'Picking' a Winner: Mavs Need to Work Dirk/Luka Magic in NBA Draft

Mavs' all-time best draft "picks", fantastic father-son duos, Rangers' performance over Pride, and a local sports media giant calls it quits, all in this week's DFW sports notebook.

WHITT'S END 6.16.23:

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

*Dallas Mavericks have the 10th pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft, but they’ll have to go a long way to make the best selection in franchise history. Or will they?

Technically, Dallas didn’t directly draft either Dirk Nowitzki in 1998 or Luka Doncic in 2018. Don Nelson pulled a draft-day switcheroo with the Bucks that prompted the Mavs to have to draft Michigan center Robert Traylor. And owner Mark Cuban helped orchestrate the Doncic deal while the Hawks were on the clock with the No. 3 pick, ultimately drafting Trae Young to consummate the trade.

You can’t find a photo of either of the Mavs’ two biggest draft-day acquisitions wearing a Dallas cap and shaking hands with a commissioner on stage, because it never happened.

*Like father, like son.

Jerry Jones will turn 81 this season. Meaning one of these days, they’ll be Stephen Jones’ Dallas Cowboys.

Until then, the heir to the throne of Jerry’s “America’s Team” can rest comfortably in his place as half of the most successful Father-Son duo in Dallas-Fort Worth sports history.

Through the years we’ve had direct blood lines coursing through the controls of our teams at the same time (Don and Donnie Nelson leading the Mavs). We’ve also enjoyed, as our own stars, dads (Bobby Bonds) of more accomplished offspring and vice-versa (Ken Norton Jr.). And in our midst (Tim Hardaway Jr.) and on our horizon (Shedeur Sanders) are talented sons that might ultimately lap their prodigious and proud papas.

But until the Hall-of-Fame owner bestows the keys to the kingdom to his oldest son (Stephen turns 59 Wednesday), the Cowboys combo will celebrate another Father’s Day at the top of our familial feats. For now, the other local Father-Son teams are – sure enough – trying to keep up with The Joneses.

While Tom Landry Jr., Bob Lilly Jr. and Jeff Staubach are all wildly successful businessmen in DFW, Jerry trained his son in the family dealings. He was only 53 when the Cowboys won Super Bowl XXX for their third championship in four years; Stephen a mere 31. Their reputations may have wobbled during the Cowboys’ quarter-century drought, but together they’ve maintained the football franchise as one of the world’s most visible and viable brands.

“Let’s face it, I’m fortunate to have a fabulous father,” Stephen told me during an interview a couple years ago. “We’re best friends, not just father-son. He took from the beginning and molded me in a very positive way. It’s a privilege to walk in my dad’s footsteps.”

The Joneses may not boast a family tree blooming brighter than Archie/Peyton/Eli Manning, Dale/Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ken/Ken Griffey Jr., Dell/Steph/Seth Curry, Joe/Kobe Bryant or Howie/Chris/Kyle Long, but they are again in 2023 the best of our best.

The Top 5 Father-Son Connections in DFW Sports History:

5. Steve and Shane Buechele – Dad hit 94 homers in eight seasons as a slick-fielding third baseman for the Rangers; Son threw 57 touchdowns in two seasons as SMU’s quarterback and last season won a Super Bowl ring as Patrick Mahomes’ backup on the Kansas City Chiefs.

4. Tim and Tim Hardaway Jr., Mavericks – Both played guard alongside Dirk Nowitzki: Dad in 2002 and junior while averaging 15 points over the last five seasons.

3. Jim and Jason Garrett, Cowboys – Dad was a scout spanning Tom Landry to Bill Parcells. Son was the head coach that won three division championships in 10 seasons.

2. Don and Donnie Nelson, Mavericks – Son discovered Dirk. Dad, en route to being NBA’s second all-time winningest head coach, drafted and molded him into an MVP and NBA champion.

1. Jerry and Stephen Jones, Cowboys – Spanning 34 years as DFW’s first family of football, owner and vice president have produced three Super Bowls along with unprecedented popularity and profit.

