Know Your Audience?

I am intensely in love with the Mavs this year. The past couple of years I've loved their success in theory, but I absolutely could not watch them play a full game. It was sheer torture. Even in games where they were winning by 20, it would still stick in the back of my mind that at any second they could blow the entire thing. I would not put it past them for a second. They gave me palpitations worse than watching SMU basketball, if that's even possible.

This year they are fully minus 2/3rds of what I loved about them before (no Steve Nash, no Michael Finley) and suddenly I've been able to watch every single game, the full season. And even when they suck, I still enjoy watching. There are multiple reasons I've come up with, each more ridiculous than the last.

1. Dirk has totally become my favorite player in the whole world. Steve Nash will always hold a special place in my heart (specifically the wily, bad haired, Canadian-loving place) but Nowitzki has just become ridiculously good, making every important shot, while looking completely crazy all of the time. I make personal bets on when he will get the Wild Eye - where he goes all intense and starts flipping his hair everywhere and his eyes bug out like he's got the Red Fever from Alias, and it's almost always before the first half is over nowadays. I'm totally bitter that he did not (will not, whatev) win MVP. Did you people really think the Mavs were going to win 60 this year? Like I said, I love me some Steve Nash, but come on.
2. They actually display confidence during their games. About three weeks before the end of the season, they were down by one at the Clippers with, like 7 seconds to go and they had the ball. Any other season and I would be completely unable to watch, because they always seemed so surprised to win a close game that I felt nothing but doom. In this case I sat riveted, totally knowing that Dirk would get the ball and we would win. Every single person in the stadium knew it too, and when it totally happened anyways, it felt very right. I have no experience with that, but: awesome. Same thing happened this weekend in the playoffs. (Although I will admit, I could not watch the second quarter, I was having such flashbacks). They get to the very end, look like they're flailing around with their heads chopped off, and suddenly Dirk has the ball and hits the three to tie. This is an utterly watchable team.
3. All the post game interviews that they do on UPN after the game. I swear, I have no idea what the players or the interviewers are on, but it's just complete hilarity. Nowitzki shilling so obviously for Central Market, Jason Terry's completely blank open-mouthed stare when he obviously mis-heard the interviewer say "Bitched" instead of "Pitched," like he's five years old and the teacher just swore, and Avery Johnson making allusions to World War II like he's running some sort of platoon. They just seem like fun, and also completely out of their minds.
4. Mark Cuban. Reaction shots from the sidelines, his blog, his TV show, the whole nine yards. He's become such a caricature of himself that it almost isn't worth mentioning, but how much does he seem like a spastic little kid who gets to do whatever he wants? When he was jumping up and down on the sidelines this weekend, I just wanted someone to go over and pat his head and be all "Well someone's going to sleep well tonight!"

I don't know if I love our chances of winning it all, or heck even getting out of the West, but I really love watching them play. Which makes this whole month much more palatable. I really cannot wait for the Spurs series, it is going to be so awesome.

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Other basketball note - That last Lakers-Suns game was the most entertaining thing I saw last month. I still cannot get over that ending - They made tiny Steve Nash jump against Luke Walton after getting totally mugged on the sideline with the other Suns practically shaking the refs asking for a timeout? But good goddamn Kobe Bryant is wicked good at basketball. My heart cries out for poor Steve, but the Suns totally deserve what they got. Good times.