odom becomes part of the “team” we will see good things from him.

I’m not happy with an 0-3 start in a 66 game season. I’d like 3-0 much better. I think the wins will come. The Mavericks have plenty of individual talent, but they need to work as a team to make a run. It will be up to the coaches to help them become that team. Analysts and reporters make snap statements sometimes to sell a story. I think they’ll have to eat some of those sensationally negative words before the season is over.

Gerald is an outdoor sportsman who has followed the Dallas Mavericks since the mid 80s. He would like nothing better than to see the Mavericks win two more Championships with Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitski.

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DALLAS (USA TODAY) — The Dallas Mavericks’ problems appear to be greater than X’s and O’s, although coach Rick Carlisle has tried to take the blame for his team’s 0-2 start.

The Mavericks lost six players from last season’s NBA championship team that beat the Miami Heat, most notably 7-1 defensive pillar Tyson Chandler, change-of-pace guard J.J. Barea and physical perimeter defender DeShawn Stevenson.

Still, Western Conference foes won’t write off the Mavericks, who have been blown out twice at home: 105-94 by the Heat and 115-93 by the Denver Nuggets. They last opened 0-2 in 2006-07, when they started 0-4.

Through Monday, the Mavs led the league in points allowed (110.0 a game). Last season, they were 10th (96.0).

“We look old, slow and out of shape,” Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki said after Monday’s loss. “I still think this team has a lot of potential. We just need to work. We probably needed extra weeks of training camp. But we don’t have it, so the young teams, the athletic teams, look better right now than we do.”

What opponents don’t overlook is a champion’s resolve.

“The team that wins the championship usually is formidable because they’ve gone through an experience nobody else has,” Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said. “They have a mental toughness. They have the confidence to know they can.”

Nuggets guard Corey Brewer, who had five points and four rebounds Monday, played for Dallas’ championship team.

“When Tyson jumped out, he pushed the pick-and-roll back and he protected the basket. … There wasn’t any layups, no dunks without Tyson coming to contest it,” Brewer said. “But they got to trust the system, because the system is great. Dirk is going to get everybody shots and guys get confidence, and that’s how they win.”

Besides losing key players, Dallas lost assistant coach Dwane Casey, Carlisle’s “quarterback,” who orchestrated the 2-3 matchup zone defense that keyed the title run. Casey is coach of the Toronto Raptors.

Casey called the defense under Carlisle. After Dallas’ made baskets, Casey would signal to point guard Jason Kidd, who would retreat with a clenched fist high. That meant a switch to the matchup zone. When executed properly, it’s difficult to decipher it from a man-to-man defense. Monte Mathis, a Mavs assistant last season, has assumed Casey’s role.

“He’s got not only the complete respect of the players, he’s a bright young mind,” Dallas general manager Donnie Nelson said of Mathis. “When you lose a guy like Dwane … it’s just another change you have to get used to.”

Nuggets coach George Karl thinks these Mavericks need time. “In an 82-game season, I don’t think anybody knows anything for about 20 games,” he said. “With a 66-game season, after 10 to 15 you’re going to have to make some decisions. I don’t think it’s time to panic.”

Nelson isn’t sure when they’ll click. “We’re patient,” he said. “I don’t think you can put a time element on chemistry. The good news is we’ve got veteran guys, and usually that stuff with veterans goes faster than not.”

Copyright 2011 USA TODAY

What are your opinions.

Through the first two games of the 2011-2012 season, the defending champion Dallas Mavericks have shown little on the court that would even remotely resemble that of the best team in the NBA.

Some of this is understandable, as the Mavs have lost some key contributors from last season’s remarkable Finals run. Dallas is missing it’s defensive MVP from last season in Tyson Chandler, it’s best perimeter defender in DeShawn Stevenson and a spark plug off the bench in J.J. Barea.

However, the team’s lackluster effort thus far in the young season likely could not be described as understandable. With talented veterans Lamar Odom, Vince Carter and Delonte West coming aboard; the Mavericks were expected to be able to weather the storm early-on this season as the team gelled throughout the year.

