1998-99 Misc News

• Dirk Nowitzki underwent minor nasal surgery to clear up sinus trouble.
• Gary Trent finished 3rd in the Most Improved Player voting. Trent received 15 of the possible 118 media votes. [Darrell Armstrong (Orl) received 54 votes, Eric Snow (Phi) received 16 votes, Joe Smith (Min) received 8 votes, Danny Fortson (Den) received 7 votes, and 13 others received votes.]
• NBA.com has a Q&A with Gary Trent at http://www.nba.com/news/q&a_trent.html
• 5/7 An Ace has reappeared. The Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs of the USBL signed former Mav Ace Custis.
• 5/4 Dallas finished the 1998-99 season with a record of 19-31. They were 15-10 at home and 4-21 on the road.
• 5/4 Gary Trent (pulled left hamstring) and Steve Nash (strained lower back) did not play in the Lakers or Seattles games.
• 5/1 Gary Trent left the Golden State game in the 3rd quarter with a pulled left hamstring.
• 5/1 Steve Nash did not play in the Golden State game due to a strained lower back.
• 4/29 Samaki Walker (flu) and Steve Nash (strained lower back) did not play in the Chicago, Vancouver, or Houston games. Nash has a stress fracture in a vertebra in his back and may not play the rest of the season. He does not need surgery - the injury should heal with time.
• Robert Pack will undergo surgery on his left shoulder to repair torn ligaments. His rehab is expected to take about 2 months.
• 4/24 With the loss to Sacramento, Dallas was officially eliminated from the playoffs.
• 4/24 Steve Nash did not play in the Houston, San Antonio, or Sacramento games due to a strained lower back.
• 4/20 Gary Trent (bruised right thigh) and Steve Nash (back spasms) did not play in the Phoenix game. Trent is probable for the Houston game tonight and Nash is doubtful. His back spasms were described as severe and he may not travel with the team to Houston or San Antonio.
• 4/17 Dallas placed Robert Pack on IR with a torn ligaments in his left shoulder and activated Bruno Sundov. Pack's injury occurred during the Phoenix game. He will be out for the rest of the season (only three weeks left) and may have to undergo surgery.
• 4/16 Shawn Bradley did not play in the Phoenix game due to coach's decision. Nelson sited the poor matchups (Longley was injured, so Clifford Robinson and Danny Manning played center) as the main reason Bradley didn't play.
• KESS AM (1270) will be broadcasting the following games in Spanish: April 17 vs Portland, April 20 vs Phoenix, April 26 vs Chicago, and May 1 vs Golden State.
• Dirk Nowitzki was the chat guest on NBA.com 4/15. Read the transcript at http://www.nba.com/interactive/chat/nowitzki_transcript.html
• 4/10 A.C. Green played in the Golden State game despite suffering from a hyperextended right knee.
• 4/10 Robert Pack has been cleared to play and played in the Golden State game.
• Former Mav update: rebounding maniac and off season Dallas resident Popeye Jones underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee to remove loose bodies and will miss the rest of the season.
• 3/30 Erick Strickland left the game at the end of the 2nd quarter of the Minnesota game with back spasms after Tom Hammonds ran into him. Don Nelson was ejected for complaining about the non-call.
• 3/29 Mavs Man, the team's mascot, suffered a torn right ACL after landing wrong on a completed trampoline dunk.
• 3/29 and 3/30 John Williams did not play in the Seattle and Minnesota games due to the stomach flu.
• 3/29 Dallas activated Robert Pack and signed Bruno Sundov to a 2 year, $603,750 contract and placed him on IR with an injured wrist. Pack, who has a slightly torn right hamstring will not play for at least two more weeks. Sundov is a project and likely will not be activated this season.
• 3/27 Gary Trent did not play in the San Antonio game due to suffering from the stomach flu.
• Congratulations to the Wheelchair Mavericks for their tripeat in the national tournament. They defeated the Arkansas Rollin Razorbacks 78-60 in the finals.
• 3/27 Turns out that Robert Pack will be out longer than expected. The diagnosis is that he will now be out 5 weeks with his partially torn right hamstring.
• 3/27 As a result (teams have a maximum time they can carry less than 12 active players), the Mavs are looking to sign 2nd round draft pick Bruno Sundov to a contract. The Dallas Morning News is reporting that it will be a 2 year contract. Sundov is 19 years old, 7-3, and a skinny 230 and had been playing for a prep school in Massachusetts (whose season has ended). He is a project.
• 3/26 Gary Trent is still playing with the stomach flu.
• 3/19 Gary Trent played in the Detroit game despite suffering from the stomach flu.
