Hack-a-ShaQ...

The fun thing is that the Mavs are beating the piss out of the "Heat" without even breaking out the machetes!...good stuff...had this conversation with my Sergeant Major this afternoon after the game...

(me) "hey SGM, you catch the beating this morning?”

(that's when the games are played Korea-time)

(him) "Ha - yeah - I'm kinda kicking myself right now..."

"Why's that SGM?"

"Well I was tempted at going the "under-dog route" and put a couple 100 bucks on the Mavs pulling the sweep on Miami...Now it looks like I coulda made bank."

Awesome...just quality stuff there!

I still got Dallas in 6...at this point more so that they win the championship on their home floor, as they have yet to win a series at home this year...although - I will still be satisfied with a sweep...

wow – wholly crapsheit - I can't even believe this right now - I'm talking about the Dallas Mavericks possibly sweeping the NBA Finals...simply amazing...

Story time: 10 years ago I was asked to write a "journal entry" in school about whatever I wanted- I was wearing my old green Mavericks Mashburn jersey, Cuban had just bought the Mavs, Don Nelson was just named the coach and there I was, pissed at what could have been with Jamal Mashburn (whose jersey i still have) Jimmy Jackson and Jason Kidd, the fact that Nelly was gonna fuck it all up and that the new owner was fucking insane for hiring him...which - just for the record - appeared to hold true for the next 6 or 7 years or so…they broke up the J’s…added Steve Nash in the draft and got Dirk (by trading “Tractor” Traylor (he played college ball at Michigan for those of you who have no idea who the heck that is)– perhaps one of the best trades in the history of the league) and leaned heavily on the veteran shoulders of Michael Finley…

They came close year after year, but without a viable center – Shawn Bradley and Christian Laetnner just aren’t going to cut it – they never made it over the proverbial “hump”…then they quietly began to revamp towards the end of last year as Nelson began to let Avery Johnson take more of a leadership role as a coach…they made some quiet trades and picked up Dampier (a “viable” center) and snuck in Diop (a future “viable” center)…got rid of journeyman Antawn Jamison and picked up the now best-sixth-man-scorer in the League Jerry Stackhouse…stole Jason Terry from Atlanta...Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels came in to their own in last year’s playoffs and they grabbed Van Horn just for good measure – and with Harris coming in to his own - suddenly the Mavs can rotate 10 or 11 guys and can apparently adapt the roster to any type of team in the league…

All that to say this – 10 years ago I wrote a B.S. nothing piece because the teacher told me too …a couple days later she (the teacher) came and talked to me about possibly joining the school Newspaper which she was in charge of…she was really the first teacher to say – “hey, you’re good at THIS dickhead – you should do it more”…so I tried…and now – 10 years later – I’m a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army, a published journalist and photographer, an award winning editor, and magazine designer, a world traveler, a veteran of the War in Iraq, AND the Mavs are on the verge of winning the first ever Championship in team history…

I guess I’d like to thank Mark Cuban for being an insane genius, Don Nelson for not being as bad a coach as I thought, and – more importantly – Mrs. Huff for telling me to pull my head out and encouraging me to try and write…that little bit of what appeared to be nothing at the time has actually taken me places that I could never have imagined...

Word up…