I'm back with my Mavs draft report and other news.

If you watched the draft on TNT then you already know my horror:
We got kicked out of Reunion Arena by !@#$%#! Juleo Iglasis (I don't
care that I spelled it wrong)!  Geez, of all people, it had to be
Juleo - I can't stand him.  So they stuffed us in the ball room of
the Hyatt Regency across the street.  And, man, did I miss Reunion
Arena (and Allen Stone).  The sound system was awful, but we got
to sit real close to the big screen and the podium.  The place was
packed through the first round; they never gave an official number,
but it was easily over a thousand or two.  I got a kick out of having
Eddie Johnson from TNT with the Mavs instead of the Bucks - that's
what they get for being cheap.  The Bucks charged 5 bucks a head for
their draft party and the Mavs' party was free (plus season ticket
holders got a free meal).  Brad Davis, Popeye Jones, Doug Smith, and
Morlon Wiley spoke briefly to the crowd.  After the 28th pick was
made, almost everyone left.  Including the announcers!  Former voice
of the Mavs Allen Stone never left us - he always stayed until the
end.  When the last pick of the 2nd round came, there were only 9
people left in the room (well, plus the clean up crew who had been 
working around us).  Sheesh.  Anyway, on to the meat.

Forget any of the rumors you heard, Kidd was our pick all along.
My folks, season tickets holders, really did get a note from the
Mavs and the sheet on Kidd in the mail the next day.  Plus they
put out the sheet on Kidd at the draft party.  I'm not going to
enter the whole thing, but here are some quotes that are on it:

Kidd: "Since the lottery, I've been envisioning myself passing to 
Jackson and Mashburn.  I'm excited - with those two on the wings, 
you can't go wrong.  They will make my job a lot easier.  Now they
only have to concentrate on scoring and playing defense.  I'll get
them the ball."

Kidd: "I'm excited about becoming a Maverick - it's a perfect fit.
We have the pieces of the puzzle coming together.  Hopefully, I'm
one of the pieces that will make the Mavericks a contender again.
I've heard great things about Coach Motta.  We're young and with 
the new coaching staff, the future is bright."

Kidd: "Most definitely I'm ready for the NBA and new challenges.  I
can't wait to get started.  I've been told there's going to be a
mini-camp in July, which I think is a great idea.  I would like
to get signed quickly.  As a point guard, it's important for me
to get to know my role and my teammates as soon as possible."

Motta: "(Kidd) is a Bob Cousy-type passer with the quick, clever
look-away passes.  Players love to play with him because you run the
court, but if you get open you better be ready to catch it.  A 
great passer like Jason Kidd will jump up Jamal Mashburn's and
Jimmy Jackson's games tremendously."

California head coach Todd Bozeman: "Jason is a true student of the
game.  He watches game film, studies his opponents' tendencies,
breaks down the other team's plays.  He's able to see the game
differently than most."

(a bunch of other praises and stats.)

Well, you probably know a bunch about Kidd, but probably not much
about their 2nd pick Tony Dumas.  The crowd was cheering for 
Wesley Person and was a little upset with the selection of Dumas.
Director of player personnel Keith Grant, who made the pick, said
that it was between Person and Dumas and that he like Dumas a little
better.  This was the first time that Grant got to flex his power.
In the past, some of his suggestions had been vetoed.  He recommended
Tim Hardaway, Cliff Robinson, and Nick Van Exel in previous years.
The Mavs took Randy White and Pat Durham (John MacLeod's choices) and
Lucious Harris (Quinn Buckner's choice) instead.  Dumas' reaction
to being booed by the fans: "Their reaction is just going to make me
work all the harder.  I'll just come out and prove myself to the
crowd, get a couple of spectacular dunks or something, trying to
get them on my side."  Dumas is the first player to be drafted out
of Missouri-Kansas City (the Kangaroos).  Dumas will probably play
a 6th man role of backup guard (to Jim Jackson) and possibly some
backup small forward.  Besides dunking, Dumas is known for getting
to the free throw line regularly where he shot 75.7% last year.
He also ranked 7th in the nation among seniors for scoring, averaging
26.0 points.  He has a good attitude and a spot on the rosters; we'll
see if Grant found his jewel.

The other player, selected with the 28th pick, was Deon Thomas.  The
crowd was routing for Jim McIlvaine, but I was thrilled to see the
team pass on the BWS.  Thomas is a 6-9 power forward who will have
to earn a spot on the roster (the Mavs still have Doug Smith, Popeye
Jones, and Terry Davis at power forward).  Motta compared him to
Larry "Mr. Mean" Smith and Tyrone Hill.  The Mavs say that they were
surprised to see Thomas still available at 28.  He is not known for
shooting outside of 5 feet.
Thomas on where he was drafted: "I was a little surprised I went 
that low.  But a lot of it was on account of scouts said I was only
6-7 with my shoes off.  My point is, I'm 6-9 with my shoes on.  And
you play the game with your shoes on."

Other Mavs news:
As expected, the Mavs picked up the second year option of my man 
Popeye Jones.

Unfortunately, with the drafting of Dumas, the Mavs decided not to
pick up the second year option of back up shooting guard Tim Legler.
Legs was a hard worker and fan favorite.  Hopefully some team needing
a backup shooting guard will pick him up.

Randy White was not given a qualifying offer, making him an 
unrestricted free agent.  Fat Lever, Tony Campbell, Greg Dreiling,
and Morlon Wiley also became unrestricted free agents.

The Mavs have $2.202 million (Lever), $1.68 million (Campbell), and
$922,000 (White) slots to work with.  Lever's slot will be the 
building block for Kidd's contract (and he wants a lot - he said
comparable to last year's #2 Shawn Bradley's 8 year $44.28 million 
deal, plus inflation).  White's slot could be used to sign Dumas.  
And then the Mavs would have Campbell's slot to possibly go after a 
free agent.

Tony Newell, one of Buckner's assistant coaches, was released by
the team.  Motta said that he will only have two assistants.  Brad
Davis is the first and it still looks like Kip Motta will be the
second.  Motta's son was interviewed for the position last Friday.

Correcting one of Buckner's early mistakes, Motta moved the training
camp back to Moody Coliseum (SMU, in Dallas) and practices will be
open to the media and evening workouts will be open to the public.

Motta has also scheduled 2 mini-camps.  The first one will take 
place July 19-22 (unless the courts prohibit mini-camps due to the
collective bargaining mess).  The second one will take place in
September.


patricia