• The Arena Group has announced that they have signed a contract with American Airlines for the naming rights to the new arena. The new arena will be called American Airlines Center and will contain numerous ads for American Airlines both inside and outside the arena. American is paying $195 million over 30 years. $150 million is for the naming rights which includes the name of the arena, exterior signs (including on the roof), interior signs (including on the court/ice and scoreboard), a luxury suite, and tickets. $45 million is for marketing opportunities which includes being the official airline of both the Mavs and Stars, TV and radio ad time, and logo on game programs and other promotional material.
• 3/15 Dallas placed Robert Pack on IR with a slightly torn right hamstring.
• 3/14 Robert Pack will be out 2 to 4 weeks with a slightly torn right hamstring.
• 3/13 Bad news again for the Mavs. Robert Pack suffered a torn right hamstring early in the 2nd quarter of the Dallas-Vancouver game. He will undergo an MRI today or tomorrow to determine how serious it is and how long he will be out.
• 3/11 Samaki Walker was limited to 3 minutes in the Dallas-Orlando game due to suffering from the stomach flu.
• 3/9 Oh what a fun night of sitting and waiting. The Dallas-Phoenix game was delayed for 70 minutes while the maintainance crew tried to clean off an unknown slippery substance that was on the court. The game finally started at 8:50. Due to the floor condition, Don Nelson gave his players the option of not playing - and Robert Pack, who has been injured for significant parts of the past 4 seasons, took him up on the offer and did not play. [I saw a couple of slippages in the 1st quarter on Phoenix's end of the court.] The Mavs are offering two free tickets to the Phoenix game on April 20 (while available) for a ticket stub from this game [whether you did not use the ticket, left early, or stayed for the whole game]. The tickets can be redeemed by bringing your ticket stub from the game to the Reunion Arena boxoffice through March 31.
• 3/1 Cedric Ceballos under went surgery on both his wrist to have screws inserted to repair fractures. He will miss the rest of the season.
• 2/26 Dallas placed Cedric Ceballos on IR with a fractured right wrist and activated Erick Strickland. Ceballos will be out 6 to 8 weeks. He also has a slight sprain in the left wrist.
• 2/26 The NBA fined Loren Meyer (Den) $5,000 and suspended him for 1 game for his flagrant foul on Cedric Ceballos during Thursday's Dal-Den game.
• 2/25 Really bad news. Cedric Ceballos will be out at least 6 to 8 weeks with a fractured right wrist. He will undergo more tests today [he said last night that he felt there was something broken in his left hand as well, but it is not known yet if that is that case]. The injury occurred when Loren Meyer took Ced down hard as Ced went up for a dunk on a break. Ced landed very hard (it was _very_ scary to see). Meyer was assessed a flagrant foul (Michael Finley was hit with a tecnical for getting in Meyer's face and asking what the heck he was thinking with the way he hit Ceballos). He went to the locker room after hitting the free throws, the Mavs scoring, and Ced then intentionally fouled a Denver player so he could sub out. He did return to the game in the 2nd quarter and played the rest of the night. [Denver also suffered a loss during the game. Rookie Raef LaFrentz suffered a torn left ACL in the first quarter and is out for the season. His knee just buckled as he drove hard to the basket.]
• The transcript for Chris Anstey's talk on NBA.com is at http://www.nba.com/interactive/chat/anstey_transcript.html
• 2/23 Steve Nash played in the Atlanta game despite suffering from the flu.
• 2/22 Steve Nash played in the Phoenix game despite suffering from the flu. [Jason Kidd also played with the flu.]
• The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the Mavs will not be making a contract extension offer to Samaki Walker and will try to re-sign him when he becomes a free agent this summer (if the price is not to ridiculous). The last offers the sides exchanged were $20 million apart (4 years, $20 mill from the Mavs and 4 years, $40 mill from Walker's agent). Teams have until March 13 sign first round draft picks who are in their 3rd season to contract extensions.
• 2/18 Dallas released Khalid Reeves and placed Erick Strickland on IR with a strained right groin.
• 2/17 Shawn Bradley sprained his right ankle in the 4th quarter of the LA Lakers game.
• 2/17 The Mavs are expected to release Khalid Reeves (and eat his $2 million salary - he's in the last year of his contract) before Friday and another Mav will come up with an "injury" and go on IR. Teams have to reduce their rosters to 12 active with up to 3 on IR by 5 pm Friday. The Mavs currently have 14 active players with 1 on IR (Ansu Sesay).
• 2/11 Steve Nash had his nose broken in the first minute of the Houston game, but he returned in the 2nd quarter.
• 2/7 Turns out that AEK Athens reneged on their verbal agreement to sign Ace Custis and they signed Lloyd Daniels instead. No word as to where Custis is.
• 2/4 Dallas placed Ansu Sesay on IR with a broken right foot. Sesay is out for the season due to the injury.
• 2/3 Dallas signed team president and CEO Terdema Ussery to a 3 year contract extension.
• 2/2 Dallas released Greg Buckner.
