As usual, from the Dallas Morning News and some of my comments.


3/6 Randy White said that he has been told by Quinn Buckner that
he is not part of the Mavs future.  Buckner met with White on
February 23 and told him "in not so many words" that this would
be his last season in Dallas.  
White: "I came to grips with that after our meeting in Charlotte. 
That's a lock that I'm not going to be here next year.  You just
move on.  You can't look back."
Buckner: "What I told Randy is between Randy and I.  If that's
what he said, that's what he said." [ya, right.  You tell a
player that the reason he's not getting any minutes is that he is
not part of the future and then you're surprised that he went to
the press?]
Lorenzo Williams has been getting some of the minutes that Randy
used to get.

3/9 Terry Davis on Buckner giving Lorenzo Williams more minutes
and on Popeye Jones' decreased minutes: "Quinn needs to get off this
trip about not playing Popeye.  The guy practices every day, and
the guy deserves to play, and I don't know what he's doing on the
bench.  That's a bunch of (expletive).  No offense to Lorenzo,
but he can't do the job Popeye can out there.  Give him (Jones)
the minutes to help him down the road."

3/9 Not only did Lorenzo Williams have a contract in Turkey
waiting for him before he signed for the season with the Mavs,
Williams' agent said that they turned down 10-day contracts from
two other NBA teams.  As part of his contract, if Williams is
with the Mavs on opening day, he will receive a $25,000 bonus.

3/9 The team might actually break a record that they can be proud
of.  The Mavs are on a pace for a franchise record of steals in a
season.  The current record is 688 for the '87-'88 season when
the Mavs won the Midwest Division title. [Oops, I forgot to grab
the season's total so far from Saturday's paper - it's right
around 600 right now.  Fat Lever is leading the team with over
100; Jim Jackson, Jamal Mashburn, and Tim Legler also have a high
number of steals (all over 50).  Dang, wish I had remembered to
grab it.]

3/11 Popeye Jones' 12 offensive rebounds in the Laker-Mavs game
tied a franchise record for offensive rebounds in a game.  Roy
Tarpley had done so twice before.  Surprisingly, all of Popeye's
rebounds for the game were offensive.  
Popeye: "It seems like I'm just able to read the offensive
rebounds better than the defensive rebounds.  I don't know why. 
Maybe it's a matter of wanting the offensive rebounds more."

3/11 Reflecting on Fat Lever's recent play, Mavs vice president
of operations Rick Sund said that he wouldn't be surprised if a
contending team called Lever this summer, once his Mavs contract
expires.
     Fat, who last month said of playing another season "You
never say never, but right now, I'm knocking on never's door",
was surprised by Sund's comment.  Lever response: "If a
contending team called, I'd probably have to listen.  But it
would depend on the situation."

3/14 After Friday's (3/11) loss against the Clippers, while
assessing the game in the locker room, Buckner mentioned that
there had been some selfish play.  Jim Jackson, who took 33
shots, took Buckner's comment to mean that the coach was talking
about him.  He and Buckner went face-to-face in front of the
entire team - an ugly shouting match according to several Mavs. 
Jackson said that he and Buckner patched things up during a
meeting following Sunday morning's shoot around.  
     Following the Clippers game [I assume to the press], Buckner
mentioned Jackson's shot total, but added that he probably was
trying to compensate for the absence of the injured Mashburn. 
Jackson mentioned after the game that, because of his matchup
advantage, he had been guilty of not swinging the ball as much as
he should have.

3/19 Buckner fined Terry Davis $500 for "insubordination" because
of the comments he made in the Morning News on March 9 (see
above).  Terry said that he is upset about the fine for two
reasons: it isn't consistent with the punishments, or lack there
of, in other cases this season in which players have spoken out;
and Buckner notified Terry of the fine by letter.
Davis: "He wasn't a man about the situation.  Why didn't he talk
to me about it, like he's done with everyone else?  Be a man
about the situation.  I'm not a kid."
Davis also pointed out that much stronger comments this season by
other players, such as Mashburn, Rooks, and Harper, were not, to
his knowledge, followed by fines.  Nor was Jackson fined for his
locker room shouting match with Buckner.
Davis: "All I said was I felt Popeye needed some playing time. 
That was the truth.  There wasn't anything against any of the
other players or the organization.  That tells me something about
my future here.  If I had to get fined for something like that,
after everything that's gone on this year that people haven't
gotten fined for, that tells me a lot."
Terry plans to talk about the matter with GM Norm Sonju on
Saturday.

3/20 Terry and Buckner met briefly after Saturday's game against
the Warriors.  
Terry: "It was a positive talk.  It was about trying to get on
the right track.  I look for positive notes.  I came on a
positive note, and I'm going to leave on a positive note."

3/20 With Sean Rooks rejoining practices Monday and likely to be
reactivated soon, Randy White appears to be the odd man out (he
again DNP-CD last night).
White: "I'm trying to make a choice on should I stay on the team
and probably be the one cut, with the outside chance of being
picked up by another team?  Or should I go on the (injured list)
to make room for Sean."  "What it really looks like they (the
Mavs) are trying to do is ruin my chances of playing somewhere
else.  Being in my fifth year, the way they've basically benched
me for no legitimate reason.  All I know is I'm not part of their
future.  I'm prepared to move on to bigger and better things.  A
lot of times, when things like this happen, it's the Lord's way
of telling you to go on to something better."
Randy said that his agent suggested that he go on IR as the odds
of being picked up by another team this late in the season are
not good.

Jamal Mashburn left the game during the 3rd quarter after
aggravating his hip injury during the 2nd quarter.  He is listed
as day-to-day and is questionable for Wednesday's game against
the Lakers.
Mashburn: "I couldn't jump.  I couldn't run and I couldn't push
off.  I just didn't have it."
[If I find the time, I'll get a game report out of the Warriors
game.  I had a minor catastrophe when I got home that took about
two hours to correct.  Nothing like the initial fear of not being
able to boot your computer and thinking that a virus has hit it. 
Thank goodness it wasn't that serious.]

Something for you to speculate about: what position is Dick Motta
going to have in the organization after this season ends?  It was
on Don Carter's "suggestion" [read, "do it or be fired"] that
Buckner brought Motta in as a consultant and advisor in February. 
I also heard that it was because Motta told Carter to stick to
his word and give Buckner an entire season that Buckner wasn't
fired in February.  It seems that Motta is the only one in the
organization who Carter trusts and has confidence in.  Motta and
Norm Sonju and Rick Sund do _not_ get along and very likely don't
like each other.  Motta verbally blast Sonju and Sund to the
media a mere month before he was brought on as a consultant.  In
addition, Sund will probably make the recommendation of firing
Buckner [else, be perceived as a fool] after evaluating this
season - the man who Sund pushed to hire.  Right now, Motta seems
really happy with his role in the team.  Since he doesn't seem to
want to become a coach again - with all the pressure of coaching
and wanting to spend time with his family, a probable scenario is
for Sund and Sonju to be fired and for Motta to take a new
management position combining the jobs that Sund and Sonju
currently do, with someone else brought on or promoted to handle
the accounting stuff.  If Motta wants it, it's his for the
taking.


patricia