I Love a Parade... Maybe Not That Much

It is all over now.  Even the shouting.

We don't follow the NBA season too closely until the playoffs, and then we are ardent supporters of the Dallas Mavericks.  This year it was time.  Time for Good to triumph over Evil.  This season in particular the Mav's were the personification of Good; led by 13-year veteran, the 7-foot Dirk Nowitski who signed a selfless contract for less money in order to stay with a good Dallas team and free up some cash to acquire surrounding quality players, with the expectation of winning a championship with his team.  The Mavs were a team of veterans, who displayed all the virtues of solid teamwork and hard work only to finish third in the division to the perennial nemesis, the San Antonio Spurs and the reigning Champions, the hated LA Lakers.  But in the first round of the playoffs, the Mav's showed guts in coming back the next night from a 4th quarter meltdown that allowed the Portland Trailblazers to come from behind a 23 point deficit and win an early playoff game.  The Mavs went on to beat Portland, then vanquished the Lakers in a four game sweep. 

With the Western Conference title in hand, they were up against the Evil Miami Heat, the antithesis of the loyalty, selflessness and teamwork shown by the Mavericks.  The Heat purchased the talents of a couple of great players to go with their star DeWayne Howard.  The "ultimate weapon" was the addition of LeBron "King" James who announced his departure from his boyhood and hometown team with the quote. "I will be taking my talents to South Beach".  The Miami Heat was seen as buying a championship and claimed in an over-the-top preseason introduction that with the talent they had bought, they were set up for multiple championships and overtly inferred that they really did not need to play any games - the commissioner might as well hand then the trophy before the season even started.  Boooo!

But play they must.  But the Heat did not out play the local heroes and ended up loosing on their home court in Game 6.  The country rejoiced to see Good vanquish Evil, the bragging millionaire ball players who over-promised and under performed against the Dallas Maverick TEAM. 

It all felt so good to watch.  None of the veteran players on the Mavericks had previously won the NBA Championship until this year.  Especially sweet for Dallas fans was the revenge factor, having lost the championship to Miami in 2004 after being ahead 2 games to zero.  Back in 2004, the City Council had begun to plan the Victory Parade after the 2-0 lead in the Finals; this premature celebration was widely blamed for jinxing the team and comeuppance by sporting gods for displaying excessive hubris.

This time around, the Victory Parade was not mentioned until the final buzzer had sounded.  And to his credit and with great appreciation of the local taxpayer, Mark Cuban, the beloved owner of the Maverick franchise promised to pay all city bills associated with hosting the 1.5 mile parade for his team, out of his own pocket.

Grant, the big sports fan, was ecstatic and his sister was nearly equally so (vindicating her Mav Fan status among all the Trailblazer fans surrounding her at the University of Oregon).  As the final victorious seconds clicked off the clock, Grant turned to Inga, "We so gotta go to the parade!"

Soon enough, the schedule for the celebration was released to the public. Mavericks Victory Parade would travel from Dallas City Hall to the American Airlines Center (Mav's home court), a 1.5 mile trip on Thursday morning, beginning at 10:30 AM.  The forecast was for 200,000 fans to clog downtown, the temperature was to be above 90 and if you wanted to see anything, you'd better get there early - like by 7 AM.  Enough said. 

I love a parade, just maybe not that much.  They chose to sleep in and watch the event from the living room with AC, no hassle.  Enjoy, but discretion may be the better part of fandom.

Go Mav's!