Tuesday Donuts: Are The Mavs A Top-3 West Team?

Tuesday Morning Donuts … and the NBA world apparently thinks your Dallas Mavericks are somewhere between “surprise’’ contender and “full-blown-top-three-in-the-West” contender ... Who’s hungry?

   DONUT 1: Are the Mavs a “high-grade sleeper’’?

   DONUT 2: Or are they even better than that? NBA.com ranks Dallas as the third best team in the West and the sixth best team in the league. Really? Feels nice!

   DONUT 3: The Most Predictable NFL Story of The Year.

   DONUT 4: You recall a recent donut in which I suggested that many, many observers will turn the Dirk/Cuban/Germany story into some sort of anti-Cuban (or anti-Dirk, or anti-Germany) screed? Told ya.  

   DONUT 5: We told you (thanks to Followill) that the Mavs are working on an extra new uni. Here are some … er, ideas, I guess you could call them. And here, from Portland, are the new “Rip City’’ special unis. 

   DONUT 6: Michael Vick’s new team: The Philadelphia Illegals?

   DONUT 7: Let the Shaq Hype begin! Yahoo’s got a story – a decent enough one – on Shaq-as-Cav ramping up to meeting Dwight and the Magic. Like I say, decent enough. But it’s August!!

   DONUT 8: Mavs updates and whatnot from DB.com are available at twitter.com/fishsports

   DONUT 9: I'm going to the Rangers game tonight. Word is I'll be sitting behind the plate, so look for me near all those ladies who spend the entire game not watching the game while on their cellphones. Go Twins! Oh, and yes, you Go, Too, Rangers! 

   DONUT 10: Misty Mav announces that when you buy your DallasBasketball.com T-shirt from her, please ... it can be one of an increasingly large number of original designs. Check ‘em out! And remember, today is the day to order your T-shirt and have a chance to win the one signed by Jason Terry!

   DONUT 11: I’ve never thought it my place (or anybody’s, really) to “out’’ professional athletes. Their sexuality is their own business, and in their “business-business,’’ they run a great risk by being revealed as being gay.

   But …

   I must say that I consider doing it once in a while when the person who is in his private life a homosexual has a public persona that features him gay-bashing. Homophobia is quite often a sign of one’s own sexual misgivings or confusion … and just as is the case with anti-gay politicos, at least a few anti-gay jocks I know are actually nothing more than self-loathing hypocrites.

   And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

   DONUT 12: Here’s a scathing New York Times review of the Michael Jordan wing in the Basketball Hall of Fame, which includes this line:

    But “Becoming Legendary: The Story of Michael Jordan,” which recently opened at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in advance of Jordan’s induction on Sept. 11, is a soulless exercise in corporate worship that was designed, installed, written, curated and paid for by the Jordan Brand, a division of Nike.

   DONUT 13: And your Baker’s Dozen donut: Michael Irvin to “Dancing With The Stars’’? Exciting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is: I hope I get the call to be his fill-in on 103.3 ESPN Radio!