I was on vacation the past week and didn't follow basketball at all. My Saturday morning conversation with my mom went the following: Mom: Did you watch the news last night? Me: No. Mom: Hubert Davis, 6 years. Me: 6 years??? What fool team signed him to 6 years? Mom: The Mavs She got a kick out of my reaction. Anyways, the Mavs signed Hubert Davis to a 6 year, $4.5 million contract with a player opt-out clause after the 3rd year. Davis with earn $500,000 in 97-98. The signing leaves the Mavs with about $600,000 under the cap to either sign another player or use towards a trade. Davis is a pure shooting guard - something the Mavs do need. Davis had a poor and injury plagued season last year (the reason for my "6 years???" reaction) with Toronto. He missed 21 games with a bone contusion in his right knee and 14 games with a left ankle sprain. He only played in 36 games and did not perform very well. He played his first 4 season with New York - including under Don Nelson in Nelson's brief stint in New York. [Nelson starting Davis in front of John Starks is rumored to be what lead to the players' revolt and Nelson's eventual firing. Davis averaged 16.2 points including 48.8% FG and 45.3% (34-75) 3-pointers in his 14 starts that season.] In New York, Davis showed a lot of promise and potential, but never fully realised. He is only 27, so he may still develop into a solid player. Reportedly Vancouver and Indiana were also interested in Davis. His 97-98 salary of $500,000 is a bargain. I just wouldn't have signed him to a 6 year contract. Davis also has the reputation of being a very nice, clean-cut guy. I recall hearing a few years ago that he doesn't even swear. I had to smile at the irony. Back in 1993 when the Mavs were shopping Derek Harper around, I was saying the Mavs should holdout with New York and get Hubert Davis in return. They didn't and eventually traded Harper for Tony Campbell and New York's 1997 draft pick. We traded that pick with Popeye Jones to Toronto (for garbage) last summer. Toronto turned around and traded New York's 1997 pick back to New York for Hubert Davis. Don Nelson: "We're glad to have Hubert. He's one of the better shooters in the league. Having coached him, I know he has great character and a great work ethic. We hope he'll be a Maverick for a long time." Other Mavs news: In a shock, the radio voice of the Mavs for the past 9 seasons Ted Davis unexpectedly resigned. He was very polite with his comments about the team. He signed a 3 year contract with Milwaukee. The Mavs are looking for a new broadcaster and plan on filling the position by early October. Well, it's been over a year since I've mentioned it and it's probably still not worth mentioning, but a note about the new arena "discussions". The Mavs have stepped up the stakes with the city of Dallas and have begun discussions with several suburbs. The Mavs had been exclusively talking with Dallas for about the past 2 years. Almost no progress has been made in that time. [The Dallas city council is full of clueless idiots.] About three weeks ago the Mavs announced they were going to start talking with the suburbs. The team has talked with Arlington, Grand Prairie, and (surprise) Garland. Garland is a long-shot, but does have the advantage of being _much_ closer to the large North Dallas area Mavs season ticket holders. The city of Irving says that it plans on staying out of the discussions until the team decides that Dallas is no longer an option. The Dallas Stars (who will probably share somehow the new arena with the Mavs) are staying pretty quite right now except to say that they want to stay in Dallas. Expect a lot more talks, speculation, discussions, and finger pointing to occur over the next several months (as has been going on for the past month). If an agreement is made on the building of a new arena within the next 6 months, it probably would not be ready for use until 2000. Discussions of a new arena began in 1993. Hubert Davis' stats: Hubert Davis - 24 Position: G Height: 6-5 Birthday: May 17, 1970 Birthplace: Winston-Salem, North Carolina High School: Lake Braddock Secondary School (Burke, Virginia) College: University of North Carolina 1992 New York draft pick, 1st round (#20) Played 92-93 - 95-96 with New York Played 96-97 with Toronto | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 92-93 50-?? 815 16.3 110-251 0.438 43-54 0.796 13 43 56 1.1 93-94 56-?? 1333 23.8 238-505 0.471 85-103 0.825 23 44 67 1.2 94-95 82-4 1697 20.7 296-617 0.480 97-120 0.808 30 80 110 1.3 95-96 74-14 1773 24.0 275-566 0.486 112-129 0.868 35 88 123 1.7 96-97 36-0 623 17.3 74-184 0.402 17-23 0.739 11 29 40 1.1 Total 298-?? 6241 20.9 993-2123 0.468 354-429 0.825 112 284 396 1.3 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 92-93 83 1.7 71-1 22 45 4 269 5.4 22 93-94 165 2.9 118-0 40 76 4 614 11.0 32 94-95 150 1.8 156-1 35 87 11 820 10.0 27 95-96 103 1.4 120-1 31 63 8 789 10.7 30 96-97 34 0.9 40-0 11 21 2 181 5.0 17 Total 535 1.8 505-3 139 292 29 2673 9.0 32 3-pointers: 92-93 6-19 0.316, 93-94 53-132 0.402, 94-95 131-288 0.455, 95-96 127-267 0.476, 96-97 16-70 0.229, Total 333-776 0.429. Played 92-93 - 95-96 with New York Playoffs | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 92-93 7-?? 96 13.7 14-25 0.560 2-3 0.667 1 5 6 0.9 93-94 23-?? 396 17.2 44-121 0.364 23-32 0.719 5 16 21 0.9 94-95 11-0 184 16.7 17-48 0.354 2-2 1.000 0 7 7 0.6 95-96 8-0 145 18.1 17-31 0.548 9-11 0.818 4 8 12 1.5 Total 49-?? 821 16.8 92-225 0.409 36-48 0.750 10 36 46 0.9 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 92-93 5 0.7 8-0 6 9 0 31 4.4 ?? 93-94 26 1.1 43-0 5 23 3 121 5.3 12 94-95 9 0.8 20-0 1 9 5 46 4.2 8 95-96 4 0.5 12-0 0 7 0 53 6.6 ?? Total 44 0.9 83-0 12 48 8 251 5.1 ?? 3-pointers: 92-93 1-2 0.500, 93-94 10-35 0.286, 94-95 10-27 0.370, 95-96 10-19 0.526, Total 31-83 0.373. UNC stats | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 88-89 35-0 248 7.1 44-86 0.512 24-31 0.774 12 15 27 0.8 89-90 34-5 725 21.3 111-249 0.446 59-74 0.797 27 33 60 1.8 90-91 35-20 851 24.3 161-309 0.521 81-97 0.835 32 53 85 2.4 91-92 33-30 1095 33.2 241-474 0.508 140-169 0.828 27 49 76 2.3 Total 137-55 2919 21.3 557-1118 0.498 304-371 0.819 98 150 248 1.8 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG 88-89 9 0.3 10-0 3 12 1 116 3.3 89-90 52 1.5 42-0 33 31 6 325 9.6 90-91 66 1.9 35-0 30 37 9 467 13.3 91-92 52 1.6 42-0 42 45 7 707 21.4 Total 179 1.3 129-0 108 125 23 1615 11.8 3-pointers: 88-89 4-13 0.308, 89-90 44-111 0.396, 90-91 64-131 0.489, 91-92 85-198 0.429, Total 197-453 0.435. patricia