Category: Dallas Mavericks (Page 1 of 8)

Opposed and Irreconcilable

Before we get into today’s topic, I would like to make a modest and sensible proposal: the Mavericks send their number one lottery pick, along with Anthony Davis, to the Lakers for Luka. Please.

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I am continuously in search of ways to better articulate my conviction that the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world are incompatible. As disciples of Christ and citizens of God’s Kingdom, we already have our politics. We belong to a holy country without borders and we have a crucified and risen King, we have laws for getting along together and taking care of those around us, we have rituals and traditions that keep our story straight and our loyalties in place, we have ways and means for effecting change and transforming the world.  And all of it stands in direct opposition to the politics of the nations. The two kingdoms have opposite foundations and goals, opposite ways of getting things done, opposite methods for changing peoples’ lives, opposite ideas about wealth and power and force, opposite values–opposite everything.

Our King tells us we cannot serve two masters. We will love the one and hate the other, we will be loyal to one and despise the other. Jesus tells Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world; if it were, my servants would fight.” The politics of God’s Kingdom and the politics of worldly empires not only have nothing in common, they are each directly opposed to the other’s goals and ways and means of reaching them.

My brother, Keith, has heard me talk about this for about 20 years now. He doesn’t agree with me on every point–in his own words, he doesn’t see it as an “either/or,” he’s more of a “both/and.” But he’s come across an article by Paul Kingsnorth, a Christian writer living in Ireland, that articulates my views very well. The article is titled, “Against Christian Civilization” and was published in January by First Things. And it’s excellent.

On the third page Kingsnorth quotes Charles Alexander Eastman, a Dakota Sioux who was eighteen at the time of Custer’s Last Stand: “There is no such thing as ‘Christian civilization.’ I believe that Christianity and modern civilization are opposed and irreconcilable.”

I’ve read this piece five times now and I’m impressed with the expert way Kingsnorth weaves his narrative, and I’m thrilled with the clarity it gives the reader and for the potential for moving my conversations forward with others.

I’m asking you to read the article. It’s right here. And it will take some time. It’s thirteen pages and it covers a lot of historic and theological ground. I think you will find it helpful in, at the very least, understanding where I am and, I pray, wrestling with your own understandings and Christian calling regarding what I call Church As State.

Read it today. And I’ll write more about it tomorrow.

Here’s an excerpt to entice you to click and read:

“When we read the life of Jesus of Nazareth, in fact, it is impossible not to see a man who was, in some fundamental sense, uncivilized. He did not tell us to get good jobs and save prudently. He told us to have no thought for the morrow. He did not tell us to generate wealth, so that economic growth could bring about global development. He told us to give everything away. The rich, he said repeatedly, could never attain the Kingdom of Heaven. He did not tell us to defend our frontiers or to expand them. He told us never to resist evil. He did not tell us to be responsible citizens. He told us to leave our dead fathers unburied and follow him instead. He told us to hate our own parents and to love those who hated us. Every single one of these teachings, were we to follow them, would make the building of a civilization impossible.

What we are really hearing about, then, when we hear of defending or rebuilding ‘Christian civilization,’ is not Christianity and its teachings at all, but modernity and its endgame. It is the idol of material progress–the progress that has shredded both culture and nature–which is causing such grief everywhere. ‘Christian civilization’ is not a solution to this; it is part of the problem. And when actual Christianity is proposed instead, the response is so often the same: Oh, yes, that’s all very well, you fundamentalist–but what practical use is it?”

That last line reminds me of G.K. Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” in which he says Christianity has not been tried and found lacking; it’s been found difficult and never really tried.

Go Stars!

Allan

My Sports Heart

My intense hatred for the Cowboys did not happen in a flash. It wasn’t a switch that got flicked on the moment Jerry Wayne fired Jimmy and replaced him with Barry. Almost thirty years of devotion to the Cowboys wasn’t undone that quickly. But I do point to that moment as the cataclysmic event that led very quickly to my disdain for the whole organization and everything it stands for. Or refuses to stand for. It started there and it didn’t take long.

