2011 NBA Playoffs

[Jigga]

Report: Several Heat players were partying with the Mavericks after game 6. Anyone else hear of this?

Source

So lemme get this straight..... The Mavericks win the title in Miami. Then proceed to invade the same nightclub where LeBron's momma was arrested, WITH trophy in-hand, WITH various members of the Miami Heat???

Apparently, I saw on various channels today so it must be legit.

I wouldn't be surprised at that at all. Just because they play against each other in the Finals doesn't mean they aren't friends in real life. The season's over, anyway - it's not uncommon for players from different teams to fraternize during the off-season. During the season, I guess that would be kind of weirder though.

I think what Dampier & company did was pretty tacky, and if he played for my team, I'm pretty sure I'd want him gone. Just because it's the "offseason", doesn't mean it's in good taste to go out and git krunk with the team that just crushed your team and their fans' championship dreams. Yeah, they all might be friends off the court, but like a company picnic, it was the Mavericks' time and place to celebrate. Just think of how Boston fans would feel had Paul Pierce had went out clubbing with the Lakers the night the C's lost Game 7 of the Finals last year. Kind of the same thing, right?

I don't know about any of the other dudes, but I give Dampier a complete pass. He used to play with many of these guys and the bonds he may have forged with Dirk, Kidd, Terry, et al, just don't evaporate because you happen to have a new address.

Athletes are real people. They have real lives. A great many fans are totally unreasonable when it comes to that. Do you support the idiots who want to fight someone for wearing the wrong hat or because one team beat another?

[nash61]

Report: Several Heat players were partying with the Mavericks after game 6. Anyone else hear of this?

Source

So lemme get this straight..... The Mavericks win the title in Miami. Then proceed to invade the same nightclub where LeBron's momma was arrested, WITH trophy in-hand, WITH various members of the Miami Heat???

Apparently, I saw on various channels today so it must be legit.

I wouldn't be surprised at that at all. Just because they play against each other in the Finals doesn't mean they aren't friends in real life. The season's over, anyway - it's not uncommon for players from different teams to fraternize during the off-season. During the season, I guess that would be kind of weirder though.

I think what Dampier & company did was pretty tacky, and if he played for my team, I'm pretty sure I'd want him gone. Just because it's the "offseason", doesn't mean it's in good taste to go out and git krunk with the team that just crushed your team and their fans' championship dreams. Yeah, they all might be friends off the court, but like a company picnic, it was the Mavericks' time and place to celebrate. Just think of how Boston fans would feel had Paul Pierce had went out clubbing with the Lakers the night the C's lost Game 7 of the Finals last year. Kind of the same thing, right?

I don't know about any of the other dudes, but I give Dampier a complete pass. He used to play with many of these guys and the bonds he may have forged with Dirk, Kidd, Terry, et al, just don't evaporate because you happen to have a new address.

Athletes are real people. They have real lives. A great many fans are totally unreasonable when it comes to that. Do you support the idiots who want to fight someone for wearing the wrong hat or because one team beat another?

I have no problem with Dampier hanging with the Mavs, just not on that night. That's like your ex coming with you on your honeymoon.

[BBTV]

Report: Several Heat players were partying with the Mavericks after game 6. Anyone else hear of this?

Source

So lemme get this straight..... The Mavericks win the title in Miami. Then proceed to invade the same nightclub where LeBron's momma was arrested, WITH trophy in-hand, WITH various members of the Miami Heat???

Apparently, I saw on various channels today so it must be legit.

I wouldn't be surprised at that at all. Just because they play against each other in the Finals doesn't mean they aren't friends in real life. The season's over, anyway - it's not uncommon for players from different teams to fraternize during the off-season. During the season, I guess that would be kind of weirder though.

I think what Dampier & company did was pretty tacky, and if he played for my team, I'm pretty sure I'd want him gone. Just because it's the "offseason", doesn't mean it's in good taste to go out and git krunk with the team that just crushed your team and their fans' championship dreams. Yeah, they all might be friends off the court, but like a company picnic, it was the Mavericks' time and place to celebrate. Just think of how Boston fans would feel had Paul Pierce had went out clubbing with the Lakers the night the C's lost Game 7 of the Finals last year. Kind of the same thing, right?

I don't know about any of the other dudes, but I give Dampier a complete pass. He used to play with many of these guys and the bonds he may have forged with Dirk, Kidd, Terry, et al, just don't evaporate because you happen to have a new address.