*Sure, the Rangers are better. But they still don’t have an ounce of Pride. Last Sunday the Tampa Bay Rays beat Texas on their “Pride Day.” There are celebrations of inclusivity all around America this month, from corporations to the sports world. But not in Arlington, where the Rangers are the last homophobic holdouts. Of the 30 MLB teams, only one doesn’t have a designated Pride game to celebrate the LGBTQ community. Same one that uses #StraightUpTX as its official social media hashtag. The Rangers are neither winners of a baseball title, nor champions for social diversity. Instead, they smugly remain one of the most intolerant, least inclusive franchises in all professional sports. “It hurts, especially when we see teams around the country – even here in Dallas – being more progressive and hosting Pride Nights,” says Lee Daugherty, owner of Alexandre’s bar and restaurant in Oak Lawn. “For a community that feels left out anyway, it digs at us a little more. Lots of my friends and customers strongly support the Rangers. It’d be nice to finally see a little love back.” Fan pushback, combined with the cultural constriction of the Bible Belt and staunchly conservative ownership group led by Ray Davis, is motivating the Rangers — externally, at least — to turn their backs on fans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or asexual. According to a 2022 Gallup poll estimating that 7.1 percent of the U.S. population is LGBTQIA+, that means roughly 500,000 people in DFW.

*Maybe taking a cue from the Rangers, there are those amongst us who are fine with seeing religious ads on pitching mounds but are quite uncomfortable having Pride "shoved down our throats."

2 Neanderthals at gym grumbling about #PrideMonth. Says 1: “Why ain’t there Straight Month?” Because … pic.twitter.com/EP6841irzD

— Richie Whitt (@richiewhitt) June 3, 2023

*Took a “Mindfulness” class this week. The teacher stressed the importance of keeping your body moving and your mind still. Occurs to me that – given our ever-sedentary lifestyles saturated with expanding stimuli of entertainment and information – most Americans do just the opposite on the regular.

*Who knew that “someday soon” would be, well, so soon? When I mentioned last week that Norm “Hitzges will someday soon end his Hall-of-Fame radio career at The Ticket,” I had no idea he was going to announce it in a matter of days. But Thursday, the 78-year-old who has been on DFW’s sports radio airwaves the last 48 years made it official: His last day will be June 23. As a guy who lasted barely five years in the industry, Norm’s relentless passion for sports – and his job – is as bewildering as it impressive. He was also just as genuine off the air, evidenced in 2018 when he used his homeless community connections to help track down our mutual friend and his old KLIF radio buddy, Wally Lynn. Hitzges’ departure pretty much means, from my perspective, that the dinosaurs are all extinct. Blackie Sherrod. Randy Galloway. Dale Hansen. Jim Reeves. Hitzges. Those are the “voices” that helped shape my sports upbringing in DFW. Hopefully I’m not writing a similar professional eulogy “someday soon” for the likes of Brad Sham and Eric Nadel, who have also cemented their place on our Mount Rushmore of sports media. If you’re looking for a place to hear educated opinions and historical insight from a local sports media type who’s been covering DFW sports since the mid-80s … you’re already here.

*Hot.

*Not.

*Micah Parsons’ inaugural, charity “Battle For Dallas” softball game was first postponed, and now canceled. Maybe it’s because the Cowboys’ linebacker is a busy bee during the offseason, from irritating fans with his fickle support to attending a pass-rush “summit” with the likes of Von Miller.

*When the massive hailstorm barreled through Plano last Sunday night I was shopping in Walmart. With tornado sirens blaring and the sound of the deafening hail pounding the roof, I was moved to take a gander and wonder, “This is it? These are the folks I’m going to die with?”

*Texas governor Greg Abbott is crowing about border patrol agents installing “razor wire” to repel illegal crossings. But, um, why do we need razor wire when we already got all that money from Mexico to pay for us to build a wall? Weird.

*The Mavs have been done playing for so long that Luka has apparently gone on a six-week diet … that’s worked! Lean Luka?

*From Prosper to Paris … France. As an addicted tennis geek, I’m always looking for ways to crowbar my sport into this space. Found one! (Sorta.) A U.S. men’s player hasn’t won a Grand Slam in coming up on 20 years, when Andy Roddick captured the U.S. Open. (So long ago that I was there, covering it for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.) But the doubles team that won last weekend’s French Open has a DFW tie. The coach of Ivan Dodig/Austin Krajicek is Phillip Farmer, who grew up in Plano and these days lives in Prosper. He also coached the former U.S. and world No. 1 doubles team of Bob/Mike Bryan.

*For the first time in a long time the Rangers are leading the AL West into Father’s Day, and are on pace to actually have representation in the All-Star Game. With a month to go before the game in Seattle, Marcus Semien leads AL second basemen in voting and five other players – outfielder Adolis Garcia, third baseman Josh Jung, DH Robbie Grossman, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and catcher Jonah Heim are in contention to be starters. Last year the Rangers boasted an All-Star starter? 2012. That drought is the longest in baseball.

*When I lived in East Dallas, one of my favorite getaways was a day at the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Giant trees. Dirt parking lot. Sand volleyball. Horseshoes. Big swimming pool. Southern hospitality. Great people watching. A melting pot of culture. $3 beer. Um, did I mention … no lifeguards? FOE removed the diving boards a couple years back and now there is just a fun, giant sprinkler at the deep end of the pool. And last weekend an adult male – an employee of the nearby restaurant, Smoky Rose – drowned in the pool. A sad reminder to stay vigilant about water safety – wherever you are – this Summer.

*How’s this for a decent draft haul? In 2018 the Mavs worked the trade for Luka high in the first round and in the second wound up picking Jalen Brunson (33rd overall) and Shake Milton (54th). While Brunson re-invigorated the New York Knicks, Milton has played in 34 playoff games as a rotation player for the Philadelphia 76ers over the last four seasons.

*In a real-life plot that’s way too unrealistic for Hollywood, four Colombian children survived 40 days in the Amazon jungle after a plane crash in which their Mom was killed. The children – ages 13, nine, four and 11 months! – avoided jaguars, poisonous snakes and land mines planted by anti-government rebels, and survived partially by eating something called cassava flour. How long could you survive in those conditions? Maybe 24 hours for me. Maybe. But this I’m sure of: The children made a mockery of all the Survivor and Naked and Afraid genre of survival reality TV shows.

*New baseball rule I propose: It’s fine if batters want to come to the plate wearing a suit of armor. Gloves. Wrist guard. Shin guard. Elbow guard. Etc. But what they wear to the plate they must keep on to run the bases. Tired of seeing players reach safely and then call timeout for a garage sale of equipment they have to take off and hand to a base coach.

*As for draft busts, still my No. 1 worst pick by the Mavs is Samaki Walker. Needing a power presence to supplement The Three Js (Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn), the Mavs took the Louisville power forward No. 9 in ‘96. Walker played only three years in Dallas, but produced a 10-year career punctuated by starting 63 games on the Lakers' championship team in '02. A couple MVPs were drafted after Walker: Steve Nash (14th), and a guy named Kobe Bryant (13th).

*Toll roads are the biggest scam this side of hotels charging us extra “resort fees.” When we pay state sales taxes, part of it goes to fix potholes and the like. When we pay federal taxes, part of it goes to build and maintain interstate highways. And when we register our cars in Texas, part of it goes toward our state’s bridges and roads. Oh? But you actually want to drive on them? Well, that’s gonna cost you. Dallas North Tollway – which I frequent almost daily – opened 50 years ago. Fifty! But not only are we still paying to use it, the North Texas Tollway Authority is announcing a toll rate increase come July 1. It’s about to average 21 cents per mile, for a road that first opened with the intention of becoming a convenient freeway. NTTA was supposed to pay off DNT by 2005. But instead – because of new extensions, maintenance costs and other operational fees – it wants to keep charging tolls through … get this … 2049. Scam.

*This week I’ve talked to different friends who were: dealing with a Mom diagnosed with cancer; planning their daughter’s wedding; asking me for a job lead; begging me to try to a new food; driving an electric car for the first time; about to go audition for Wheel of Fortune; selling their house and moving to Colorado to escape the Texas heat. Moral to the stories: Fill yourself with perspective and understanding, because you never know who’s at what point on which journey.

*This Weekend? Let’s zip down to see Dad. Father’s Day, duh. As always, don’t be a stranger.

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