That’s what the Luka trade feels like. I don’t consider myself a Mavs hater. I haven’t thrown out any of my Mavs gear. But my heart is completely void of any feeling or concern for what happens now. I didn’t watch one dribble, pass, or shot of either of their two play-in games last week. I don’t care. The gut-punch that was the Luka trade is getting worse, not better.

Every time Nico opens his mouth, it gets worse. More and more of the hubris of the new carpet-bagging owners and the GM gets revealed every day. More of the arrogance. More of the reality that the financial bottom line is more important than a championship. More of the complete lack of concern for the Mavs’ fans. The more time goes on, the more it looks and feels like a betrayal of a public trust–very much like how Jerry runs my once-favorite-team. Say what you want about Mark Cuban, but he was a Dallas guy who wanted our Dallas team to win titles. Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont said they bought the team as an “in” to doing business in North Texas.

Give me the three-hour heart attack of last night’s thrilling come-from-behind overtime win for the Stars. Give me the hope of a team that’s close–so close–to winning it all, and doing whatever it takes to get there. Give me the loyalty of a GM like Jim Nill who understands the big-picture value of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin and his commitment to the cause to trade for Miko Rantenan down the stretch. Give me Colin Blackwell scoring the overtime game-winner last night in his Stars playoff debut. That’s what I think about every day. That’s what I look forward to. That’s what fills my sports heart.

Peace,

Allan

Did Jesus Really Say?

Before the main topic of this post, I want to set a pin here to acknowledge Luka Doncic’s first game as a Laker against the Dallas Mavericks last night and lament one more time the indescribably horrible trade that sent the NBA’s most exciting player to L.A. Luka exchanged ear-to-ear grins and extravagant handshakes and hugs with his former Dallas teammates in the moments before the tip and directed at least a couple of hard glares toward the visitors’ bench after hitting a big three and an impossible reverse layup. Luka wound up with a triple-double, of course (19 pts, 15 rbs, 12 assists), and said after the game “I didn’t play great.”

And he’s right. It was a very average game for Luka. Which only emphasizes how truly great he is. Triple-doubles are a given for Luka, the ho-hum result of a merely pedestrian performance.

The most regrettable part of this whole thing is the unforgivable incompetence or inept apathy or both that led to probably the worst trade in professional sports history. It was revealed again last night that Luka never had any intention of leaving Dallas and was completely blown away by the trade. It was obvious last night that he is still in shock, he’s still in a daze. He’s still sad about it.

When asked by reporters last night if the win over the Mavericks can provide some closure for him so he can move on with his career and his life, Luka answered, “No, not really. Closure is going to take a while. This is not ideal. There are lots of emotions. But I’m just taking it little by little. Every day is a little better.”

Luka was 19 when the Mavs drafted him. He just turned 26. In the words of Kyrie Irving, he’s just an innocent kid, a mega-talented innocent kid who is not an American. He’s not from this culture, he’s not grown up with an understanding of these expectations. Sometimes he responded to things that came at him in ways that felt awkward or weird. But that’s on NIco and Kidd and the Mavs. It’s almost like they didn’t try at all. The spin they’re putting out about Luka’s lack of conditioning is a cop-out. Some of it may be true, but you don’t trade a generational talent because he likes an occasional cheeseburger. It’s not like Luka hasn’t made All-NBA five times, had an MVP season last year, and led Dallas to the NBA Finals.

He’s still just a kid. His best years are still ahead of him. This would be like trading Dirk Nowitzki after his sixth year, only worse, because Luka is galaxies ahead of where Dirk was at this stage.

I’ll agree with Dirk who says, “I’ll never be a Lakers fan; but I’ll always be a Luka fan.”

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Sometimes I post things here that I had intended to preach on Sunday, but didn’t because of time–things that wound up on the cutting room floor. Here’s a paragraph or two from our sermon Sunday about Peter’s betrayal of Jesus.

