That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: NBA tells Mavericks Owner Play the National Anthem

In front of a limited amount of fans the Atlanta Hawks and Dallas Mavericks stand for the national anthem on Wed Feb 10, 2021 in Dallas (photo from Dallas Morning Star)

NBA tells Mavericks Owner Play the National Anthem

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

According to history, the tradition of playing the National Anthem at sporting events began in 1918, during the seventh inning of game one of the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox.  The NBA was not founded until 1946.

Mark Cuban, billionaire-owner of the Dallas Mavericks said back in November his team will not play the National Anthem. The NBA sent a memo to all teams in the league that they all must play the National Anthem, to what Cuban responded: “We are good with it”.

And that was the end of that story. The NBA is a private business and they have the right to remind their teams/owners of their policy. The NBA sent the notice to all teams, but it was written because of the Dallas Mavericks and their owner.

Mark Cuban is one of the most passionate team owners in the NBA. Last year he was fined $500,000 for saying that director of officiating Ed Rush wasn’t fit to manage a Dairy Queen. He has said that the referee system in the NBA is a decade-long broken training system. He has been fined for at least $2.6 million.

When in Dallas, Cuban is always sitting on the Mavericks side, and has said he enjoys the whole experience and feels he is part of the team, like another player and often warms-up with the team prior to a game.

He is as competitive and passionate as any owner in the league. It reminds me of the once owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president for the MLB Hispanic Heritage Hall of Fame  Museum and does News and Commentary on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Dallas Mavericks behind Luca Doncic, snap Warriors four-game winning streak 141-121

By Jerry Feitelberg

San Francisco- The Dallas Mavericks’ superstar, Luka Doncic, led the Mavs over the Warriors by a score of 141-121. The Warriors were hoping to pull off another upset Saturday night. The Mavs are the highest-scoring team in the NBA, and they lived up to their reputation.

The first two periods of the game were highly entertaining. Both teams were hitting three-point shots. In the first quarter alone, the Mavs made ten, and the W’s tied a franchise record with nine. The nineteen threes in the first quarter set an NBA record. D’Angelo Russell led the Warriors with 18 points, and he connected on four threes. Damion Lee hit three threes for nine points. The first period ended with the score tied 41-41.

The pace did not subside in the second quarter. The Warriors outscored the Mavs 33-31 to finish the first half leading 74-72. Russell led the W’s with 30 points. Lee and Marquese Chriss also had 9. Luka Doncic finished the first half with 25 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, and five threes in six tries. Tim Hardaway, Jr. had 13, Seth Curry (Steph’s brother, 14, and big Ktristaps Porzingis had 9. The W’s shot 60.4% from the floor. Dallas shot 54.3%.

The second half was a different story. The Mavs continued their onslaught. They continued to make threes. The Warriors could not get their offense going. Things went south for the W’s when D’Angelo Russell ran into Luka Doncic’s hip and fell to the floor. Russell did not move for a few minutes. The paramedics brought out a stretcher, but Russell was able to get to his feet and was taken to the locker room to be examined. It was not known if Russell had suffered either a head or neck injury. The air came out of the W’s balloon. The Mavs went on to expand the lead to 117-98. The W’s defense was not able to stop the Mavs’ offense. They outscored the W’s 45-24 to put the game away. DeeLow returned to the bench late in the third quarter. He suffered a right shoulder contusion.

Russell started the fourth quarter but was not a factor. The W’s could not overcome the 19-point deficit. The Mavs won going away 141-121.

Game Notes and Stats. The Warriors dressed just 10 players for the game. Kevon Looney, Eric Paschall, and Omari Spellman were not available to play. Alen Smailagic, the 19-year old player from Serbia, played 20 minutes and kicked in with 5 points.

The Warriors had five players in double figures. Russell led the team with 35 points, 4 rebounds, and six assists. He made nine threes. Damion Lee had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Alec Burks and Marquese Chriss each had 16. Draymond Green made two threes and finished with 10 for the night.

The Mavs also had five players in double figures. Doncic had a triple-double with 31 points, 12 rebounds, and 15 assists. He made 5 threes. Tim Hardaway, Jr (son of the former Warrior Tim Hardaway, finished with 25 points. Seth Curry had 14. Dwight Powell, who played his college ball at Stanford, had 12. Porzingis had 18 points, 7 boards, and the big man from Russia connected on 4 threes in nine tries.

After the game, W’s head coach Steve Kerr said this about Russell returning to the game and that the injury was not as bad as first thought: “It was the best news of the evening.” He also said that the team, with four wins in five games: “really had a good homestand.”

The Warriors travel to San Antonio to face the Spurs Tuesday night.