This has not happened.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Mavericks’ head coach Rick Carlisle said after the team’s banner raising blunder against the Miami HEAT. “Every day we’re going to have to make some gradual strides to get better, so that’s where we’re at. We had some stretches where we got some traction, but our consistency is not there. We’ve got to keep studying and keep working on it.”

After last night’s 115-93 beat down at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, Dallas is now 0-2 on the season and has fallen behind by 30 or more points in each of those contests. Because of furious runs by the Mavs’ reserves in each of those games, neither final score was reflective of the type of effort Dallas exhibited on either end of the floor.

Aside from West, who has shown flashes of what he can do in leading the Mavs bench during garbage time, the other two Mavericks’ offseason acquisitions have failed to live up to the billing of their former All-Star pedigree. Odom is a combined 2-16 from the field to start his career with Dallas and was ejected from the first contest have arguing with an official, and Carter has been largely relegated to the bench during key stretches for the Mavs.

The aforementioned Carter, who started at the two-spot against the HEAT but was benched at halftime and subsequently came of the pine last night against Denver, believes this team can and will play better going forward.

“No excuses,” Carter told HOOPSWORLD Sunday evening. “We’ve got to find a way, plain and simple. We’ve just got to figure out how we can get it done. Everybody’s dealt the same deck of cards, its just who can figure it out the fastest.”

Two of the biggest factors in the Mavs’ poor start this season, rebounding and defense, have been embarrassingly inept through two games. Dallas has allowed each team to shoot nearly 49 percent from the field and were out-rebounded by a combined 30 boards against the HEAT and Nuggets.

Aside from turning back time and deciding to keep Chandler from signing with the New York Knicks, a revival of energy and a focus on continuity are the only things that can help Dallas get back to playing championship-style basketball. With not much time between games and a shortened overall schedule, this team must find a way to speed up that process if it hopes to be a contender in April.

“We’re going to have to play a lot better basketball and we’re going to have to forge an identity with this team,” Carlisle said. “It’s a different team and that’s work. It’s going to take work,  it’s going take honesty and it’s not going to be easy.

“We’ve got to work to make quantum leaps as quickly and as often as we can.”

The one positive for Dallas going forward is the simple fact that there are still 64 games left on the schedule. With the type of talent that still resides on this team, namely former NBA and Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki, a strong run deep into the playoffs should still be a realistic possibility.

“I think we’ll be OK.  I think we’re going to make it happen sooner than later,” Mavs’ forward Shawn Marion told HOOPSWORLD.  “One game at a time, man… Just one game at a time, that’s all you can do.”

It’s way too early to start throwing out absolutes here in regards to what this team is going to be going forward but it’s difficult to simply shrug off the disturbing lack of effort the starters of this team have exuded through the first two days of the season. Energy has nothing to do with chemistry and this squad’s demeanor suggests a Finals hangover is in desperate need of getting a remedy.

There is the quick update of the day.

The defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks have started out 0-2.

An ugly 0-2. They have been blown out by the Heat and the Nuggets on their home court, losing by a combined 33 points (and it wasn’t really that close, garbage time runs have made it look better than it was).

What in the name of Mark Cuban is going on?

The problem is, it’s not just one thing. Both the offense and the defense have taken steps back so far this season. Big steps. At the heart of the issue is the team chemistry and selfless team play — the great offensive ball movement, the coordinated defense — have disappeared.

Dallas last season won because the whole was greater than the sum of their parts. Their chemistry made up for the lack of athleticism. This year so far they are just parts. Here is what Dirk Nowitzki told the Dallas Morning News.

“We look old and slow and out of shape — a bad combination,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 20 points and sat out the entire fourth quarter for a second straight game, yet another indication of how bad things are going. “I still think this team has a lot of potential. But we have to turn the corner.”

That should come with time — Lamar Odom just looks lost right now trying to find his way, but he will find his spots. Eventually. It’s just that in a condensed season the Mavs have less time to make this all happen.

And there are a lot of areas that need work.