In the Garden of Gethsemane on that last night, Peter drew his sword to protect Jesus from the crowd of guards and soldiers who had come to arrest him. Peter struck one of the officials, cutting off his ear. Peter was going for the kill. He wasn’t aiming at Malchus’ ear. He’s not Mike Tyson. He was going for the guy’s throat, he was trying to cut off his head. But Malchus ducked and Peter cut off his ear. And Jesus said, “No. Put your sword away. Violence doesn’t fix anything; it only leads to more violence. If my Kingdom were of this world, then we’d fight. I’d call down twelve thousand angels and we’d wipe these guys out. But we don’t fight. We never use violence. I’m showing you a different way.”

I preached that. I left this next part out because of time. Here it is, directly from my manuscript.

Here’s a sidebar: It’s interesting to me how we’ll argue and debate and get red in the face about the literal details of creation and the literal details of the ark and the flood and we’ll insist on the literal facts about Jonah and the fish and we’ll parse and dissect every syllable of the Greek words in Paul’s letters, but we’re very quick to dismiss the literal words of our Lord Jesus. Jesus gives very direct commands about violence or money or refugees or forgiveness, and we’re like, “He didn’t really mean that literally.” When we do that, we sound just like the devil. “Did Jesus really say…?” We’ll twist Jesus’ words so he doesn’t really mean half of what he says. That’s another sermon. For another day. Probably a guest speaker.

I should have said it. I’m sorry I didn’t. I cut it because the sermon was running long and I didn’t want to distract from or take away from the main points of the lesson. I called it a sidebar when I wrote it, but it started to feel more like a rabbit trail on Friday and Saturday night. So I cut it. I should have said it.

Peace,

Allan

Personal Foul

There’s nothing more to be said about what Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison did late Saturday night. The shocking and inexplicable trade of Luka Doncic to the Lakers is a demoralizing deal for the team that might take two decades to overcome, and a sucker-gut-punch to all Mavs fans that might not ever go away.

It is foul. And it feels more personal than I ever imagined it could.

I understand the concerns about his conditioning. I get the problems with his inattention to defense. I am continuously frustrated by Luka’s immaturity with referees. But he is by far–going away! indisputable!– the most exciting-must-see-thrilling-can’t-miss superstar in the NBA. “Luka Magic” is a thing, it’s real! Luka makes you tune into a road game against the Raptors on a Tuesday night in November because you know you’re going to see something you’ve never seen before. Just about every night. Luka’s specialty is taking your breath away. These thirteen highlights in the clutch are just a very small sample.

Luka is not even 26-years-old, he’s been All-NBA every season except one, and he was NBA Rookie of the Year that season. He gets league MVP votes every year. He averaged 40 minutes per game in 92 games last season, including the playoffs, which culminated with the NBA Finals. He’s already broken several of Magic Johnson’s and Michael Jordan’s all-time scoring records, and he’s posted more triple-doubles than both Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird. If Luka wants to just jog up and down the floor with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth the first half of the season, you let him! He’s a global sensation, a once-in-a-generation superstar. And, again, he’s just about to turn 26. Was there no thought given to patiently allowing him to grow and mature, to realize the value to his own career and the good fortunes of his team in proper conditioning and getting back on D? And while he’s maturing, isn’t it okay to keep winning playoff series and maybe capture a title or two?

Here are 100 Luka highlights. Twenty minutes of Luka Magic. The most exciting player in the NBA. No-look passes, between-the-legs dribbles, and behind-the-back dimes. One-handed, off-balance, corner fadeaway swishes and mind-blowing half-court heaves. Tons of crazy threes. Buzzer-beaters. Game-winners. Series clinchers. And, most of the time, that tremendous smile. And, sometimes, that menacing snarl.

It’s the worst trade in NBA history. Unprecedented. I am as stunned as I’ve ever been in my life, and I have no hope of this ever making any sense. Nico traded away the young dynamic superstar face of the franchise for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and one first-round draft pick in 2029. Nico did not contact any other teams. He only spoke to the Lakers. And he started the conversation way back on January 7.