NHL podcast with Daniel Dullum: Yotes still have hot hand, despite loss to Oilers; Burke says Matthews not selling tickets; plus more

Photo credit: nhl.com/coyotes

On the NHL podcast with Daniel Dullum

1 Despite loss to Edmonton on Saturday, Coyotes still in the hunt for a playoff spot

2 Brian Burke says on Canadian sports talk radio, Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews “isn’t exciting and doesn’t sell tickets”

3 Carey Price honored as Canadiens’ winningest goalie

4 Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid’s 100-point season puts him in select company

5 Dallas Mavericks’ Mark Cuban rips NHL, doesn’t know who Connor McDavid is

Daniel does the NHL podcast each Sunday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Curry Surprises Jackson With Buzzer-Beater Over Mavs In OT On Coach’s Birthday

By Matthew Harrington
Warriors coach Mark Jackson received quite the birthday gift from his All-star guard Tuesday night at American Airlines Arena in Dallas. Stephen Curry hit the game-winning shot with .1 seconds remaining in overtime to cap a Golden State 122-120 upheaval of the Dallas Mavericks (44-31). As coach Jackson blew out the 49 candles on his cake, the Dubs created a little bit of breathing room in the Western Conference playoff picture. Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs entered play Tuesday with 44 wins, just one less than their foes from California. The Warriors (46-28) have two games in hand over Dallas.

Curry’s game-winner in the extra session, his third career buzzer-beating basket, was a culmination of a 43-minute, 23-point effort. Fellow guard Klay Thompson topped Golden State on 27 points, going 11-for-24 from the field including 4-of9 from downtown. Jermaine O’Neal, starting at center with Andrew Bogut not making the trip nursing a sore groin and David Lee in street clothes for the third-straight game, picked up 20 points and 8 rebounds. Marreese Speights’ 9 rebounds paced the Warriors.

Ex-Warrior Monta Ellis did his best to sink his former franchise, shooting 11-for-23 with 27 points. Mavs perennial All-Star Nowitzki contributed a game-high 33 points over 39 minutes of play and converted the double-double on a game-high 11 boards.

The Warriors connected on a blistering 57.1 shooting percentage, making 52 shots on 91 attempts including nearly half (15) of their 31 shots from beyond the arc. Mark Cuban’s club held the advantage in turnovers, forfeiting possession 8 times to the visitors’ 12. The Mavericks somehow managed to keep Golden State from going to the free throw line for the entirety of the second half.

The Warriors overpowered their hosts in the first, racing out to a 30-21 lead after twelve minutes of play. Dallas bombarded Golden State with 41 second-quarter points, the most the Warriors have yielded in a single frame this season, while limiting the visitors to 23 points for a 62-53 halftime edge.

It took the Warriors nearly ten minutes of play in the third to catch up to Dallas when Speights rolled in a layup to make it 78-all before Vince Carter hit one of two free throws to restore the slim Mavs one-point edge. The Warriors would score seven of the last nine points for an 85-81 lead after three frames.

Dallas capped a 10-5 run to open the fourth with a Carter basket to pull ahead 91-90 nearly four minutes in to the final stanza of regulation. The Warriors briefly wrestled the lead back from their foes but found themselves trailing 106-102 with 1:43 until the final horn. Andre Iguodala and Thompson sandwiched three-pointers around an Ellis jumper to knot things up a 108 a piece with a minute left but that would be the last basket of regulation as the teams would require an five-minute overtime to decide the victor.

Dallas opened the final five minutes on a Dirk jumper before Jermaine O’Neal hit only one of two free throws to pull the Warriors within one at 110-109. O’Neal represented the first Warrior to head to the charity stripe since Thompson completed the and-1 play with 2:55 left in the second quarter. From there the two teams would go shot-for-shot over the next five baskets before a Thompson trey preceded a Curry 16-foot jumper to put the Dubs up 118-117 over halfway through OT.

The Mavs’ Jose Calderon responded with a three of his own before O’Neal took a Draymon Green feed to the rim to knot things up at 120-all. The Warriors were looking for a quick basket to force a last-possession chance, a goal achieved when Green connected with O’Neal with 28 seconds left.

On the penultimate Dallas possession of the game, Ellis tried to take the winning shot but he was rejected on the layup by O’Neal. On the next Warrior possession Curry connected on the off-balance jumper with a tenth of a second remaining. The Mavs couldn’t connect on the in-bound deflection play, and after a brief review, the Warriors win was official.

Golden State looks to give Jackson a second belated gift Wednesday evening. They continue on to a showdown in San Antonio with the Spurs at the AT&T Center where they haven’t won since Valentine’s Day of 1997, just six days before then 31-year-old point guard Jackson was dealt from the Denver Nuggets back to the Indiana Pacers. After the second leg of the Texas road trip the Warriors return to the West Coast for a showdown with in-state rivals, the Sacramento Kings, Friday night at Oracle Arena.