Last night, Dallas finally had an MVP trophy at the American Airlines Center, the only problem was, it was Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat receiving it, not Dirk Nowitzki. In Dallas, there have been a lot of talk about Dirk for MVP. You even could hear the chants during some of the playoff games, "M-V-P."
I think its time for Dallas to realize some things. Dirk is a great player that has incredible grace and shooting ability for someone his size. He creates problems for many teams because most forwards just don't match up with him very well. Dirk however, is not a league MVP caliber player. There, I said it. He is great, but he isn't an elite NBA player. He's an all-star, but he isn't a super-star.
I want him to be great, I want him to take control of a game that matters in the fourth quarter and dominate, but it doesn't happen. In Dallas, they make it sound like he's in his second or third season and still learning. He was drafted in 1998 and I think it safe to say, he is what he is at this point.
I have often said that Dallas will be great when Dirk is the second most important person on the team. Not that he won't be the best, but that its more important for others to come up big. I think we saw that this year with Jason Terry and Josh Howard. We could win with Dirk not playing well but one of them picking up the slack, but when they played bad and Dirk played well, it still usually meant a loss. Dirk may be the greatest number two man to ever play in the NBA, but he isn't the number one that Dallas tries to pretend he is.
I don't blame Dirk for this, but I blame Dallas. We have such a need to be the greatest that its hard for us to admit when another team has a superstar and we don't so we manufacture one. I hope that I'm wrong. I hope that next year Dirk averages 40 points a game and leads the Mavericks to a title with a thrilling playoff performance. We'll wait and see, but we've been waiting and seeing for quite a few years now and it just doesn't happen.
Twenty years ago today, Len Bias died.
I was nine years old at the time, barely a basketball fan, but I knew what was going on. This guy, Len Bias, was going to be a superstar for the Celtics. I hated the Celtics so I wasn't excited about that, but I can remember seeing highlights of him and thinking, "wow." By all accounts, he was a phenomenal athlete and physical specimen.
I think what stuck out about him was this was the first time I really remember someone young and not sick dying. He was also the first person I remember dying from drugs. People didn't take drugs because Nancy Reagan told us, "Don't use drugs" so surely no one did. I have images burned into my memory of a crowded funeral and this casket, carrying perhaps what would have been one of the all time greats, to his grave. I didn't understand how it could happen; how he could go from being a college kid to drafted by the Celtics to dead 48 hours later, but it did happen.
Who knows what would have happened if this tragedy wouldn't have. Maybe we would have grown up singing, "Like Len, if I could be like Len" or maybe we would have been wearing Air Biases. One thing is for sure, the world of basketball lost something that day, something that no sport sees very often.
It makes me sad when I remember Len Bias. Not because I knew him or because I was a Celtic fan, but because its a sad story. I think it may be one of the greatest examples of how fleeting life really can be and how our choices, good or bad, can effect our lives tremendously even when we are young. We'll never know what he could have done in the NBA, but I do know, Len Bias, taught a lesson that we all need to learn. In fact, he may have done more through his death than he would have ever accomplished in life.
Rest in peace Len, you were gone before we ever really knew you.
Houston was a quick trip. The doctors there reviewed all of my original tests, the follow ups, and we discussed my most recent tests which were all normal.
The doctor there said that choosing surgery for me, would be an unnecessary surgery. He believes, as do I, that surveillance is best for me. We discussed the surveillance regimen and I will talk with my local doctor about it again as well.
Outside of him saying that I didn't have cancer after all, this was about as good of a visit as I could have had. They were able to confirm everything that I know so far and give me their opinions on what I should do from here.
Thanks to everyone that has had me in their thoughts and prayers. I appreciate it.
June 21, 2006
1:11 pm
Twenty years ago today, 
