Where's The Love?

You may not be a MFFL (Mavs Fan For Life), but if you aren't at least a MFFN (Mavs Fan For Now), get your head checked.

We haven't seen a team this dominant in Dallas since...well, since forever. Not even the great Cowboys teams of the 70s and early 90s enjoyed this kind of regular season dominance. By going 51-5 in the last fifty-six games, your (or at least MY) Dallas Mavericks have done what no North American professional sports franchise has ever done before. Ever! They haven't witnessed anything like this in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Montreal or Pittsburg. These are the facts. They are indisputable.

But turn on Sportscenter tonight. Pick up a copy of SI. Visit any of the major Internet sports sites. And tell me, please, tell me...where's the love? If this were happening in New York or LA or Chicago or any place Mark Cuban isn't in the mix, it would be the biggest story in sports. But it isn't. It's happening right down there at the American Airlines Center. It's happening to the only Cuban, other than Castro, currently known to loathe Miami.

That same Cuban is the primary reason the country hasn't fallen in love with his high-flying, hard-working, world-beating Mavs. When you play the underdog as vociferously as Cuban and the Mavs have for so many years, you just aren't going to be anybody's favorite frontrunner. When media types and basketball fans from around the country think of the Mavericks, they think, "Yeah. Bunch o' whiners."

Remember Duane Wade taking Nowitzki to task for saying the Mavs lost last year's finals, rather than giving the credit to Wade and the Heat for storming back and closing the deal? Remember Cuban responding by saying he really enjoyed watching Wade shoot free throws? That's the language of a loser, man. Blame it on the refs. Blame it on the commish. Blame it on...somebody, anybody but me.

Cuban and his charges would do well to go to the Paul Brown school of sports communication. Brown famously said, "When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less." Just shut up and play!

At least the little general has the right idea. Avery Johnson won't let his boys rest on their laurels. He only lauds their achievement reluctantly. He finds reason and room for improvement. He says, basically, "Just wait. None of this means anything until we've won the championship.

General Johnson is right.

The only way the Mavs will ever have the national respect they deserve is to get back to the Finals and finish what they started. Win it all and there will be a windfall.

But you don't have to wait for that to happen to jump on the bandwagon. It's already loaded and rolling. All aboard!

MFFN? Durn tootin'.