• Dirk Nowtizki was named as Player of the Year for the Bundesliga league of German. Dirk averaged 22.4 points (led the league) and 8.1 rebounds while playing for DJK Wurzburg.
• 1/27 Dallas signed Cedric Ceballos to a 1 year, $725,000 contract.
• 1/25 Dallas released Ace Custis so that he could sign with AEK Athens of the Greek league.
• 1/25 Dallas signed Steve Nash to a 6 year contract extension with a player opt-out clause after the 5th year.
• 1/23 Dallas signed Gary Trent to a 1 year, $1 million contract.
• Individual tickets will go on sale starting Saturday, January 30 at 10 am.
• 1/21 Ansu Sesay suffered a broken right foot during Thursday's practice.
• 1/21 Dallas signed free agent John (Hot Rod) Williams to a 3 year, $5,775,000 contract (the Mavs' average excemption).
• 1/21 Dallas signed rookie Dirk Nowitzki to a 3 year contract with a 4th year at the team's option. Dirk will receive $1.23 million for this season and the total contract (including the 4th year) is worth $5.56 million.
• 1/21 Dallas signed Ansu Sesay, Greg Buckner, and Ace Custis to non-guaranteed contracts.
• 1/21 So much for verbal agreements. Kurt Thomas got a better offer from New York (2 years, $3,675,000) and is headed to New York tonight to sign a contract.
• 1/21 Ansu Sesay has changed his mind and will attend the Mavs' training camp without a guaranteed contract.
• 1/20 The lawyers have finally finished with the new collective bargaining agreement and it will be signed tonight. The NBA says that training camps and player signings can start at 1 pm CT tomorrow.
• 1/19 Besides the 10 players under contract, Kurt Thomas, and Dirk Nowitzki, Ace Custis and 2nd round draft pick Greg Buckner received invites to the Mavs' training camp. 2nd round draft pick Ansu Sesay is asking for a guaranteed contract before he will attend the Mavs' training camp and the Mavs are not interested in offering him such a contract.
• 1/18 The Mavs and Kurt Thomas have agreed to a 1 year contract. The contract can not officially be signed until after the new collective bargaining agreement is finallized.
• 1/18 Cedric Ceballos turned down the Mavs' offer of a 3 year contract.
• 1/13 Dirk Nowitzki is currently suffering from bronchitis and is not practicing with the local players due to his illness. He is expected to be healthy by the time training camp starts.
• The Mavs have announce the two pre-season games they will play. Phoenix will be in town Saturday, January 30 at 7 pm and the Mavs will play in Phoenix Monday, February 1 at 8 pm.
• 1/13 There are reports that, due to delays in getting the new CBA written, training camp will now start Tuesday, January 19 and the regular season will start Sunday, February 7.
• 1/12 Dirk Nowitzki has arrived in Dallas.
• 1/8 The NBA and the Players Association has reached an agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Thus, there will be a 98-99 season (but much shorter). A new schedule for all the teams is begin created and will be released sometime next week. It will be a 50 game season starting February 5 and the playoffs starting in May. Training camps and free agent signings start January 18. There will be two (one home, one away) exhibition games.
• 1/4 It seems that despite earlier speculation Dirk Nowitzki is staying with the Wurzburg X-Rays in the German league as he played in games for them on January 1 and 3. Talk had been that he would change teams and join a more talented team either in the German league or for another country in Europe, but the deadline for teams to sign players that could be included on their playoff rosters was December 31.
• 12/22 Former Mav update: former Mavs head coach Jim Cleamons is again out of a job. Cleamons had been hired last summer as head coach for the Chicago Condors in the ABL and the ABL declared bankruptcy today.
• 12/9 Former Mav update: The New York Liberty of the WNBA named Richie Adubato has head coach. Adubato was an assistant coach for Dallas from 86-87 to early in the 89-90 season when he replaced fired John MacLeod as the head coach 11 games into the season. His Mavs' head coaching career ended when he was fired 29 games into the 92-93 season.
• 12/7 Despite the fact that his team, DJK Wurzburg, played on Sunday, Dirk Nowitzki left Germany to visit Dallas for a week. He plans on practicing with the players who are in town and to do some house hunting during his visit. He worked out Sunday night with Mavs Steve Nash and Chris Anstey [aside, rumoredly Nash and Anstey have become good friends]. Dirk is excited about playing in the NBA, but if the season is cancelled, he will return to Germany and will likely switch teams (the Berlin team has been mentioned) as he feels he needs to be in a more competitive and talented environment to continue his development. His visit and the idea of switching teams in Germany seems to have been spurred by his two strong performances for the German team in the Qualification for the European Championships tournament last week (see below). Dirk is currently leading the German league (Bundesliga) in scoring and is second in rebounding. 12/10 Dirk returned to Germany on Thursday. Derek Harper, who practiced with Dirk during his visit to Dallas: "He can shoot the hell out of the ball, and he has some unique skills for a player of his size. It's going to take time for him to be a star in this league. But I think he has the potential to be very, very good."