Transition defense is at the top of the list. Both Denver and the Heat ran against Mavericks embarrassed the Mavs. To be kind. Both the Heat and Nuggets created mismatches in transition and exploited them mercilessly. Dallas started out focused on it against Denver but those plans wilted as they game wore on.

More than just transition, it was things like baseline drives that Dallas used to shut off (thank you Tyson Chandler) which they are giving up now in bunches.

On offense the Mavs have scored 16 points fewer per 100 possessions compared to last year, and they are playing at a faster pace through two games, exacerbating the problem. They are not getting good looks through ball movement, they are looking more isolated and their shots more contested.

The problem is they are a jump shooting team and those misses are long rebounds and the Heat and Nuggets turned those misses into fast beaks, and we talked about the lack of transition defense.

Coach Rick Carlisle is looking for solutions. He is starting Delonte West over Vince Carter (mostly for the defense). He gave Sean Williams run and he looked good, providing them the athleticism the Mavericks need.

But the real solution is time. The core of the Dallas team that won the title and had been together for years has been broken up in the name of cap space and there is a new learning curve. Eventually Dallas will get back close to what they were. But the bumps in the road are painful.

The real concern is that in this condensed schedule, the hole they are digging at the start of the season is going to hurt them more later.

What do you guys think about this.

When looking back at all of my favorite sports memories of 2011, I think of many sports moments. As a die-hard Boston sports fan, I obviously think about the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup but I also think about the Boston Red Sox’s epic end-of-the-season collapse. But my favorite sports memory of 2011 has nothing to do with a Boston sports team.

My favorite sports moment over the span of this year has to do with my favorite basketball team: the Dallas Mavericks. Though the Mavericks have experienced many great seasons, throughout the history of the organization, the 2011 season for the Mavericks was their best. In fact, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd helped the team win the team’s first NBA championship.

When the Mavericks beat Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, I earnestly believed that the Mavericks would not do well against the Miami Heat. The Mavericks obviously had a solid team last year but the Heat appeared to be much better and had a dynamic trio of all-stars – Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade.

In the end, the Mavericks prevailed against the Heat in the NBA Finals, winning the championship in six games. As you might have guessed by now, I am a passionate Mavericks fan and their championship win was one of my favorite sports moments of all time. Being able to watch James and Wade walk off the court in disgrace also made that night highly enjoyable. However, in the end, one of my favorite highlights of the Mavericks’ championship night was finally being able to see Mark Cuban experience triumphant joy for his Dallas basketball team. Watching many of the Mavericks players, especially Dirk Nowitzki, finally enjoy knowing that they helped their team win the championship was one of my favorite sports moments in 2011. The team deserved to win and I hope that they will repeat their success in 2012.

Sources:

Jaime Aron, “New Mavs Odom, Carter eager to help defend title,” Yahoo! Sports.

Jaime Aron, “Nowitzki curious who’ll help Mavs defend crown,” Yahoo! Sports.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Not much else going on in the NBA world today.

Keep Jesus Christ first in your hearts and minds when going
through your lives and careers, the co-founder and former part
owner of the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks told 108
graduates of Philadelphia Biblical University during Saturday’s
commencement ceremony.

“Your vision should always be to serve Christ and his kingdom,”
Norm Sonju said to those getting bachelor’s and master’s degrees
from the Langhorne Manor college.

“Don’t water that part down,” he continued. “If you do, you will
never reach your full potential. You have to decide what to
believe, the world’s standards that change all the time or the word
of the Holy Bible. This world is dying for leaders who have it
together, because most of them don’t.”

Sonju, 73, founded the Mavericks along with Donald Carter in
1980. He was part owner, president and general manager of the team
for 12 years and remained involved until the club was sold to Ross
Perot Jr. in 1996, who in turn sold most of his interest to the
team’s current majority owner, Mark Cuban, in 2000. Sonju remains a
big fan of the team, he said.

A devout Christian who lives in Dallas with his wife Carole,
Sonju told the PBU graduates that debt, both national and
household, is one of the biggest problems facing the United
States.