For perspective, in 2019, OKC traded Paul George (29) to the Clippers and received five first-round picks and two players. In 2022, the Jazz traded Rudy Gobert (30) to Minnesota for four 1st round picks and five players. In 2023, the Nets traded Kevin Durant (34) to Phoenix for four 1st round picks and three players. And earlier this season, the Nets sent Mikel Bridges (28) to the Knicks for five 1st round picks and three players. Saturday night, Nico gave Luka to the Lakers for Davis (32) and Christie and one pick. It boggles the mind. One total draft pick. And Davis will probably be finished playing before they can use it!

Utah and the Nets each have eleven 1st round picks in the next five years. You think they might have given up at least half of them for a shot at Luka? The other GMs in the NBA had no idea Luka was on the block. You think Memphis would consider giving up Jaren Jackson? You think the Cavs might have been tempted to part ways with Evan Mobley? Could you have pried Giannis away from Milwaukee? We’ll never know. Nico didn’t even ask.

Here is an excellent piece by Jamey Newberg that perfectly captures both the fan’s side of the shock and the lingering nauseating pit in my gut and the detailed point-by-point case for this being the most awful trade in the history of sports. He’s so good. I want Jamey to write my sermons! And you must read this article by SI’s Michael Rosenberg about how you must have a superstar to win championships in the NBA and how difficult they are to handle and how the Mavericks royally messed it up. And, while I am on the record as staunchly opposed to emojis, you need to see Dirk’s immediate response to the news late Saturday night.

I watched a little bit of the Lakers press conference today introducing Luka as the newest member of the team. He talked about the shock of the trade. He talked about the tears he shed when he got the news from his agent (neither Nico nor Kidd made the call). I remembered that Luka was two weeks away from closing on his new house in Dallas; his agent told the Dallas Morning News Sunday that Luka had fully expected to spend his entire career in Dallas. Luka was polite and said all the right things about playing in LA. He posed for pictures with his new purple and gold Lakers #77 jersey. He hugged his new GM, his new coach, and a couple of his new teammates. It was very much like watching your girlfriend get married to your sworn enemy.

And getting Anthony Davis and a 2029 1st round pick in return.

Peace,

Allan

Coreology

The Mavericks’ incredible playoff run came to a brutal close in Boston last night, but it doesn’t take away from what was one of the top three or four seasons in Dallas basketball history. Getting to the NBA Finals as a #5 seed is accomplishment enough. Watching the Mavs breeze through the first three rounds of the playoffs reminded me of the 1987-88 team that came out of nowhere to take the Showtime Lakers of Kareem and Magic to a seventh game in the Western Conference Finals. That’s how much fun this was. The whole thing was delightfully shocking. It ended last night against an historically dominant Celtics team but, while it stings today, it doesn’t diminish what the Mavs did, where they are, and where they’re going.

The Mavericks have the plan and they have most of the pieces. They have arguably the best player on the planet, who is only 25 and determined to do whatever it takes to win a title. Like Dirk before him, Luka’s defense and details will only get better. They have the twin towers of Lively and Gafford flying all over both rims. They have a surprisingly mature Kyrie Irving who, most nights, can create and finish like nobody else and is becoming a legitimate leader in the locker room. They have a true scoring forward in P.J. Washington. They have hustling role players like Jones and Green and Maxi. They need a little more time together and a little more experience. Maybe one more lock-down defensive forward and one more true threat from three. The Mavs will be the favorites to come out of the West again next year, along with Denver and OKC.

You don’t just come out of nowhere and win a championship. What the Texas Rangers did last year almost never happens. The Mavs are in the middle of the journey. And it’s heading in a really fun direction.

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“We now see young evangelicals walking away from evangelicalism not because they do not believe what the church teaches, but because they believe the church does not believe what the church teaches.” ~Russell Moore, Why the Church is Losing the Next Generation, 2021

My friend Josh Ross, the Lead Minister at the Sycamore View Church in Memphis, has published a little book on how to navigate an election season without losing our Christian witness. The book is titled Coreology and outlines six core principles to keep followers of our Lord Jesus from blowing our credibility with a watching world. As Josh writes in the introduction, “Much of life is how we react to people, situations, and circumstances; but if one’s faith is only a reactionary faith, maturity and growth can only go so far. A vibrant faith is a faith that prepares through practices, disciplines, intentionality, and strategic action.”

