It’s become fashionably chic in some Dallas corners to doubt the ferocity of the Mavericks’ rivalry with the Spurs.
Esteemed Dallas Morning New columnist Tim Cowlishaw neglected to mention the Spurs-Mavericks rivalry in a weekend slideshow highlighting the top 10 “blood-boiling rivalries in sports.” Instead, he included Dallas’ budding conflict with Oklahoma City – a team that’s not even a divisional rival.
Maybe Cowlishaw forgot Mark Cuban’s comments about the River Walk, Jason Terry’s punch to Michael Finley’s groin or Juwan Howard’s tackle of Derek Anderson in the 2001 playoffs. Or the fever pitch of five playoff series in the last 11 seasons, with the Spurs winning three of them.
Terry knows about the rivalry. It’s why he made special mention of it in a pre-game interview with ESPN before Sunday’s game.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s playoffs, regular season, summer league, Rucker League, whatever,” Terry said. “It’s always a heated game when we play them.”
Maybe it’s more of a rivalry for Spurs Nation as they look at their snooty neighbors up Interstate 35 clutching the Larry O’Brien Trophy at least for the next few months. But the Mavericks’ public relations office thinks that beating the Spurs is pretty special.
If you don’t believe it, check out this You Tube video that was shown at the game last night at the American Airlines Center. (Hat tip Project Spurs.com). And yes, that’s Mavericks television play-by-play announcer Mark Followill on the narration.
