Instead of re-analyzing the situation now, I thought I pull some items out of my posts from last season. The date below the dotted line is the data that I posted the info. Remember that Harper was the leader of the team before Buckner came on and players would go to him for advice. patricia ---- Nov. 13 After reading the newspaper articles about the problems between Quinn Buckner and Derek Harper, my feeling about the situation is stronger that Buckner is at fault. A correction: Buckner and Harper didn't get in a shouting match on the baseline. Buckner yelled at Harper to do something during the game (GS) and Harper yelled something back at Buckner. Harper was pulled a little bit later. After the game, Harper talked with Rick Sund. Harper said that he was just talking with Sund, something he said he does occasionally, and that he did not ask to be traded. Harper would not elaborate on what they discussed. Both Harper and Buckner publicly brushed off the incident, but the newspaper writers and TV analyists didn't believe them. My wish is that Buckner and Harper could patch things up, but I fear that it is too late for that. ---- Nov. 19 Buckner's mistakes so far: 1) Ignored the media and refused to talk about the Mavs when first hired. 2) Jilted the media again by having closed practices at the start of training camp and moving the camp to Waco (1 1/2 hour drive South of Dallas). 3) Ticked Derek Harper off by starting Fat Lever in four consecutive preseason games. Buckner said he wanted to bring Harper off the bench as the 2 guard. Harper responded by saying that he is a point guard and that starting was important to him. Lever said that it didn't matter to him whether he started or not. When Buckner finally decided that Harper would start for the team, Lever was quoted saying that he was "relieved" with the way it turned out. 4) Upset Terry Davis by placing him on IR. Buckner said that Doug Smith was currently the better power forward and that Davis should have the surgery to remove scar tissue and the rod in his elbow and prepare for next season. Davis said that he worked his butt off during the off-season and preseason to be ready for this season and that he thought that he was the best power forward in camp, but "it's his team". [The "it's his team" comment really bothered me. ] 5) Again clashed, and clashed with Derek Harper. Pulled Harper during the 4th quarter during the Golden State game (11/6) when the Mavs were making a rally. Harper was very upset for being pulled at such a key point. In the Knicks game (11/16) Buckner pulled Harper after only 5 minutes and told him to "take a blow". Harper was upset - he had been performing well until then and never really got going again. In the second half, Harper sat at the end of the bench during the team huddles. 6) Keeps putting off reactivating Sean Rooks. Buckner says that he does not want Rooks back until he is "fully recovered". Rooks has been ready to return for about week and has said that he is not happy that he is still on IR and that he worked his butt off to get back in shape (see number 4). Taken individually, these would seem minor, if not normal, for coaching. But, put together, it leaves a lot of concerns about Buckner. And the word floating around when Buckner was hired was that he is a "player's coach". ---- Dec. 3 The fans and the players are _really_ upset with Buckner right now. Mashburn stated that the players don't know what to do on the floor with the triangle offense. He said that the players just run to spots instead of focusing on the game. Most of the calls in the Galloway show were complaining about Buckner. Someone commented, and Galloway agreed, that Buckner's rotation stinks right now. Players have to "keep looking over their shoulders" that if they make one mistake, they might be pulled. They also puzzled over the situation with Sean Rooks. Apparently, Buckner is still shopping him around (note, Don Carter gave Buckner the power to make trades when he came on). No one understands why Buckner doesn't want him and why he seems to be asking so little for him. Galloway said that if Buckner comes up with a trade possibility, upper management should veto it 'cuase, unless Buckner turns things around within the next few weeks, it might be Buckner that is not around. My folks had a suggestion concerning Buckner's 5 year guarenteed contract: have Carter ask each player that is upset with Buckner (Jackson, Harper, Mashburn ...) donate a million to cover eating the contract. And the Harper for J.R. Reid plus a possible draft pick might not be completely dead. Reid is performing well and the Mavs might have just wanted to see how he would play this year. (I still say they need to get a point guard for Harper, not a power forward - especially one that is somewhat similar to Doug Smith.) ---- Dec. 12 Some other comments on Buckner and the players: Buckner seems to have finally figured out that there is a problem (he had been denying it in the past) and is trying to find a solution. There was a team meeting with Buckner on Friday the 3rd where the players vented their qualms and Buckner talked about some of his in an attempt to reopen communication between the players and the coach. Buckner called it a "humbling experience". Buckner loosened up on his triangle offense and allowed the team to run some and the players responded with a good game against the Bucks. However, the resurgence only lasted one game. After an interview with Jack Ramsey for ESPN, Buckner asked Ramsey if he could talk with him. They talked for about 30 minutes that evening. Whether a solution for the personal and performance problems the Mavs have will soon be found or Buckner will continue looking for one or he'll resort back to the attitude of "it's my team and I'll do what I want with it" is yet to be seen. The players are very frustrated. The Mavs have the talent so that they shouldn't be compared to last year's team, but have been performing so dismally that they are being compared to last year's team. With Buckner not having the respect of the players, it is too easy for the players to place the blame for the loses solely on the coach. And I do blame Buckner for losing the respect of the players, but it is a combination of players getting into mental and physical slumps and poor coaching decisions that has led to the poor performances. Until the players and coach stop passing around the blame and start focusing on playing basketball and putting the internal problems behind them, they are going to continue to be the joke of the league. ---- Jan 1 With about 2:30 left in the 1st half of the Minnesota game and Jim Jackson about to shoot two free