• Dirk Nowitzki's performances in Germany.
• Dallas' last 2nd round draft pick Greg Buckner (#53) is playing for the Grand Rapid Hoops in the CBA. Buckner's performances in the games.
• 12/4 In a charity game played in Miami, Michael Finley scored 41 points to help the Supreme Crossovers beat the Grand Slam Penguins 166-163. Finley hit his first 16 shots including 7 3-pointers.
• The NBA has cancelled the double-header that was scheduled for Christmas day and I'm assuming that means all games through December 25 have been cancelled. If an agreement is ever reached between the league and the Players Association, they will likely make a new schedule.
• Don Nelson has decided not to renew the contract of Mark Aguirre as a scout and big-man coach.
• The Dallas Arena Group has put up a web page regarding the new arena at http://www.newdallasarena.com/. They have a survey for the public to give their input regarding the arena.
• 11/3 Mavs vice president of communications Kevin Sullivan resigned in order to join Dallas 2012 - the group trying to bring the 2012 Olympics to DFW. He is the committee's first hire and will be in charge of communications and a variety of other areas. Sully, one of the best in the business, has been with the Mavs from the start and will be sorely missed. He joined the team in 1980 as a public relations assistant. Tony Fay (Director of Media Services) will assume Sully's responsibilities.
• 10/28 Due to the labor conflict, the NBA has cancelled the rest of the November games (Nov 17 - 30).
• 10/13 Due to the labor conflict, the NBA has cancelled the first two weeks of the season (Nov 3 - 16).
• 10/5 Due to the labor conflict, the NBA has cancelled all of the pre-season games. Unless a miracle happens and a labor agreement is reached in the next week or two, the league will soon start cancelling regular season games.
• 9/30 Former Mav update: Gar Heard, who has been an assistant coach for Larry Brown for a number of years, signed a 2 year contract to be an assistant coach for Detroit. Heard was a Mavs assistant coach 87-88 - 92-93 and was interim head coach for 53 games in 92-93 after Richie Adubato was fired.
• 9/24 Due to the labor conflict, the NBA has suspended the start of training camp (was scheduled to start October 6) and canceled all 24 pre-season games scheduled through October 16 - including October 14 Dallas at Indiana and October 16 San Antonio at Dallas.
• Michael Finley was the high scorer for the Veterans team with 26 points as the Veterans won 142-140 over a team of rookies and free agents in Magic Johnson's Midsummer Night charity game.
• Chris Anstey played for the Australian team in the World Championship games this summer. Anstey's stats from the World Championship games, the Goodwill games, and exhibition games.
• Dirk Nowitzki played for the German team in the European Basket Championship 22 and Under tournament July 14 - 23. Dirk's stats from the tournament.
• Steve Nash is suffering from plantar fascitis, a tissue inflammation in the heel. He simply needs to stay off his feet for a little while to let it heal.
• 6/30 The Mavs held press conference to announce that Dirk Nowitzki decided that he will join the team for the 98-99 season.
  Don Nelson: "We have our small forward now."
  Nowitzki: "The decision was easy this morning."
• 6/26 Negotiations with Dirk Nowitzki are reportedly going well and the Nelsons are optimistic that he will come to America for next season. Apparently, one of Nowitzki's biggest concerns was that he wants to play for Germany in the 2000 Olympics and Germany will first need to qualify for the Olympics in a tournament in February, 1999. The Mavs have agreed to let him take the time needed off during the NBA season to go help Germany in the seasons. IMHO, better to lose him for just a month than for the entire season. Even if an agreement is reached with Nowitzki, the Mavs won't be able to sign him until after July 1 or, more likely, after the lockout ends.
• Dallas signed TV color man Bob Ortegael to a 3 year contract extension.
• 6/24 It was a very busy night for the Mavs on draft night. It started off with the unexpected drafting of Robert Traylor at #6. It was later announced that the Mavs had traded #6 to Milwaukee for the rights to #9 pick Dirk Nowitzki and #19 Pat Garrity. That trade was not a surprise, but the next one was. The Mavs then traded the rights to #19 Pat Garrity, Bubba Wells, Martin Muursepp, and an _unprotected_ 1999 1st round draft pick to Phoenix for Steve Nash. The Mavs kept the rest of their picks and drafted Ansu Sesay at #30, Bruno Sundov (who will likely stay in Europe for a while) at #35, and Greg Buckner at #53.
• There is a rumor floating around that the Mavs will not re-sign Cedric Ceballos. The rumor is that Ceballos is asking for a long term, big money contract and the Mavs are offering a short term, medium money contract. It might just be a negotiating ploy from one or both sides, but it might not.