EMBRY'S SILLY ANTI-NELLIE CLAIM:We won’t bother trying to defend Don Nelson’s color-blind approach to race relations; he loves, and is beloved, by too many people of too many colors for any thinking person to believe he’s a racist.
Nor will we bother to attack Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Jodie Valade, whose level of incompetence we’re all well aware of due to her short stint covering the Mavs for the Dallas Morning News.
And we won’t even quibble with the real reason longtime NBA player, coach and exec Wayne Embry is telling a 20-year-old story that alleges Nellie uttered a racist remark – the real reason, of course, being that Embry needs something juicy to anchor the sale of his autobiography, “The Inside Game: Race, Power and Politics in the NBA.’’
EMBRY-NELLIE STORY
Our argument is with what Embry claims Nellie said in 1983 – that, when it comes to black coaches, “they’re not qualified.’
Hey, Don Nelson might’ve said that about one particular black guy. He might’ve said it about a particular white guy. But his denial – “That's totally untrue. That's a ridiculous statement. The greatest coach in the history of the game is Lenny Wilkens, and he's black. … If (Embry) is trying to make this into something racial, it's ridiculous. I'm the most unracist person around’’ – is just as solid as can be.
The ‘that’s a ridiculous statement’ part, especially. I cannot envision Don Nelson saying anything like that because I know he wouldn’t think anything like that. … oh, and how ironic is it that while Embry was spinning this anti-black-coaches yarn in Cleveland, Don Nelson was emailing the Warriors in an attempt to get permission to add Avery Johnson to the Mavs staff? Mike Fisher 11:53 am March 12 04

WALKER WONDERS: Antoine Walker followed up his 18 minutes in Monday’s 103-90 drubbing of the Suns by insisting “I refuse to have controversy around me’ – and then triggering a minor controversy with his comments.
“I can’t give you what you want in 18 minutes,’ said Walker, who scored six points and in the last five games is averaging right around there. “It’s not going to happen. It’s not in my makeup. I have to be able to play.’
Walker is bright enough to know that he’s created a Catch-22 for himself: He does have to get more minutes to work himself out of his slump. And the Mavs need him to play well to succeed. But there is simply precious little time left in the season to nurse anybody’s game back to health.
Said Nellie: “He’s not playing well and we can’t fool around with only 20 games left. It’s the same with anybody. He just happens to be the guy not playing well right now. ... (But) he’ll play his way out of it, no question.’
We agree with that. Walker is a roller-coaster guy – not unlike his play-alike mini-me predecessor Nick Van Exel – and the roller-coaster will go back up.
As as soon as it does, riding along in the roller-coaster car will be Walk’s minutes. Mike Fisher – 2:34 am Mar 9 04

LAKER FAVOR: In a game late Monday night, Shaquille O'Neal got a technical for clubbing Andrei Kirilenko in the head with a forearm in the 4th quarter of the LA-Utah game. (It was unclear whether it was intentional or not, from the replays.) Because he had picked up another technical earlier for taunting, he was (rightly) ejected.
After the game, Phil Jackson took this public potshot at the ref who made the call. "Bob Delaney's known to be very prejudiced against Shaquille. We know that, so we wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a good call," Jackson said. "But I'm not going to make a comment on that right now."
The NBA fined Mark Cuban for merely questioning calls - to my knowledge, I never heard him question the underlying fairness or integrity of the refs. Wacko Phil Jacko (he must be related to Michael, yes?) says (1) this ref is "known to be prejudiced" (2) "we know" about it, and (3) they wouldn't be surprised if the call was a bad one.
Prejudiced refs? Intentional bias? Assuming the ref will make bad calls?
My question to the NBA is this: do you accept this accusation of ref bias from your marquee coach in LA? Does he get a free ride, cause he is ZenBoy? If Cuban's remarks cost him $1,000,000, then these should cost someone two or three times as much - if there is any consistency in this league. This is way over the line. -David Lord, 03/09/04, 8:00am

