Dallas Mavericks are falling apart an Mark Cuban's to blame.

HoopsVibe's Very Quick Call: Apparently one ring was enough for this owner and now he wants his money back.

Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki is getting fed up with his team because he's now publicly expressing his discontent with the organization.

Hoopsvibe's quick call:  Dirk has a point.  The Mavericks' management has failed to make any good moves in the past few years.

Before tonight's latest installment of the Three-Point Shootout, let's reflect on the five best contests in history.

HoopsVibe Very Quick Call: If there is anything we've learned, anybody can win, regardless of reputation entering the contest.

Before we get to the list, a quick factoid. Do you know who has the lowest score in contest history? Amazingly, Michael Jordan with five points in 1990. Wowza.

1986- Larry Bird

The first contest ever was basically the beginning of Bird asserting himself as the most successful and entertaining of any three-point contestant ever. Bird made a then-competition record of 11 straight shots. When he won the contest and received his over-sized check, Bird quipped, "That check has had my name on it for a week now." He dominated eventual three time champion Craig Hodges in the final round 22-12 and set the standard for what was expected in ensuing competitions.

1991- Craig Hodges

This contest was arguably the deepest ever, right there with the 1995 version. The field consisted of champ Hodges, Drazen Petrovic (RIP), Dell Curry, Jeff Hornacek, Mitch Richmond, John Stockton, Craig Ehlo and Jim Les. In this contest, Hodges set the all time record for consecutive shots made with nineteen, and looked like a completely unstoppable robot, IE like the T-1000 in the original Terminator.

1988- Larry Bird

Bird only had seven pints with 25 seconds left with two racks remaining but would rebound to win making the final shot and generating the signature image of him extending his index finger as the final, event winning ball went through the net.  Bird beat Dale Ellis 17-15 in the final round and created an indelible image in the process. Poor Dale Ellis. He competed in each of the first three contests and could never beat Bird, who won all three of them.But don't feel too bad for Dale, he eventually won the contest in 1989.

2002/2003- Peja Stojakovic

Peja's two wins were in back to back years, both ending in overtime. both times victorious over Wesley Person, younger bro of "The Rifelman" and fellow three-point alum Chuck Person. In 2002, Peja and Person outlasted Steve Nash in the Finals, tying at 20 before Person lost in the finals en route to Stojakovic's first title. The following year, they tied again in the finals after beating Brent Berry. Stojakovic  would win that math-up as well, winning his second consecutive title. And the fans won by getting to watch an entire extra round of shots being hoisted up.

2007- Jason Kapono

Kapono gets no respect for his back to back titles, because his shot wasn't particularly pleasing to the eye and he was a journeyman as a player. But in 2007 he locked horns with Jason Terry for one of the most exciting competitions in history. Terry fought his way into the finals by winning a shootout with Mike Miller, then tied with Kapono in the Finals to earn an extra session. Both players were hot from start to finish and it was fun to watch. The tiebreaker didn't disappoint either, with Kapono besting Terry 24-19.

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Lebron James punks a lot of people by dunking on them, but no one was more enjoyable to posterize than Jason Terry.

Hoopsvibe's quick call:  Terry is known for trash talking; now he can also be known for getting dunked on.

This can be discussed even during a lockout. Dirk and the Mavs are still riding high from their hard earned 2011 NBA title. They swept Kobe’s Lakers, beat Durant/Westbrook Thunder, and then took out the Miami Heat. The team is battle tested especially with the grand fail against the Golden State Warriors in the 2007 playoffs. The Mavs lost a lot with a solid roster in the past. They overcame all of that in 2011.What’s next? Repeat. Duh. 

Dallas Mavericks player representative Jason Terry said that if the proposal NBA commissioner David Stern delivered to the union late Thursday night is not a substantial improvement from the league's one prior, players will be prepared to walk away, even if it threatens losing the entire season. "Our reasoning and what our strategy is, is we are trying to grow the game of basketball, and under the terms that have been presented to us, the game of basketball for us, from a players' perspective, financially, will not be growing," Terry said Friday morning during an appearance on the "Ben and Skin Show" on 103.3 FM ESPN.

