The NBA At High Noon On Christmas Day

This season was a slow train coming, especially after an offseason that saw owners and players and owners trying to paint each opposing side as a band of ruthless outlaws, while portraying themselves as men who just wanted to do the right thing, for justice and basketball, like Gary Cooper, like the sworn in sheriff, like David Stern's ego.

All Things Dirk

I've never written anything substantial on Dirk Nowitzki. In fact, I've always resented the man. I don't know why, other than the rivalry between San Antonio and Dallas, a rivalry that grew not just from Mark Cuban's whining imagination and close geography, but from the fact that for the last decade the teams' two best players both played the same position, which, strangely, only rarely resulted in their guarding each other. The Spurs always preferred to put Bruce Bowen on the Big German, and Dallas always preferred playing Duncan for what he was: a center. The fact that these two seldom defended one another speaks to how open to differentiation the game of basketball is; it's a testament to the game's flexibility, yet this evidence made me more rigid in my stance against Dirk. I saw him as less than Duncan because as a seven-footer he refused to do all of his work down on the block or through the rigid angle of a bank shot. I hated and feared him because he was different than what I preferred. I was wrong. I was stupid.

 Tim Duncan has clearly had the better career. He's got the rings. He's got more awards. He's got legacy. But, despite all that, I've always struggled to give Dirk his due, and now I'm making up for lost time:

-"Dirk Nowitzki's Long Siege"

-"No Country for Old Men: Contemplating the Thunder vs. the Mavericks"

Appreciate him before time does with him as it has with Duncan and Garnett. I'm glad I did, even if it did take too long to see the light.

**After writing "No Country for Old Men: Contemplating the Thunder vs. the Mavericks", I read this piece at Hardwood Paroxysm, which was very similar to my take on the situation. I'm always amazed at how people of similar ages and similar interests unconsciously become clones of one another. Human beings really are wired the same and it's always humbling to be reminded of that, and it also speaks to why it's such a good thing that basketball players, like Duncan and Nowitzki, offer such variety on how to go about doing identical tasks.

Number of the Day: Dirk's 8th Straight Missed Game

The Master of the Universe has missed eight straight games, and the Mavericks have lost six of those eight games. In total, the team's lost seven of the nine games Dirk Nowitzki's missed (and seven games back in their division). And with Caron Butler out for the year, Castle Greyskull appears to be crumbling. The Men at Arms need their hero and his mighty sword back in the lineup. Without him, they're as cuddly as a pack of Cringers, no cool helmet and no cool saddle.

Also, as last night's loss to the Spurs proved, things just aren't the same without Dirk. The marshmallows aren't quite as sugary. The cereal isn't quite as crunchy. The commercial breaks last forever, and even a Spurs fan like myself needs the perennial MVP candidate back to make my mornings worth getting up for.

LCBInsider: Unfounded Rumors

-Reporting from the frontiers of the NBA, Teach spins us a tale of the LeBron James gang over at The Faster Times, painting them as a bunch of cattle rustlers and rapists, or a new generation of heroes.  Left out of the legend are German farmer Dirk Nowitzki's misgivings on The Farmer's Almanac, being tied to the land, and how the wind all of a sudden is blowing east.  Heck, even the grizzly fur trader Amar'e has packed his bags and headed back to New York City, with a rattle snake over his shoulders and a saddle, but no horse, in his hands.  In other words, we've all been to the Pacific and now it's time to come home.  The commemorative coin for the Western Conference's dominance can be purchased for $19.99, but it's worth at least a cool thousand.

- Keeping with a western theme, Shaq apparently wants to join up with Timmy Duncan in order to visit the Bad Lands of South Dakota and study up close the devastating effects of erosion on what was once a mighty terrain, millions of years ago.

-Cavs owner Dan Gilbert blames video games for LeBron James joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, stating, "What can you expect from a generation raised on reset buttons?  And in my mind, this is much worse. like presetting the rosters before starting franchise mode or something."

-Stan Yeungling reports that "The Cavs are still the best team in Cleveland without LeBron," which means maybe the Browns should make James an offer.

-The state of Ohio plans to make LeBron's Akron mansion into a state cemetery, much like the federal government did with Robert E. Lee's Arlington home during and after the Civil War.

-JJ Redick cancels his hour long free agent special, where he planned on reading an epic poem about the trials and tribulations of making a perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich, explaining, "It would just be spitting in the face of all those crying Cleveland fans because I'm not going there either."

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For Modernity's Sake: Round One of the NBA Playoffs

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. 

--F. Scott Fitzgerald                                                                                       

I have a hard time letting go of the past, especially the last decade, which is why the San Antonio versus Dallas series moves me to slouch into bed after midnight and crawl into school the next morning pushed forward by Yeats' gyres and, at most, five hours of sleep.  Relegated to the first round, for the second year in a row, this series is less than it once was, yet it feels more like the Playoffs than any other series being played this postseason, at least for someone who still refuses to fully embrace a new age of basketball with all of its new laws and forces, which just like the old laws and forces, leave a fan ignorant to do anything but applaud through the night and yawn through the day.  I'm tired.  I'm refreshed.  My existence is a tightrope through the tides of TNT.