Nellie's Revenge!

Before getting to why Nellie is not only going to school Cuban and the Mavs in the Oakland Arena, but also in the legal Arena (quite a story!) a few notes on the game itself...

Yes, the Warriors lost Tuesday night in a hard-fought, close game with amazing runs (and falters) by both sides, but I have absolute confidence that the Warriors are not losing in the Arena on Thursday night, no way. If anything, the fact that they showed that they could come back from 21 down against these Mavs on their own home court shows they can basically do whatever they want with them... including letting the Mavs drop 15 straight points last night just to add a little drama to the series and to let the Warriors fans celebrate with them when they close it out in Oakland. God, I love this team!

However, I do not love the refs. They're gunning for Stephen Jackson like he slept with their daughters or something... Come on! This is an emotional series, an emotional game, he's an emotional man, and after a horrible foul call after the Warriors just blew a chance to close out the series, all the man does is clap and he gets booted? Meanwhile Jason "I've punched Michael Finley before" Terry gets one T for bodyslamming Baron. I mean, this is just crazy. I understood the tech on Baron Davis when he was staring the ref down with that sh!t-eating grin on his face in game 2, but with the emotion in this series, you have to let these guys get it out somehow and if it's not overly disruptive, let it go! Unless Jackson really did sleep with their daughters... then I fully understand...

It's funny but I believe one of the most compelling, yet underreported stories of the Mavs-Warriors series is the reason behind the tension between Nelson and Cuban... The NBA announcers kill me, it's like they're hiding nuclear launch codes when they mention that there's no "love lost" between the two, but never saying what happened. To quote the Godfather: "If you consider 6.6 MILLION DOLLARS mere 'love lost,' Salud Don Corleone!" The truth is that Nellie is suing Cuban for 6.6 MILLION DOLLARS because of past wages due to Nelson when Nelson deferred payment to benefit the Mavs organization over an 8 year span (For more on this check out this WSJ link). Furthermore, a past Mavs exec says Nelson "earned" the money and this "is not an issue."

So why has Cuban refused to pay? To quote the nutjob himself: "I'm not a fan of someone who quits on his team, but will leave only if he gets paid." Well, apparently, there's more to this story as well... One of the main reasons that Nelson's relationship with Cuban soured in the first place and led Nelson to quit was because Nelson did not trust a Doctor's opinion clearing Nowitzki to play in a game early in his career and, in looking out for Herr Luftball's future, Nelson refused to play him and Cuban freaked out.

For anyone who's seen "Any Given Sunday" there is a frightening similarity between Cuban and Cameron Diaz's character in that movie: They're both Sociopathically obsessed with their sports' teams, have great legs, and apparently are not beyond risking a player's future to satisfy their own obsession (well, 2 out of those 3 anyway...). The more I watch and read about Cuban the more I'm convinced the man needs serious help, I almost feel bad for him... but then I realize he's a billionaire that owns his own basketball team that he continually undermines and somehow seems to take no real joy in life... then I realize he's just an idiot and I feel much better... and can't wait to watch Nelson first take Cuban to school on the basketball court Thursday night before following it up in the legal courts in the near future! (maybe they can get Sir Charles to wear a Mavs jersey to commentate out of his ass on that too... could be fun.)

-dwyermaker