Donuts: Mavs And Cavs, LeBron And 'The Cooties'

Here comes Shaq, LeBron and The Cooties … The Cavs are in town  ... The Texas-OU party might just continue into the Mavs game ... Balloon Boy ... The Josh Watch … Shaq hates Skip Bayless; hey, the stars are just like us! ... It’s your Saturday Morning (Gameday) Donuts! …

    DONUT 1: The word from the Cleveland camp: LeBron, Shaq and Mo Williams will all sit out tonight’s game. Not an injury or illness issue (Cooties?), reports Cleveland beat writer Brian Windhorst, but rather a planned day off.

    The fellas will be in the building, though. And Shaq will be “on the town,’’ if you know what I mean.

    My spies will keep us posted as to his activities. …

    DONUT 2: Not surprisingly, Shaq this week said that after he’s done with playing basketball, he wants a career in television – maybe even as a sports analyst.

    "I get tired of hearing from comments from guys that don't play,’’ Shaq said, “guys like Skip Bayless."

    How proud Skip must be: He is now most recognized for being all things that are wrong with sports analysis on TV.

    DONUT 3: "Josh is doing fine," Rick Carlisle said after Josh Howard (ankle) practiced again on Friday. "I'll have an update when there's one to give you. We just don't want to turn this into an every-day ‘Josh Watch. But he's making progress."

    Funny thing. Not conducting a “Josh Watch’’ is the same phrase Rick used repeatedly last year … when “The Josh Watch’’ is exactly what it was. Here’s hoping we can end “The Josh Watch’’ not because our curiosity is stifled but rather because there is nothing to “watch’’ except J-Ho on the floor.

    That’s not happened tonight, as you know. But hopefully soon.

     DONUT 4: Capt. Jack still wants out of Golden State, no matter what, because he’s been “scarred’’ by the situation. Poor, poor guy.

     DONUT 5: Many channels, many choices, much confusion. Let’s make tonight’s TV set-up an easy one: The Mavs play host to the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight. That’s Oct. 17. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m. at American Airlines Center – DallasBasketball.com will of course offer wall-to-wall coverage – and in addition to listening to the game on 103.3 ESPN Radio, you can watch all the action on TXA 21 (KTXA) & TXA 21-HD. TV pregame coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. See? Wasn’t that easy?

     DONUT 6: So Tony Romo is hanging out with Tiger Woods and DeMarcus Ware is hanging out with Charles Haley. 

    I hope Tiger talked to Tony about “focus’’ and not about “golf.’’ I hope Haley talked to D-Ware about “technique’’ rather than … well, whatever is going on in Charles’ psyche at this moment.

    I hope everybody keeps their head covers zipped up, is all I’m saying.

     DONUT 7: I can only imagine that this controversy is the result of Michael Jordan someday wanting to make money off his kid. Father-and-son Hanes commercials, stuff like that.

    DONUT 8: Man, Stack is losing me here. He’s telling Steiny Mo that he turned down an offer from Houston to compete for a job because (Stein’s words) Stackhouse “is determined to wait for a firm offer from a certain playoff team.’’

    That’s a pretty firm slap at the Rockets and a pretty firm self-affirmation from Jerry Stackhouse, who is quoted as having said, “I think teams know what I bring to the table when I'm healthy."

    Well, yeah. … but no. Teams DON’T know what Jerry brings to the table when he’s healthy anymore because …  that’s tough to gauge when we’re talking about a 34-year-old. …

    Who hasn’t been healthy

    DONUT 9: The Yankees are iffy on selling out American League Championship Series games? Brooks says “it isn’t the economy.’’ But I’m not sure how anybody knows that. Maybe, like suggested here, the Yankees have reached the “tipping point’’ on gouging fans. Maybe it’s that baseball sucks. Or maybe in light of the fact that the Mavs are trying to find ways to bring fans in with $2 tickets …

    It’s the economy.

    DONUT 10: There is an odd sort of “circle-the-wagons’’/”us-against-them’’ chill in the air right now when it comes to the DFW sports media. It is that new website over there or that budding sports station over here or hirings and firings and dried-up ad resources?

    I don’t know. But I want to make it clear that I still love everybody. And even if somebody feels so threatened by DallasBasketball.com that it just held some sort of corporate-level meeting to agree to not link to us anymore, I still love everybody. I’m still going to link to YOU.

    Because that’s the way Mama Fish raised me.

    DONUT 11: The theory from my man Ryan at MavCowTickets.com on the attendance at the game tonight: Yeah, LeBron’s presence will sell tickets. And Shaq’s, too. And then there are the Mavs themselves. But Texas-OU people are going to be looking for some place to keep the all-day party rolling … and the AAC might just be that place.

   DONUT 12: So who gets to the fraudulent Balloon Boy/Pussification/Wife Swap/Storm Chase family first? TLC or CPS?