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HoopsVibe’s Very Quick Call: What now?

Do players, like Jason Terry, accept what union head Billy Hunter has called a mediocre offer and play a 72-game season? Or, do they reject the offer, decertify, and destroy the 2012 season?

Sadly, the latter is winning.

Owners and players have settled on the elephant in the room issue, Basketball Related Income.   

Both sides agreed on a ‘band system’ to split BRI evenly at 50%. In the past, owners received 43%, while players received 57%.

This, however, is not the source of contention. Players are unhappy with the system issues, specifically the owners restricting loopholes like the mid-level exception and sign-and-trades for teams over the salary cap.

Here’s my question: how many players each year get the full mid-level exception and/or switch teams via a sign-and-trade?

The answer: not many.

In the owners' latest offer, over-the-cap teams can still use a scaled back version of the mid-level exception and sign-and-trades, too. This sounds fair. And at a certain point, owners and players must cut a deal or lose the season.

Then everybody - owners, players, and, most importantly fans - suffers.

Got thoughts? Well, get at HoopsVibe News in the comment box below.

The chorus is "win, win win, win win," but at the 40 second mark Terry starts singing "lose, lose lose," and then says to the camera, "I feel like LeBron right now."

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HoopsVibe’s Very Quick Call: It’s not just media. It’s not just fans. Players are piling on, too.

During the last year, Miami Heat superstar LeBron James has been criticized, and even mocked, by anyone and everyone associated with professional basketball.

Yesterday Dwight Howard teased James about his vanishing hairline. Today Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry insulted James in a revised, Jet-version of a soon-to-be released rap song.

Of course, Terry‘s Mavericks beat James’ Heat in the NBA Finals, so he holds bragging rights. The league’s top sixth-man called James a loser.

This, perhaps, is a touch harsh.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, we, along with James, can watch Terry's slight over-and-over again.

Watch the video of Terry getting at James and tell HoopsVibe News your thoughts in the comment box below.

--Oly Sandor.

“According to a brief report from KGO-TV, during a Pro-Am game between Barnes’ Dream Team and East Bay at the Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco, Barnes punched a member of the East Bay team. But since an official didn’t catch the altercation, play continued after a break and Barnes was not ejected. As of Friday morning, it appears no one has posted a video of the punch, but one fan at the game did capture the incident’s aftermath and members of both teams retreating to their own benches.”

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HoopsVibe’s Very Quick Call: Get in a fight. Hit the game-winning shot.

Players who can do both are rare. And this is the reason contenders covet Matt Barnes. One moment he's scrapping. The next he's a stone-cold assassin.    

Bottom line: top teams love Barnes' edge.

Remember, his 'edge’ made him a cult-hero with the ‘We Believe’ Golden State Warriors when they upset the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks.

Orlando Magic fans took to his 'edge’ when he declared viral jihad against Lamar Odom and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Those same Lakers showered him and his 'edge’ with praise when, as a member of the purple-and-gold, he went at the Mavs’ Jason Terry on-and-off court.

No team will publicly condone Barnes initiating a donnybrook at a Pro-Am match. Privately, behind closed doors, it's a different story.

Best of all, it wasn't a fan, right Mike Beasley? Watch the videos of Barnes’ altercation and game-winning shot and then get at HoopsVibe News with thoughts in the comment box below.

(Barnes scrapping.) 

(Barnes hits game-winning shot.)

--Oly Sandor.

And during Thursday's celebration at the American Airlines Center, Terry hinted he'd like one more thing before he goes: "Brad Davis, Ro Blackman, move over, there's new jerseys coming to town." As Terry has mentioned many times before, he always wanted to retire with the Mavericks and, if the Mavericks won the title, have his No. 31 jersey retired. With a championship under his belt, he very well could get his wish.

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HoopsVibe’s Very Quick Call: Should the Dallas Mavericks retire Jason Terry’s jersey?

