Schedule update: March 29 @ Washington should be vs Washington @ Baltimore Individual tickets go on sale Saturday, September 21 at 10 am at Reunion Arena box office and area Dillard's stores. Most road games will be broadcast on channel 39 this year. [It was channel 27 last year.] Channel 39 will broadcast 34 road games and 1 home game. Prime Sports, as usual, will broadcast almost all of the home games. All games will be broadcast on KLIF 570 AM. Former Mav update: Boston released Doug Smith. The day after signing Harper, the Mavs usual 1/6th page ad of "Under Construction" in large letters and comments regarding Cleamons in smaller letters was changed to "DEREK'S BACK." in large letters and "It seems Derek Harper likes the looks of our new construction here in Dallas. So much in fact, he's moving back. And with a point guard like Derek added to this team, you can see we're building our 1996-97 season on a remarkably solid foundation. [order tickets...]" in the smaller letters. The latest word about why Milwaukee back out of the proposed trade of Popeye for a draft pick is that Popeye failed the Milwaukee physical due to his chronic tendinitis in his knees, not the reported Milwaukee wanting to look at free agents. The Mavs had already made a verbal offer to Harper at that point and had to scramble to find a second taker for Popeye. [Note: Popeye's knees shouldn't have been new news to Milwaukee. Pop missed 14 games during 95-96 due to tendinitis in his knees. It might have been just an excuse for Milwaukee to back out of the trade.] More details on the Terry Davis draft-day trade that fell through: it was a 3 team deal that had Dallas trading Cherokee Parks to Minnesota and swapping draft picks with Minnesota (Dallas then gets #5 and Minnesota #9) and then Dallas trading the #5 pick and Terry Davis (and his $2.2 million salary) to the LA Clippers. The trade hinged on Minnesota selecting Antoine Walker for the Clippers. Minnesota selected Ray Allen and the trade fell apart. The trade would have freed up about $5.25 million for Dallas, enough to make a run at free agent Horace Grant. I wrote the following and e-mailed it to a local radio broadcaster who was complaining about Terry Davis' contract (and Davis himself) and had some incorrect info. I thought other might find it interesting. The Mavs signed Terry Davis as a free agent to a two year contract in 1991. On December 5, 1992, the Mavs renegotiated his contract and signed him to a 5 year extension (including 92-93). His contract expires at the end of next season and will free up about $2.2 million from the Mavs total salary. Terry has also said that he will retire after this season. Here is Terry's stats from the 91-92 and 92-93 seasons: | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 91-92 68-67 2149 31.6 256-531 0.482 181-285 0.635 228 444 672 9.9 92-93 75-74 2462 32.8 393-863 0.455 167-281 0.594 259 442 701 9.3 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 91-92 57 0.8 202-1 26 117 29 693 10.2 20 92-93 68 0.9 199-3 36 160 28 955 12.7 35 3-pointers: 91-92 0-5 0.000, 92-93 2-8 0.250 In addition, on November 14, 1992 Terry had a career high 35 points and had 17 rebounds. At the time, re-signing Terry seemed like a steal. Keep in mind how pathetic the team was back then. Besides Terry, we had a 2nd year Donald Hodge, rookie Sean Rooks, 2nd year Doug Smith, and Randy White to play power forward and center. The car accident in which Terry shattered his left (he's a lefty) elbow occurred in May, 1993. I've been hearing a lot of people ragging on Terry lately and I don't think he deserves it. He worked his tail off in the summer of 1993 and shocked people by being ready to return to action for pre-season of 93-94. For what ever reason, Buckner never wanted to play him and placed him on IR to start the season. Terry fought his way to the active list (he threaten to file a complaint with the Players Association) and was the only player who was effective defending Olajuwon in his first game back. Still, he was in Buckner's dog house and opted for season ending surgery a month later after seeing limited action. He also found himself deep on the bench in Motta's first season - there was no way Hodge should have been getting more minutes than Davis. Last season he looked poor in the few minutes he played. If people want to blame anyone about Terry's large contract, blame management for giving him such a long term contract or plain bad luck for the car accident. Hey, it would probably sound like a great deal if the Mavs didn't have Mashburn and they signed George McCloud to a 5 year, $14 million contract; but it would look bad in 2000-01 if McCloud wasn't playing anymore but he counted $3.6 million against the cap. patricia