Athletes are real people. They have real lives. A great many fans are totally unreasonable when it comes to that. Do you support the idiots who want to fight someone for wearing the wrong hat or because one team beat another?

Right. For the Heat players to not go out would be just a PR thing (like the team PR guy telling them "look, it's not going to look good if you're seen in public partying after losing...") not because they were really crushed and hate the other team. "True" sports fans are idiots for thinking that the team's players care as much as they do. To the players, it's a job. Sure some of them have a passion and some do care, but they simply can't get as tied up in it as fans do because it's their life. Just like you have a hard day at the office and need to unwind, so do they. They don't hate each other (for the most part) because they've all played with each other at one point or another (or will in the future.) As a player you should be more sensitive to your customers then to go out like that, but at the same time, "true" SPORTS!!! fans need to understand their place and STFU when a player is out living his life.

If you're all broken up about a team's loss, and the players that you're pining your hopes and dreams on don't really seem to care, what does that say about you? Figure out what big void in your life is being filled with sweaty men bouncing a ball around, and fill it with something else.

[Jigga]

Report: Several Heat players were partying with the Mavericks after game 6. Anyone else hear of this?

Source

So lemme get this straight..... The Mavericks win the title in Miami. Then proceed to invade the same nightclub where LeBron's momma was arrested, WITH trophy in-hand, WITH various members of the Miami Heat???

Apparently, I saw on various channels today so it must be legit.

I wouldn't be surprised at that at all. Just because they play against each other in the Finals doesn't mean they aren't friends in real life. The season's over, anyway - it's not uncommon for players from different teams to fraternize during the off-season. During the season, I guess that would be kind of weirder though.

I think what Dampier & company did was pretty tacky, and if he played for my team, I'm pretty sure I'd want him gone. Just because it's the "offseason", doesn't mean it's in good taste to go out and git krunk with the team that just crushed your team and their fans' championship dreams. Yeah, they all might be friends off the court, but like a company picnic, it was the Mavericks' time and place to celebrate. Just think of how Boston fans would feel had Paul Pierce had went out clubbing with the Lakers the night the C's lost Game 7 of the Finals last year. Kind of the same thing, right?

I don't know about any of the other dudes, but I give Dampier a complete pass. He used to play with many of these guys and the bonds he may have forged with Dirk, Kidd, Terry, et al, just don't evaporate because you happen to have a new address.

Athletes are real people. They have real lives. A great many fans are totally unreasonable when it comes to that. Do you support the idiots who want to fight someone for wearing the wrong hat or because one team beat another?

I have no problem with Dampier hanging with the Mavs, just not on that night. That's like your ex coming with you on your honeymoon.

No, it's not. It's not even remotely close to being almost in the same stratosphere as that. And if not that night, what the hell would be the point? What, you want him to go to the parade? Go to the Mavs training facility when everyone cleans out their lockers?

[Saintsfan]

I can't help thinking this is just something the media has jinned up. As I said, this is how sports should be, play hard, one team wins, everyone relaxes together. They aren't gonna play for what, 4 months, if everyone gets their act together, so who cares?

[The_Admiral]

Nobody should care about Erick Dampier going out to celebrate with his old team, but LeBron going out to party with the champions would've been an all-time dick move and cemented him as an idiot manchild forever.

[infrared41]

Right. For the Heat players to not go out would be just a PR thing (like the team PR guy telling them "look, it's not going to look good if you're seen in public partying after losing...") not because they were really crushed and hate the other team. "True" sports fans are idiots for thinking that the team's players care as much as they do. To the players, it's a job. Sure some of them have a passion and some do care, but they simply can't get as tied up in it as fans do because it's their life. Just like you have a hard day at the office and need to unwind, so do they. They don't hate each other (for the most part) because they've all played with each other at one point or another (or will in the future.) As a player you should be more sensitive to your customers then to go out like that, but at the same time, "true" SPORTS!!! fans need to understand their place and STFU when a player is out living his life.

If you're all broken up about a team's loss, and the players that you're pining your hopes and dreams on don't really seem to care, what does that say about you? Figure out what big void in your life is being filled with sweaty men bouncing a ball around, and fill it with something else.

My opinion is that you're overstating the caring part a little. I think the vast majority of them "care" but it's certainly not the life and death issue that "true fans" think it is. Other than that, you hit the nail on the head. Hell, when I played baseball and softball we'd play our "rivals" for a league championship or something and then we'd see them at the bars afterward. There might have been a player or two on each side that really didn't like each other but for the most part it was "good game, let me buy you a round."