LET’S GET IT ON: Former boxing referee Mills Lane made it his catch-phrase, the legendary Marvin Gaye immortalized it in song and the Dallas Mavericks have suddenly become the 21st-Century embodiment of it.
Three difficult road losses in early-March have seemingly given the Mavs something they has long-strived for. Despite national and local media coverage belittling their accomplishments in the past few years, Dallas has become an unofficial measuring stick of the Western Conference.
Okay, I see your eyes rolling, but let's lay out the facts.
Wednesday night, after his Timberwolves rolled the Mavericks (without Steve Nash) Kevin Garnett said as much. "This is a message, not just to Dallas but to whoever watched the game and whoever anticipates playing us," Garnett said. "We're a hungry team. When we're on our P's and Q's like we were tonight, you're in trouble."
Now it's understandable for Garnett to be gushing. After whispers of this T'Wolves team being compared to last year's Mavericks, they desperately needed to get the season series split to help in their fight for home court advantage during the playoffs. KG has never been in this position before either. With Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell, he has two other options to carry the load down the stretch. Their bench is improved, but they will still be dogged by questions over never winning a playoff series, until they win one.
Friday night in San Antonio, the entire dynamic of the Spurs/Mavericks series changed. With some physical play and a few cheap shots, the Mavericks no longer see their buddies from central Texas as a bunch of nice guys. When Bruce Bowen received a retaliatory forearm shot from Michael Finley, this rivalry became personal.
And now another crushing loss to a Houston team coached by Jeff Van Gundy, who has been saying all season that the Mavs are among the NBA’s ‘teams to beat,’ a guy whose franchise hasn’t downed Dallas in two years until Sunday.
Bad losses? Yes, three of them. But when the Mavs get it turned around – and they will – we might get to remember that even in defeat, there is now no question that these Mavs are beginning to be seen as a team that must be dealt with, a team that, if you beat them, means you’ve accomplished something. Tim McDarby 3:16 Mar 7 04

NO SUSPENSIONS: The Mavs wish Bruce Bowen would have gotten his. Maybe he will, in a different form, next time.
In the meantime, the Mavs ought to just be happy that Michael Finley didn’t get his.
The NBA has decided to punish neither player for the altercation in Friday’s Mavs loss at San Antonio in which Bowen blindsided Finley and then was retaliated against by Finley.
While it is clear that ‘the coward’ Bowen was the instigator here, both players’ actions could have drawn punishments from the league. Far more important to Dallas than Bowen being forced to miss a game (and thus taken his six-point average to street clothes) is Michael Finley notbeing forced to miss. Mike Fisher 3:59 am March 7 2004
MINNY’S CLASS VS. CUBAN’S BRAIN: Some of the T’Wolves’ actions in the closing moments of Dallas’ blowout loss on Wednesday night were classless. Others could charitably be called ‘silly.’
And what would you label Mavs owner Mark Cuban’s reaction to Ervin Johnson’s weird 3-point try at game’s end, and Johnson’s attempts to get in a fight with Shawn Bradley, and Kevin Garnett’s fake phone call to the President, during which KG pretended to instruct George Bush to send in some troops to help the Mavs?
Smart. That’s what you would label Cuban’s reaction. Smart.
Said Cuban: “It will be remembered, especially Ervin Johnson trying to shoot a 3 as time expired and then getting mad when it got blocked. That was low-rent and classless."
Just how low-rent was it all, really? On the warped scale of athletes’ behavior, we’ve seen so much worse. KG’s thing wasn’t even original; that ‘presidential call’ was an old Shannon Sharpe trick with the Denver Broncos.
Added Cuban: “I can't wait to play them again when we aren't on the second game of a back-to-back (as was the case in all four meetings). The schedule gods gave them the ultimate break."
Yes, and that’s the point. As the T’Wolves established that night that there are a very legit threat to Dallas’ bid for postseason excellence, a smart Mavs insider might have been looking for some positive to come out of it. Cuban found that positive, that potential motivation for next time, in the misbehaviors of Johnson and Garnett.
Low-rent? Sure. But also the feeding of potential high intensity for a Dallas team that will be reminded by its owner how it was once disrespected. Mike Fisher 7 pm March 6 2004

ANOTHER BLOWOUT: It was a week ago when Mavs coach Don Nelson noted that his club had gone a long time without coming out on the right end of a lopsided outcome.
The Mavs have done nothing but blow out opponents ever since.
It happened again Saturday at American Airlines Center, the Mavs manhandling Portland, 111-91. Oh, there were a few scary moments, like when the 20-point lead briefly shriveled to six in the third quarter.
Said Nellie: “We never seem to make it easy.’
Oh, it was easy enough. Again.
But like the Spurs game (a 24-point margin) and the Clippers game (a 25-point margin) before it, this was a game in which the Mavs clicked in so many ways that they were able to breathe easily through most of it.
During this streak in which Dallas has won 18 of its last 22, the nice numbers keep piling up. Some of those Portland-related numbers for a Dallas team that is now 38-20: