Mavs MVP Candidates: Luka Doncic Vs. … Jalen Brunson of the Knicks?

Mavs future Hall of Famer(s), Cowboys comfort from the cold, Rangers fan cashes in and the confounding cost of Crocs at Christmas, all in this week's DFW sports notebook.

WHITT'S END 12.23.22:

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

*While Luka Doncic whines and his Dallas Mavericks lose about as often as they win, Jalen Brunson is suddenly clicking in New York.

The former Mav is playing so well that ESPN NBA analyst Michael Wilbon went this far:

 “Jalen Brunson better be mentioned when you start your MVP discussions. He’s having that good of a season. You think Luka and his .500 team wouldn’t like to have him back?”

No lies detected.

And to think, it only cost the Knicks a second-round pick to steal Brunson from Dallas.

*The wind chill during the fourth quarter of Thursday night’s Armed Forces Bowl between Baylor and Air Force was a crisp -11 degrees. Otherwise known by two simple words:

Eff. That.

While a big part of the U.S. prepares for a white(out) Christmas this weekend, Saturday’s Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles anticlimactic “showdown” will be sheltered from this arctic “Blue Norther” inside AT&T Stadium’s climate-controlled 72-degree environment.

But there was a time – more often and more recently than you remember – when Mother Nature stuck her uncomfortable nose in our Dallas-Fort Worth sports business. As in, it was just last May when a rainy, leaky roof at American Airlines Center delayed Game 4 of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals between the Mavericks and Golden State Warriors for 16 minutes.

Our Top 10 most memorable weather “games”:

10. 12.9.13 – The wind chill at kickoff is a brutal -9 degrees. It turns out to be the good news, as the stiff and shoddy Cowboys’ defense allows 348 passing yards to journeyman Bears’ quarterback Josh McCown in a 45-28 loss at frosty Soldier Field.

9. 12.22.89 – With the temperature bitterly dipping to 3 outside, Rolando Blackman heats up Reunion Arena with a 31-point performance (without attempting a single 3-pointer) that helps the playoff-bound Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Clippers and improve to 12-12.

8. 12.24.89 – You know it’s bad when the temperature matches your win total … and both are 1. On the coldest day in DFW history (-1), the Cowboys cap a 1-15 season with a 20-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers. It is so cold that the toilets in Texas Stadium freeze, prompting Dallas sportswriting icon Frank Luksa to opine: “The 1989 season was so bad it wouldn’t flush.”

7. 2.14.21 – On the coldest Valentine’s Day in DFW history, Luka Doncic spoils a 44-point performance by missing an open 3-pointer that would’ve surely heated up an overtime against the Portland Trailblazers.

6. 5.3.09 – Though it isn’t a “game” per se, the stormy Spring day results in a permanent, devastating outcome as Cowboys’ scouting assistant Rich Behm is paralyzed from the waist down after a 64-mph wind gust (one degree shy of an official tornado) blows down the team’s Valley Ranch indoor practice structure during a rookie minicamp.

5. 2.6.11 – A debilitating arctic blast turns DFW into horrible hosts. Frigid temperatures and icy roads hamper travel, cancel events and send six fans to the hospital after ice falls from the roof of then-Cowboys Stadium. At the end of a long, bad week, Cowboys fans have to watch a Super Bowl XLV featuring two of their most-hated teams: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Green Bay Packers.

4. 1.17.93 – This wasn’t a wintry mix, but rather pig slop. In a game they aren’t supposed to win and on a field that was barely playable, Alvin Harper sloshes through Candlestick Park’s rain-soaked, muddy sod for a 70-yard catch-and-run that punctuates the Cowboys’ NFC Championship Game upset of the San Francisco 49ers and a ticket to Super Bowl XXVII.

3. 1.1.79 – Neither hypothermia caused by a sub-freezing wind chill nor a 22-point deficit can stop Joe Montana in the 1979 Cotton Bowl. With Notre Dame trailing Houston, 34-12, late in the third quarter, Montana – with the aid of hot chicken soup – returns from the locker room to lead an improbable rally and a 35-34 victory in a game that sees only 7,000 in attendance and a 30-mph wind dictating every point scored in the south end zone.

2. 11.25.93 – Leon Lett’s brain freeze. On a turbulent Thanksgiving that surprises fans – and weatherfolks – with an ice storm that transforms Texas Stadium into a snow globe, Lett infamously and inexplicably attempts to recover a blocked field goal in the waning seconds of a heart-breaking, mind-numbing defeat to the Miami Dolphins.

1. 12.31.67 – Though it’s played 1,000 miles north in a world accustomed to the frozen tundra, the “Ice Bowl” forever burns a painful image in the hearts and minds of Cowboys fans. The 1967 NFL Championship Game at Lambeau Field includes coaching legends Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi, the Packers’ Bart Starr’s game-winning touchdown in the final seconds and a brisk temperature of minus-15.

*What a buzzkill. Since Dak Prescott returned from his thumb injury in October, we’ve been circling the Cowboys’ Christmas Eve game against the Eagles. Two best teams in football, we thought. NFC East on the line, we figured. Now? The 10-4 Cowboys aren’t catching 13-1 Philadelphia, Eagles’ MVP candidate Jalen Hurts isn’t playing and the expected holiday treat of a game has deteriorated into a White Elephant gift. After all, who wants Gardner Minshew in their stocking? Can’t we just skip to the part where both teams are motivated and playing at full strength, better known as the NFC Championship Game?

*Unfairly Judged?

In the wake of catching – and selling – the most valuable baseball on Earth, Texas Rangers fan Cory Youmans sets the record straight about his past, present, future and process of being at peace with only $1.5 million.

Youmans, who caught New York Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge’s historic 62nd home run at Arlington’s Globe Life Field on Oct. 4, isn’t some romantic baseball hero that voluntarily relinquished the ball out of his love of the game. But nor is he the rich-get-richer villain fittingly hoodwinked out of half his potential windfall, an image being portrayed by the media and amplified across uninformed social networks.

Before selling the ball at an auction that ended last Saturday, Youmans said he received sketchy DM offers for the ball in exchange for things like Ferraris and suitcases full of cash.

“No matter what I did, not everyone would agree that it was the right strategy,” Youmans told me this week. “If I gave it back I was stupid, and if I sold it I was greedy. I’m a private person that essentially won the lottery live on national TV. So, to say the least, it’s been an interesting experience. But at the end of the day, I feel lucky to have been in the stadium that night and lucky to have caught the ball.

"I’m at peace with the process.”

As the Rangers prepare for a 2023 season they hope breaks a streak of six losing campaigns, they’re creating another buzz with more offseason spending. Last winter it was half-a-billion dollars for Seager and Marcus Semien. This year they signed a bona-fide pitching ace in New York Mets’ former two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom.

By the time they host their first ever Sunday Night Baseball game at Globe Life Field on April 2, the gnashing of teeth over Youmans’ perceived error in selling strategy will be long gone. His profit, however, will still be hard at work.

His plans include using some of the money for he and wife Bri’s first home together, and re-paying a grandfather who delayed retirement in order to see Youmans through high school. Youmans wants to build him a garage for his passion: working on classic cars.

“I want part of this money to allow him to do what he loves for as long as he wants to do it,” he said.

Youmans will gladly keep the fortune. But he’s had his fill of the fame.

“One minute you’re standing in line for a cheeseburger and the next minute everyone is trying uncover every wrinkle of your life,” Youmans said. “If a Google search says this is my No. 1 accomplishment, I’m fine with that. I don’t expect to go on and do something else that gets me on Good Morning America.

“This was enough for me.”*Took Big Brothers Big Sisters lil’ bro Ja Christmas shopping this week. What’s on a 16-year-old boy’s wish list: Crocs. $50 Crocs. I remember when they were $8 and ugly. Now they’re $50 and still as hideous.

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*Duncanville finally de-fanged its Houston nemesis and Dallas County schools went 3 for 3 in last weekend’s high school football state championships in Arlington. The Panthers, Desoto and South Oak Cliff all won titles in their divisions. Amazingly, the three schools are separated by less than 15 miles.

*How much does Cowboys owner Jerry Jones love Christmas? This much: “I have lights everywhere I can fit ’em, and I’ve been known to leave ’em up past Valentine’s.”

*Hot.

*Not.

*When I was a kid the Pro Bowl mattered. Couldn’t wait to see how many Cowboys made it. But in this era of endless stats-driven grades, Madden ratings and Top 100 player lists, it’s downshifted to a sideshow afterthought. It’s a convoluted voting system, and the actual game is being replaced by something called the Pro Bowl Games featuring skills competitions. If the Pro Bowl was a horse, we’d shoot it to put it out of its misery.

*Forget Winter Storm “Elliott”, Texans are bracing for a rare event that will deal an even more severe blow to their holiday spirits. Liquor stores, closed?! For 61 consecutive hours??!! Twice in two weeks???!!! Beer and wine sales are a go, 24/7. But liquor in Texas – thanks, silly Prohibition leftovers – is a different animal. Can’t buy it on Sundays or major holidays, such as, sure enough, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Here’s the double whammy: When those holidays, like this year, fall on a Sunday, sales are also banned the following Monday. Bottom line: Texas liquor stores will close at 9 p.m. Saturday and not re-open until Tuesday at 10 a.m. Same routine for Dec. 31 through Jan. 3. Binge-buy accordingly.

*Four Mavs are candidates for the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023: Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley, Shawn Marion and Dick Motta. Dirk will get in. Motta should but won’t.

*I have a friend. Let’s call her, um, “lucky.” On Dec. 22, 2021 she got COVID and had to inform her family, who was en route to her house. Thursday was Dec. 22, 2022 and guess who tested positive for COVID? Should we tell her family or make her do it again?

*In August 2001 the Rangers offered slugger Joey Gallo a five-year, $100 million contract that he turned down. Last week he signed with the Minnesota Twins: one year, $11 million. Ouch.

*A year ago on Christmas it was 84 degrees. For some strange reason I felt moved to keep a receipt.

Took a screenshot of the weather forecast during Christmas 2021 because it felt unnecessarily harsh. Little did I know … #WinterStorm pic.twitter.com/xjaLlAjHjS

— Richie Whitt (@richiewhitt) December 22, 2022

*I live nearby and often have to navigate the dicey Highway 121/Preston Road intersection where Cowboys’ linebacker Sam Williams was involved in an accident Thursday. Williams was taken to the hospital but is apparently okay. Lots of speed and ego squeezed into that mesh-point. Tread lightly.

*Hey, people who just couldn’t wait for “sweater weather” and the leaves to turn and pumpkin-flavored everything in the Fall, these single-digit temps are your fault. Hope you’re happy. And freezing.

*Next Thursday is a sports version of a partial eclipse when – for the first time I can remember – the Cowboys (at the Tennessee Titans) and Texas Longhorns (vs. Washington in The Alamo Bowl) play at the same time. Why isn’t picture-in-picture still a thing?

*Merry Christmas! No, Santa Claus ain’t real. But his “spirit” is as tangible as ever.

*This Weekend? Friday let’s get festive with friends old and new. Saturday let’s visit the parents in JoCo MoFo while keeping an eye on Cowboys-Eagles. Sunday let’s have a traditional Thanksgiving meal on Christmas, because why not? As always, don’t be a stranger.

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