“Forty percent of Americans spend more than they earn,” he said.
“Control your debt. It will absolutely ruin you if you don’t. I
know many of you have college debt, but try to pay it off as soon
as possible. If you free yourselves from debt, it will free you to
honor and glorify the Lord.”

Since retiring from the Mavericks, Sonju has remained involved
in many pursuits, most of them Christian based. Among them is his
role as volunteer chairman of Camp-of-the-Woods, a 111-year-old
Christian family resort in the southern part of the Adirondack
Mountains in upstate New York.

Strive for excellence in your careers, but always with your
faith as the framework, Sonju told the graduates.

“Our Lord can use PBU graduates like you with a biblical world
view to make a positive difference in the world,” he said.

Jeremy Hay, a Bristol Township resident and 2006 graduate of
Harry S. Truman High School, received bachelor’s degrees in the
Bible and Education from PBU on Saturday.

“One of the reasons I came here was my mother Lora (who has
since died) worked here and I got free tuition,” he said. “But it
was mostly because this was where I felt God wanted me to be. I
love the faculty and other people here. This college has given me
great memories I’ll cherish the rest of my life.”

Hay said he plans be pursue a master’s degree in nutrition from
another college and then possibly become a health and physical
education teacher or a personal trainer-nutritionist.

Ruth Trego of Sunbury received a special award Saturday for
having the highest grade point average, 3.99, among the graduates.
Lauren Gingrich of Mount Joy was honored for having the second
highest GPA, 3.97.

The college holds graduation ceremonies in December and May,
with the much larger one being in May.

Originally located in Center City Philadelphia, PBU moved to its
105-acre campus in Langhorne Manor in 1979. It currently has 1,311
students and offers 44 undergraduate and 7 graduate degree
programs.

According to its mission statement, PBU “exists to educate
students to serve Christ in the church, society and the world as
biblically minded, well educated and professionally competent men
and women of character.”

© 2011 phillyBurbs.com . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

If you like reading our blog, remember to bookmark it.

What do you guys think about this.

There is the quick update of the day.

Credit: AP Photo

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, right, arrives for labor talks between the NBA and the players’ association, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011 in New York. NBA commissioner David Stern said last week during an interview with WFAN radio in New York that without a deal Tuesday, when the sides meet with federal mediator George Cohen, his “gut” was that there wouldn’t be NBA basketball on Christmas. The man at left is NBA security agent Greg Robinson. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

That’s all for today guys, i’ll be back to blog you tomorrow.

At the beginning of last season there were few people outside of the Dallas metropolitan area who believed in the Dallas Mavericks’ chances of winning an NBA Championship. Four years removed from their first trip to the Finals, where they lost to the Miami HEAT in six games, the Mavericks hadn’t advanced past the second round since. They earned the reputation of a team that was great during the regular season, but just couldn’t get it done when it mattered in the playoffs.

Their run in the 2011 postseason changed that completely.

Going into a first-round matchup against the young and tough Portland Trail Blazers, many expected the Mavericks to bow out early again. They were without two of their top offensive players in Caron Butler and Rodrigue Beaubois due to injury, forcing them to depend heavily on aging veterans Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion. They delivered, however, as the Mavericks bounced back after losing two straight with a 2-0 lead to advance in six games.

Waiting for them were the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers, who won the regular season series against the Mavericks 2-1, were extremely heavy favorites, but the Mavericks who played like they should have been the favorites. They made easy work of the Lakers, sweeping them in four games – highlighted by a 36-point trouncing in the decisive fourth game.

The Mavericks would need just one more game than that to eliminate the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals to earn their second Western Conference championship in franchise history. Oddly enough, who was there waiting for them in the Finals? The team who beat them for the championship in 2006: the HEAT.

Back in ’06 the HEAT was a team loaded with former stars like Shaquille O’Neal, Antoine Walker and Gary Payton with a young Dwyane Wade leading the way. This time around, they were stocked up with three of the league’s best players currently in LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Wade. The three All-Stars joined forces last summer because they believed together there would be nobody who could stop them. That proved to be true through the Eastern Conference playoffs, where the Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls each failed to last more than five games.