I can't imagine the teams I played on were some sort of sports anomaly. If it's happening at the local softball league level, why would anyone think it's different at the professional level? These guys are started playing sports the same way we did, they just happened to be a lot better at it. What makes people think that something happens along the way where you suddenly start "hating" your opponents.

In other words, why should professional athletes be any different about sportsmanship than we are?

[Lights Out]

This is one of the best sports articles I've read in quite some time.

[Saintsfan]

This is one of the best sports articles I've read in quite some time.

This article made me wonder this, if the main difference between Dirk circa 2006 and Dirk 2011, is that this was Dirk's last chance. Perhaps the Dirk of '06 and earlier felt he would have other chances and somehow it didn't matter quite as much. Perhaps this time some of his determination came from an understanding that he was going to get as good a chance again in his career??

(I'm not trying to belittle Dirk's achievement by saying that, simply trying to recognise that athletes all have different motivations).

[The_Admiral]

I think the article said that there hasn't really been any difference in Nowitzki's game and any difference has only been ascribed to him by a media narrative.

[infrared41]

I think the article said that there hasn't really been any difference in Nowitzki's game and any difference has only been ascribed to him by a media narrative.

That's exactly what I got out of it.

[Saintsfan]

I didn't mean the article said that, I meant the thought occured to me whilst I was reading it. Something happened this year, and in the finals to drive Dirk on, beyond what has happened in the past. Just look at how the Mavs, behind Dirk, dug themselves out of holes throughout the playoffs.

[rainmaker17]

Now that I've had a chance to pull my sister down off Cloud Nine...teen Hundred...

...Congrats Mavs. I didn't get to see the final four games of the Finals, but I caught the first two and most of the rest of the postseason, and I thoroughly believe what we just saw outta Dirk Nowitzki will (or at least should) go down as one of the all-time greatest individual performances of all-time. Now, take that and look back at what the Mavs just accomplished...no less than THREE 15-point comebacks in the fourth quarter (once to the vaunted Lakers, once to a formidable OKC team, & again in the Finals--I mean, what team does that?), then go back & look at how they systematically dispatched of their opponents, two of whom are much-ballyhooed franchises, one the Lake Show, the other being the Heat, & it makes their achievements that much more remarkable. Then go back and look at all of whom, besides Dirk, just got a ring--one of the leagues's best and longest-enduring point guards in Jason Kidd, two of the best long-distance shooters currently in the game, Jason Terry (who I've feen following since his days in Atlanta), and Peja. Then there's Caron "I Chew on Straws & subsist on Mountain Dew" Butler. And lastly, if JJ Barea ever becomes a free agent, he'll be one hot commodity.

All that been said, this postseason may go down as one for the ages. Hell, the regular season was one of the best in recent memory. So much changing of the guard, and many fresh faces taking shape. Start with OKC, who I think everyone saw coming. NO ONE saw the Memphis Grizzlies getting on the hot streak they got one, nor did anyone predict Z-Bo having the breakout performance he had. Even in Chicago, where Derrick "I'll Break Your Ankles In My Sleep" Rose firmly & squarely put himself into the conscience of even casual NBA fan. And finally, though the conference didn't win the title this season, we saw the Eastern Conference close the gap some on its Western counterpart. There's the young Hawks, who have a pretty bright future ahead, the Knicks regained some relevancy, the Celtics are still the Celtics, and as long as Jay-Z still breathes, the Nets will continue to get talked about. All in all, I'll say that as a casual basketball observer, this season & postseason helped me regain fandom of the pro league game that hasn't existed since at least 'O3 or something like that.

One last word about the Mavs...my sister's long been a huge Mavericks fan, I know rainmaker17's a Mav fan, but now that they've won it all, watch how many "longtime/lifetime" Mavericks fans jump out the woodwork now. We saw it happen last season with another Dallas-area team, the Texas Rangers (even though they didn't win the World Series).

And I'll close with this: since we're discussing Dallas teams...they say good things happen in "threes" (pun fully intended--but watch where this one goes). Last year the Rangers won the AL pennant. The Mavericks just won the NBA title. IF the NFL gets this lockout situation resolved...might the Dallas area's recent god fortuned bode well for the Cowboys...can they complete the trifecta? Stay tuned to find out.

Well put, friend. it's kinda like when Tampa or NOLA won the super bow, rightl? That was my first thought when the Mavs lifted the trophy. The Mavs won the title?