Dallas GOAT to Hall of Fame (New!); Lakers' LeBron to Mavs (Old?)

Mavs' GOAT to Hall of Fame, Jerry Jones shills for Cowboys, Rangers' ugly losses and traveling to Europe to rediscover America, all in this week's DFW sports notebook.

WHITT'S END 8.11.23:

Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …

*You how I feel about Dirk Nowitzki: He’s our GOAT, the greatest professional athlete in the history of DFW. When he goes in the Hall of Fame Saturday night I’ll be pondering his best game as a Dallas Maverick. For now (subject to change), it’s Game 1 of the 2011 Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder: He made 10 of his first 11 shots and all 24 free throws, finishing with 48 points only 15 field-goal attempts.

*When he’s not busy making them profitable (to the tune of $9.2 billion), Jerry Jones is usually tending to the business of making his Dallas Cowboys even more popular. As such, the 80-year-old owner with the energy of an eight-year-old took time this week at training camp in Oxnard to chat with NFL Network.

Not sure how many – if any – NFL owners will sit down and chat on live TV with generic, B-team hosts I’m pretty sure he had no clue about. Nonetheless, Jerry talked 15 minutes of Cowboys and offered probably 15 nuggets of info. A sampling:

On the NFC East: “We’re not that far off (from the Philadelphia Eagles). We’re gonna be better.”

On Zack Martin’s contract holdout: “I certainly expect him to be part of this year’s team … But if you re-adjusted contracts every time anybody did – or felt like they did – as far as playing above their contract, you could never field a team.”

On this year’s No. 1 priority: “We’ve got to protect Dak (Prescott). Get the ball out quicker, and have him do less talking before the snap and less looking after the snap.”

On his team’s strength: “It’s one of the best defenses I’ve been around with the Cowboys. We’re going to be led by our defense, and it’s rare when that comes out of my mouth.”

On training camp goals: “Denzel Washington told our team, ‘Nothing will come out in the opener against the Giants unless you put it in, in Oxnard’.”

*It’s not just that the Texas Rangers had their eight-game winning streak end, it’s that they lost – again – to one of the worst teams to ever play Major League Baseball. The Oakland A’s have a staggering run differential of minus-276, more than 100 runs worse than the next crappiest outfit. The A’s have won only 33 games, but 11 percent of those have come against Texas. Wednesday’s 2-0 loss in Oakland dropped the Rangers to only 7-3 against the A’s. The Houston Astros went 9-1 against them. In a division that will likely go down to the wire, the Rangers might lament not making all of their free throws.

*The Barbie movie has grossed more than $1 billion at the box office. (I guess people still go to movie theaters?) If DFW sports had a Ken & Barbie, they would be Troy “Kenneth” Aikman and … Carly Patterson? No, make that Jessica Simpson! (She sells sports bras, does that count?)

*Nothing like 10 days in Europe to remind you that America is the land of excess. We make all the good movies and music and our tech is pretty snappy. But we’re also … fat. Went to Barcelona and then the south of France and everyone was fit. They walked. They rode bicycles. They ate small portions at dinner. What they didn’t do? Wear baseball caps and/or drive lifted pickup trucks. Always good to get back home, but if I was forced to move there are lots of worse places than the southeastern coast of Spain.

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*Not shocked at all that former Texas A&M star Johnny Manziel slammed into rock bottom so hard that he contemplated suicide. I wrote a decade ago that he was merely a “Johnny Goofball” raised by “bad cats.”

*Hot.

*Not.

*Trevon Diggs went all Deion Sanders this week at training camp, picking off a Dak pass and trash-talking the quarterback on his way to a Pick Six. Some analysts cried that Diggs somehow “disrespected” his team’s captain. Those guys should go watch tape of the Cowboys’ 1990s camp practices in Austin, when Michael Irvin – just because he wanted to ratchet the intensity – would instigate a skirmish by laying a cheap-shot hit on the likes of Darren Woodson.

*So The Ticket’s parent (Cumulus) is suing former hosts Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp over a violation of the non-compete clause in their contracts. You now what still shocks me about the whole ordeal? That these two guys ever had a successful radio show in a major market. I don’t get it. And maybe that’s why I’m no longer on the radio.

*Mavs open the 2024 NBA season at Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs and play Kevin Durant’s Phoenix Suns on Christmas afternoon? Yes, please!

*Coolest people I’m currently fascinated with: Kaden Lesback and Victor Vescovo. Lesback is a 17-year-old badass that has never fallen on an American Ninja Warrior course and flies through the obstacles like he’s casually skipping through the park. Vescovo, a grad of Dallas’ St. Mark’s High School, is the 57-year-old explorer who spent 20 years in the Navy, speaks six languages and tried to warn the victims of last month’s underwater disaster to not get into the defective vessel.

*Great to hear that forever Rangers’ radio voice Eric Nadel has returned to the booth after missing much of the season working on his mental health. In his 45th season calling Rangers games, no one deserves to witness a winner more than Nadel.

*Blown away by this: Oregon this week passed a law allowing drivers to pump their own gas. I’ve been driving since 1980 and I don’t ever remember not pumping my own gas. Even weirder: New Jersey still has a ban in place on self-pumping.

*If I was a betting man, I’d wager a nickel that Martin will be in the Cowboys’ lineup Sept. 10 against the Giants … and that he’ll be in primo shape.

*Went for a run/bike at White Rock Lake Wednesday when it was 105 degrees … that felt like, oh I dunno, 97. Why? The wind, I tell ya. It was blowing 20 mph and it helped. I know the cliché among heat-fatigued Texans is that our Summer breeze merely feels like a “blow dryer.” But on a sweaty body, hot wind feels better than no wind. I don’t understand why our local weatherpeeps don’t factor in wind when dealing us those dreadful “feels like” temperatures. Heat is less hot with 20 mph wind. In a very related story, we have selective, short memories. This year we’ve endured 34 days of 100+ degrees. The last time DFW was this hot for this long? Um, only a year ago. At this time in 2022 we’d already had 45 100+ days. Chill, everybody.

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*“LeBron James to the Mavs” is a wild, highly unlikely trade rumor that just won’t die. Thanks now to owner Mark Cuban.

*I know we have tricky Texas cities. “Bernie” and “Meh-hay-a” come to mind. But why is the g silent in Nacogdoches?

*Rangers boasted six All-Stars a month ago in Seattle. Since then, four of them have gone on the injured list.

*Biggest, best (worst) lesson I learned in Europe: Do not – even if you need a meal to survive – put something called “cuttlefish” in your mouth. You’ve been warned. I almost vomited just typing it.

*This Weekend? Friday is for a birthday party. Saturday is for Cowboys-Jaguars. Sunday is for some triple-digit tennis. As always, don’t be a stranger.

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