It was back and forth through the first three games, with the HEAT winning Games 1 and 3. Two losses away from finishing in second place again, the Mavericks dug deep. Players like Jason Terry, Marion, Tyson Chandler, Kidd and especially Dirk Nowitzki knew exactly how terrible of a feeling it is to come up short and didn’t want to experience it again. Plus, there was no telling if they would ever be in this position again as they aren’t positioned for the future anywhere near as nicely as the HEAT are.

Playing with a now-or-never mentality, the Mavericks won the next three games and the 2011 NBA championship. It was extremely vindicating for Nowitzki and Kidd in particular. Now the two future Hall of Famers will never be associated with the group of great players who were unable to win a championship. It was also very rewarding for owner Mark Cuban, who poured his heart, soul and millions upon millions of dollars to revive Mavericks basketball, and the very underrated head coach, Rick Carlisle. Carlisle, who never got the credit he deserved as a head coach at his previous stops, will now finally be undeniably recognized as one of the best in the league, which he’s been for several years.

As the defending champs, there aren’t a whole lot of changes that the Mavericks need to make. Aside from the addition of Chandler in the offseason, they weren’t much different looking from the team that lost in the first round of the 2010 playoffs. The strength of this team is in their chemistry and all of the experience that they have.

The recent news of the owners backing off of their demand for a hard cap is great news for Mavericks fans, because even if there is a stiff luxury tax penalty for going over the cap, it’s safe to say that Cuban is going to be willing to pay it in order to keep this team together.

Prior to the start of the lockout, the Mavericks were engaged in serious discussions to re-sign unrestricted free agent Chandler. One Western Conference executive said that they weren’t even looking at Chandler as an option in free agency because they knew Dallas would keep him. Chandler made it seem like otherwise when asked, but knowing Cuban it’s hard to imagine him letting Chandler go elsewhere. His inside presence was too vital to their success; he would be extremely difficult to replace.

Butler’s value is really hard to gauge at this time. Missing the second-half of last season with a broken leg didn’t help his value much, but teams know his abilities. He’s a complete player and an intense competitor, someone with the type of drive that the Mavericks are going to need to have around in order to go for two-straight championships. The Mavericks will probably be reliant on nobody overpaying for Butler and getting some kind of a hometown discount in order to keep him. If he goes elsewhere, veteran forward Corey Brewer will be ready to step up in his place.

Jose Juan Barea, another big key to the puzzle, is also an unrestricted free agent. A draft-night deal for Portland Trail Blazers guard Rudy Fernandez seemed like a precautionary move by the Mavericks in preparation for Barea’s potential departure. They’ll undoubtedly make a run at keeping him, but Barea’s stock has really risen over the last year and there will be some competition for his services. While the Mavericks would like to keep him, his price tag may be too high to match based on what they have to replace him. Waiting in the wings eager to play is sophomore guard Dominique Jones. A healthy Beaubois will also be looking to take some of the playing time that belonged to Barea last season.

Re-signing Brian Cardinal, DeShawn Stevenson and Peja Stojakovic ranks a little bit lower on the priority list, but they won’t be overly expensive if the Mavericks indeed want to bring them back. Of the three, Stevenson is the one they need to keep the most due to his defensive prowess.

Repeating as champions is no easy task to say the least, but the Mavericks will be equipped to make a serious run at it as long as they can keep this team together as much as possible.

Senior NCAA and NBA analyst Yannis Koutroupis will be hosting his weekly chat on 9/30/11 at 11 am EST. You can get your questions in here.

Not much else going on in the NBA world today.

Not much else going on in the NBA world today.

LeBron James still looks back, but only fleetingly.

Instead, his primary focus is on bigger and better things for himself and his team.

Speaking Monday in his native Akron, Ohio, where he was hosting his annual charity bicycle event, the Miami Heat forward briefly reflected on his team’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, while also expressing optimism amid the NBA lockout that there would be a 2011-12 season for redemption.

He also spoke of a new, Hall of Fame training partner.

