Yes, you probably hated them for much of their reign on the top, but the Dallas Cowboys were definitely America's Team during the mid-1990s. Perhaps capitalizing on their capture of the Presidential election, it seems that another Dallas team has the world realizing not to mess with Texas: this is America's Team 2, the Next Generation. The Dallas Mavericks have ascended at rapid speed to become one of the most exciting teams in the NBA, building their foundation on a collection of oddballs spurned long ago by other teams until the bizarre 30-something billionaire, Mark Cuban, took these soulful warriors under his wing.
Cuban himself is a success story of the dot com circuit, and appears to have fulfilled the fantasy of any true sports fan -- buying a team and then having a ton of fun remaking it. Cuban is known to have hosted parties where team members and hard-core fans sat side by side, and he wooed Dennis Rodman to come out of retirement for a brief period by wining and dining him around the Dallas nightlife.
Coach Don Nelson, and his faithful son, Assistant Coach Donnie Nelson, are the perfect father-son tandem to head this motley crew. Nelson, the father, carries with him the baggage of having lost more games than any coach in NBA history, yet has somehow reserved a place in NBA history as a great innovator. Never having won a championship, he is the ideal skipper for America's Team 2 because of his desperation to win; every time a camera fixates on him he has the pale look of a man about to die, and yet he presses on.
The two cornerstones of the team, Michael Finley and Dirk Nowitzki, are about as different as day and night. Finley drew acclaim early in his career as an exciting player on a bad team, and although he has made the All Star team the last two seasons, and has one of the most intimidating glares in the NBA, he remains one of the most underrated players in the league. Nowitzki is one of the most exciting players in the league, simply because he is the only hot-shooting 6'9" forward ever to come out of Germany. The excitement with which he plays, the ridiculous shots he makes, and the fact that he speaks better English than Michael Finley are all endearing traits that point to his rise in popularity.
Point guard Steve Nash is another truly exciting player who emerged as a true leader this season. Looking like a cross between Ben Stiller and John Stockton, Nash has taken his game against the latter this series, outplaying the league's dirtiest player throughout the Mavs-Jazz first round series.
Surprisingly easing into the background of America's Team 2 is the 7'6" Sean Bradley, still the tallest, most awkward player in the league. He doesn't even have to jump to touch the rim and yet the Mavericks were still one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA, to me an irreconcilable statistic. By next year, admittedly, he will have support at the center position from Cuban's new project, 7-footer Zhi-Zhi Wang, the first Chinese player in the history of the NBA. Although Wang needs to work on his game in the off-season, the "we want Wang" chant in Dallas needs no work at all.
Finally, the last starter is Juwan Howard, formerly a member of the Fab Five of Michigan, back when he wore baggy shorts and trash talked before everyone else -- back when they were America's Team.
To round out America's team we have Eduardo Najera, the only Mexican player in the NBA, in addition to veterans like Mark Bryant and Vernon Maxwell, whom most people assumed retired a very long time ago. There is unfortunately nothing interesting about backup point guard Howard Eisley, except that he is on the verge of being eliminated by the team he left so in favor of a better shot at a championship.
To recap: America's Team 2, the Next Generation, is not very American at all -- I'd venture that it is the only playoff team in NBA history with three foreign players. A giant, an ex-Fab Fiver, the menacing Michael Finley, Ben Stiller and a German sharp-shooter make up their starting five, with a Mexican and a player named Wang coming off the bench. They play exciting basketball, and they got really good really fast. With mastermind Mark Cuban at the helm, they have an excellent opportunity to land a free agent this off-season who could make them even better -- such as former Fab-Fiver Chris Webber. But I would not discount Mark Cuban for anything, and I will not be surprised if I see the round mound of rebound himself (Charles Barkley) sporting a Mavs uniform next season.
But hey, let's not rule out this year. Although by the time you come across this article the Mavericks might have already been eliminated from the play-offs, they're still my pick to go all the way. And you know what? They should be your pick too, because they are America's Team 2.