Well, Terry thinks so. The star sixth-man had no issue telling the Mavericks faithful his jersey belongs in the rafters next to franchise great Rolando Blackman and fan favourite Brad Davis.

Terry is right. His jersey should be retired. And it likely will.

He was an integral part of a championship team. For years, he started at point guard. He also accepted a shift to the bench, where he evolved into an excellent reserve.

However, retiring a jersey is sacred. Much depends on the emotional connection a franchise has to that player. Much also depends on the owner.

So it's far from an exact science. Consider the Mavericks. Brad Davis has his jersey retired, but Derek Harper and Mark Aguirre do not.

Davis was a serviceable reserve who struck a chord with the club. Harper, an excellent point guard, and Aguirre, a terrific scorer, were better players than Davis, but failed to connect in the same way with fans or ownership.

There’s also the matter of grace. Predicting that Mark Cuban, or whoever owns the team when Terry`s playing days end, will retire his jersey is presumptuous.

`This isn’t the same as Terry getting a tattoo of the Larry O’Brien trophy on his bicep. Sporting championship ink is a team goal; retiring a jersey is an individual goal.

Over the last few years, Terry has done so much right. He needs to dial back the rhetoric, enjoy the moment, and pick his words carefully.

Even if he deserves to have his jersey hanging next to Blackman and Davis in the rafters.

--Oly Sandor.

Got thoughts? Well, get at HoopsVibe News in the comment box below.

HoopsVibe's Very Quick Call: It's official. The Dallas Mavericks are NBA champions.

The Mavs' won game six of the NBA Finals and, as a result, the Larry O'Brien trophy with balanced play, masterful three-point shooting, and offensive rebounding in the fourth quarter.

The storylines are endless: Future Hall of Famers Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki get their rings; owner Mark Cuban really has a reason to smirk; Jason Terry's offensive explosion was reminiscent of Vinnie Johnson.

Plain and simple, the Mavericks were the better team.

The questions will continue for the Miami Heat. For instance, who will Executive Pat Riley sign to support the 'Three Kings'? And can the Heat afford the 'Three Kings' if the new Collective Bargaining Agreement changes the NBA's financial landscape? 

Is Erik Spoelstra the coach to lead LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to a championship? If not, will 'Oil Slick' Riley stab Spoelstra in the back like Stan Van Gundy and return to the sideline?

These questions will be answered in the future. In the meantime, click the link for video highlights of game six, and get at us with thoughts on the Mavericks winning the championship. 

--Oly Sandor.

Got thoughts? Well, get at HoopsVibe News in the comment box below.

"When he first got the tattoo, I said he was crazy," Stevenson said of the tattoo that is on the inside of Terry's arm. "I didn't say it to him. But I've never been to the [NBA Finals], and for him to have that now. Wow. And he got that tattoo in October, and it means a lot with what we've been through."

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HoopsVibe’s Very Quick Call: It would seem Jason Terry called the Dallas Mavericks shot last October with a little ink –as in the permanent kind.

Terry was so convinced his Mavs’ would win the Western Conference he got a tattoo of the Larry O’Brien championship trophy on his right bicep during training camp.

Well, Terry’s prediction came true. The Mavs’ won the west in convincing fashion. They are four wins from hoisting the championship. Standing in their way is the Miami Heat.

For now, Terry’s tattoo looks like a good decision. Who knows if that changes if the Mavs’ lose their second NBA Finals to the Heat, though?

--Oly Sandor.

Got thoughts? Well, get at HoopsVibe News in the comment box below. 

"I call Barnes the Charminator," said Terry. "You know what that is? That is a guy that's soft as Charmin' toilet paper. It's not only that he's a Pac-10 guy and he's a [UCLA] Bruin, and so you know we hate those guys -- us [Arizona] Wildcats, we hate Bruins. I don't care who you are. Whenever you don that uniform, I can't stand you, other than Reggie Miller. Barnes, I remember you when you were at Golden State, you're a journeyman. You put on that Laker uniform and you turn into Jerry West, Kareem, and Worthy, and Magic. Those are the real Lakers, not Barnes."