throws, Buckner signaled for a timeout. Derek Harper turned in disbelief and said, "No." Buckner insisted, "I'm calling a timeout." Buckner knelt in front of Harper in the huddle. When Harper again questioned the wisdom of a timeout, Buckner turned without a word and left to huddle with his assistants. Sean Rooks on the praise and surprised expressed by some on his good performance in the game against Minnesota: "I said I could play. Don't listen to Quinn and (the other coaches)." I'd say the best thing that could happen to this team is for Buckner to be fired. That comment does not come from the offensive scheme or his rotation. It is purely that almost all (if not all) of the players have absolutely no respect for Buckner. And players don't play well and don't listen to coaches that they don't respect. Respect is something easily lost and very difficult to regain. And I don't see Buckner regaining it this year. The fact that several of the players have vocalized their complaints to the press indicates to me that they don't believe that they can approach Buckner personally or that they don't believe that he listens to what they are saying. Jim Jackson, who is normally very diplomatic in saying that he will talk to Buckner about a problem and not go into details with the press and who will be the team leader once Harper is traded, lashed out publicly against Buckner after the loss in Milwaukee on Dec 22. The list of players criticizing Buckner publicly includes all of the starters except Popeye Jones (Rooks, Harper, Jackson, and Mashburn) and Terry Davis. But the Mavs getting rid of Buckner won't happen anytime soon. Don Carter (Mavs owner) has been very vocal in expressing his support for Buckner. And Carter is not about to lose face twice in a year (the Jackson holdout being the first). ---- Jan 7 (right after Harper was traded) (news from Dallas from my dad) Getting rid of Harper should solve all of Buckner's problems, right? Wrong. Fat Lever took a swipe at Buckner. He said that Buckner has lost the respect of the team since he backed down from his earlier hardball stance. Lever thinks that Buckner has lost credibility as a result. The soap opera continues. ---- Jan 18 Mashburn acted like a spoiled brat during Minnesota's game last Wednesday and Buckner actually responded like a solid coach. Mashburn was not playing defense, took poor shots, and basically acted like he didn't care about the game. After the game, he attacked Buckner again for the Mavs playing style. The press, for a change, took Buckner's side and blasted Mashburn for his performance. My folks, who were at the game, were also disgusted with Mashburn's performance. Buckner and Mashburn had a meeting Thursday. Buckner said that Mashburn has hit the "wall" that most rookies encounter and started Doug Smith at small forward in place of Mashburn for Friday's game against Atlanta. Buckner said that it was to try to help Mashburn get through his slump and let Mashburn get a new, fresh perspective of what is occurring at the start of the game. The general consensus was that it was a disciplinary action. Mashburn handled the benching well. He was courteous to the press and said that his slump was something he would just have to work through - no complaints about being benched. Mashburn also came in off the bench in Saturday's game against San Antonio. It will be interesting to see who will start tonight against Phoenix. The players have reported that Buckner has given them more freedom on offense - although you still see the triangle offense a lot. Buckner is taking on more of a supportive role and less of a lecture- oriented role on the sideline. Jackson: "I think you have to be (more encouraging) in this situation because of the youth on the team. But, yeah, it's been a 90-degree turn from that stand-point. I think everyone realized we needed to make sacrifices, including the coaches." "We have a lot more freedom now as far as calling more plays on the court. I think that's for the betterment of the team" Rooks: "I think all-around, I've seen positive changes in everyone. These last two games (Atlanta and San Antonio) - you don't want to be proud or accepting of losses - but I think guys have made strides in knowing what we have to do to win games." ---- March 3 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." 3/14 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. ---- May 4 (Buckner's firing) Carter: "It wasn't just young players. It was young and old. The bridges that were burned weren't just under one or two people." Carter asked 8 people in the Mavs organization to give the positives and the negatives of Buckner and spent four days coming to this decision. "I did not ask anybody to do any Quinn bashing. What I asked for was the positives and the negatives, so that I could look at all the possible things I could do to try to save him." Carter: "I knew we had a bunch of bridges that got burned early, and I was looking to see if I could find enough timbers to repair them. And if I could have, we wouldn't be having this meeting this morning." Players reactions: Every player the paper contacted said that Buckner's early-season approach, especially towards Derek Harper, was Buckner's undoing. Terry Davis: "We can move on now, man." "For myself, I'm glad I'm off parole. Hopefully things can work out and, hopefully, next season will be better than this season." Tim Legler: "I think it would have been hard to get players back. After going through what we did with him this season, I don't think it would have put a lot of hope and optimism in the players. He did so many things early on, I think, it stripped his credibility. When he came in acting like he knew everything with no experience, that was not the best way to go." Sean Rooks: "I would say hopefully a coach comes in now who respects my game and actually thinks I'm a player. Quinn had different thoughts as far as my game went. I don't think he respected me as a player. I think I can just excel with another coach, as long as I'm not fighting whether the coach respects me." Reporter Cathy Harasta expressed the fans' reaction to Buckner best a few weeks ago in one of her articles: "Buckner's disregard of Derek Harper never will be forgiven in this city. Long time Mavericks fans saw it as the equivalent of treason." "In his eagerness to snap ties with the Mavericks recent past, Buckner forgot that Harper was part of the club's crest - the good past. Fans don't forget that type of tie-in. On some points, fans are fickle. But when it comes to gratitude for good years, fans tend to honor players such as Harper with unyielding loyalty. Quinn appeared to have missed that."