“Right now,” he said, “I’ve just been focusing on getting better, working on my game every single day. The Dallas Mavericks were a great team and they deserved to win that championship. It’s just more motivation coming into this season.”

That motivation drove him to spend time this summer with former Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon, working on his post play. The Hall of Fame center also has worked this summer with Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard on that facet.

“You always want to be victorious,” James said, “but when you’re not victorious, it’s about how you bounce back.”

The issue of post play has been a touchy one for James over his eight-season career. He proved proficient in such a role when Heat teammate Chris Bosh was briefly sidelined at midseason, but then drifted back to the perimeter, as had also been the case during his first seven NBA seasons, with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“I’m in bounce-back mode,” he said, “and I’ve dedicated this offseason to myself being a better basketball player.”

While other star players have spoken of possibly playing overseas amid the lockout, James said he is optimistic there will be NBA basketball at some point over the coming year, perhaps even on schedule.

“I’m very passionate about the game of basketball and I’ve been working toward the upcoming season,” he said. “I’m very optimistic about (union leader) Billy Hunter and the owners getting a deal done. I love the game that much, so that’s my focus right now.

“My focus is having a training camp next month at the end of the month and getting ready to go.”

Before that, there is a nine-day trip to China that begins this week, with teammate Dwyane Wade having just returned from China.

Wade, Bosh and James were teammates during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and James told the Associated Press that he is hopeful of participating in the 2012 London Games.

Monday, though, was about his hometown and setting up youth for a brighter future, pledging academic support to 360 area third-graders through their high-school years.

“Every 26 seconds a kid drops out of high school. To be able to shed light on a statistic like that, I’m all for it,” he said. “It’s only important to you if you have a love for it. If an athlete has a love for it and he wants to give back, he should do it. If not, it’s not going to look authentic and you shouldn’t do it.

“But I really care and being an inner-city kid who didn’t have much and lived off a dream and had people help him get to that dream, it’s just natural for me.”

iwinderman@tribune.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat

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Read More: bruce pearl, bruce pearl d-league, Dallas Mavericks

Bruce Pearl’s next coaching stop could be in the NBA Development League. If that ends up being the case, the former head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers coach will reportedly be compensated quite handsomely to put ‘D-League coach’ on his résumé.

Pearl is meeting with the Texas Legends this week, the D-League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks that is co-owned by Donnie Nelson, and reportedly is being offered a package approaching $500,000, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein. Both the Legends and Pearl are scheduled to meet with the media on Thursday, according to a team release.

As Stein reports, the $500,000 figure would easily be the most lucrative coaching package put together for a head coach in the D-League. In fact, there are very few coaches being paid six figures to coach in the D-League, much less being offered $500,000 to coach a 50-game season.

This isn’t anything new as the Legends have made plenty of headlines ever since becoming an expansion franchise — and continue to make the national media with the Pearl interview. Last season, the team hired Hall of Fame member Nancy Lieberman as the team’s first head coach and had a front office staff that included Nelson, Del Harris and Spud Webb.

Still, it seems quite a risky business venture if the $500,000 figure is legit.

Not much else going on in the NBA world today.

Not much else going on in the NBA world today.

After the Dallas Mavericks claimed their first ever NBA championship, Dallas owner Mark Cuban mentioned that he might forego getting the team championship rings.

Luckily for the Mavericks that wanted rings, the Bazooka candy company decided to step in and create their own brand of edible bling:

“Bazooka Candy Brands, the iconic confectionary company and manufacturer of Ring Pops, believes that the Dallas Mavericks should be rewarded for all their hard work and their NBA finals win,” the company said in a statement that was posted on CBSSports.com. “That is why they will be stepping in and saving the day, creating Swarovski-encrusted Ring Pops in the team colors of Blue and White for the team to wear to celebrate their feat. The Ring Pops will be shipped to the team shortly.”

Nothing says victory in the NBA Finals like licking a ring-pop with Swarovski crystals on it!

***

Dallas Mavericks Get “Candy Championship Rings” [That NBA Lottery Pick]

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