Barnes smiled when he was relayed Terry's comments after practice on Saturday afternoon. "I'm not worried about what he's talking about," Barnes said. "In Golden State we showed how to beat Dallas. You take it right to their chin and they back down. I don't see that nothing's changed since then so hopefully we see them again."

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HoopsVibe’s Very Quick Call: In pro sports, there’s competitive hate between players and/or teams competing. This ends when the final buzzer sounds.

Then there’s personal hate, which is, well, personal. This doesn’t end when the final buzzer sounds. It carries over to the next game.  

Put Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks and Matt Barnes of the Los Angeles Lakers hate in the latter.

Recently, insults have flown between the super-subs, which included references to toilet paper, journeyman status, being a fake Laker and past playoff upsets.

The trigger for this war of words was Thursday’s dust up between the purple-and-gold and Team Cuban. So Barnes went there: he brought up the Golden State Warriors 2007 upset of the Dallas Mavericks.

The Warriors, of course, were the eighth seed, who squeaked into the playoffs with an end of season rally. They were supposed to roll over in round one.

They didn’t, though.

Instead, they used an up-tempo approach to shock Terry's Mavericks, who were the heavily-favoured, first-seed. The series was highly entertaining –provided you weren’t a Mavericks fan.

The loss was especially harsh for Terry's team. In 2006, they held a two game lead in the NBA Finals –and lost the championship to Shaquille O’Neal, Dwyane Wade, and the Miami Heat.

All of this adds context to a possible playoff battle between Dallas and LA. Sports are at their best when there are multiple storylines and plots.

It never hurts when there’s good old fashioned hate, either.

--Oly Sandor.

Got thoughts? Well, get at HoopsVibe News in the comment box below. 

HoopsVibe’s Very Quick Call: The Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers were setting the tone for a possible playoff showdown.

Team Cuban currently sits at third in the Western Conference, while the purple-and-gold are second, trailing the league-leading San Antonio Spurs.

One game separated these two teams in the standings. They still could have swapped places; home-court advantage in the playoffs was at stake.

Not surprisingly, there was extra juice to Thursday’s game between the Mavericks and Lakers. Not surprisingly, tempers flared.

Initially, Jason Terry and Steve Blake got into it due to a late shove from The Jet. Matt Barnes, previously known as The Mohawk, defended Blake and got tangled with Mavericks assistant coach Terry Stotts.

Stotts was restraining Barnes, but the tattooed swing ‘accidentally’ threw the peacemaker to the floor, which angered Mavericks Brian Cardinal and Tyson Chandler.

Then a Laker fan rushed the Mavericks' bench. It was madness at The Staples Center.

Bottom line: let's hope these teams meet in the playoffs. It would be quite the match-up.

Watch the clip below and get at us with thoughts on Thursday night fight club at the Staples Center.
 

(Was Barnes’ toss of Stott really an ‘accident’?)

--Oly Sandor.

The Mavericks don’t plan to rush to the trade market in the wake of Caron Butler’s knee injury, according to sources with knowledge of the team’s thinking.

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HoopsVibe’s Very Quick Call: Suppose Caron Butler’s knee injury forces him to miss the season. How do the Dallas Mavericks replace the scrappy and talented Butler?

Well, the Mavericks have $5 million in available cap space through an injury exemption clause on Butler’s $10 million salary. However, a trade isn’t a given. Expect Team Cuban to first try to fill the void internally through a platoon.

So DeShawn Stevenson and Jason Terry will get additional minutes. The promising Roddy Beaubois will also have an opportunity when he returns from injury in a few weeks.

Of course, Dirk Nowitzki, as the Mavs’ superstar, will ultimately be responsible for the team’s fate without Butler. However, the former MVP is still out with his own injury.

If Coach Rick Carlisle can’t find an in-house solution, then the Mavericks will look to add outside talent with a trade.

--Oly Sandor.

Got thoughts? Well, get at HoopsVibe News in the comment box below.