Josh believes it is “extremely difficult, if not impossible, to shine the light of Christ in places we have cancelled, neglected, or view as the enemy.” In other words, as I stated in a recent sermon, “If we hate them, we’ll never save them.” Josh’s motivation for writing Coreology are similar to mine for reading it and sharing it with you here. As he outlines near the end of his introduction:

~ I don’t want us to confuse where our overall allegiance lies
~ I don’t want us to spend valuable energy fighting the wrong fights
~ I don’t want us to create enemies with people who are not enemies of God
~ I don’t want us to lose–or blow–our witness
~ I don’t want our hearts to become hard or our love to grow cold

Josh’s plea is that we “root our motives, intentions, passions, and desires in what it means to be Kingdom people above all things.”

Some of us have swallowed a horrific lie that the salvation of the United States somehow depends on electing the right politicians. We’re following, supporting, and defending government officials and candidates who are telling us the preservation of the Church depends on the platform of a certain party. Many of us are campaigning and picketing, screaming and yelling, insulting and fighting right alongside everyone else for a particular party or candidate, all of which is decidedly un-Christian behavior.

We are a Kingdom people. We have a King, one King, and we don’t divide our loyalties with any other. We have a polis, a community, brought together across all national boundaries and language barriers and culture differences as one Body of Christ. We are guided by the Kingdom’s politics, the rules our King sets forth to govern how we get along with one another, how we treat others, and how we accomplish his will for the world he loves. Those politics are not based on power, control, wealth, division, and violence; they are eternally grounded in love and grace, sacrifice and service, unity and submission and mercy. The kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of our Lord are two completely different things and their politics are totally incompatible.

That brings us back to Josh’s book.

We’re going to use this space over the next several days to explore all six of Josh’s principles:

~ I will daily confess that Jesus is the Lord of my life and nothing else is
~ I will create and honor regular spiritual practices that remind me of my devotion to Jesus
~ I will resist allowing any media outlet to become the primary way I think about culture and the world
~ I will strive to become a peacemaker
~ I will practice hospitality as a way to learn, grow, and invest in other people
~ I will choose to regularly serve others

We’ll carefully summarize Josh’s thoughts as outlined in his book and then share some of our own.

Until then, this quote from the book’s introduction which I, too, have used in several places since it was first written in 2020:

“When Christians–regardless of political leanings–behave like jerks and justify our behavior at all costs because of our ideological convictions, we bear false witness to Jesus Christ.” ~ Eugene Cho, Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk, 2020

Peace,

Allan

Bad Day to Be a Tree

I was sitting at their kitchen table early Saturday morning, drinking my Diet Dr Pepper and reading about the Mavericks’ Game Four blowout, when my son-in-law Collin came around the corner and proclaimed, “It’s a bad day to be a tree!”

Carrie-Anne and I were visiting Carley and Collin at their home in Flower Mound as part of a longer trip to see my parents in East Texas. My three siblings and our spouses all met up in Liberty City Friday to surprise our folks with a barbecue lunch to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. The mini-vacation turned into a work trip when, three weeks ago, the incessant rains and windstorms in DFW took out a massive tree cluster in Carley and Collin’s back yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were five trees growing out of one massive stump in the corner of their yard where their property meets their neighbors’. Each of the trees had been growing since the early ’80s and were between 30-40 feet tall. The saturated ground finally turned them loose, destroying three fence posts and two sections of fence panel and ripping out a main sprinkler system line. One of the trees landed in the neighbors yard, one took out another fence post and two more panels, two fell into their massive Magnolia tree, and one rested against the corner of their house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collin and I took it all down and out on Saturday with a 14-inch chainsaw and a machete. We only suffered two “mishaps” and one near-death experience. The scariest part was getting on and off their roof with only a six-foot step ladder. The fun part was bonding together over our shared tree-annihilating prowess. The longest part was the clean-up. Carrie-Anne and Carley joined us to haul every bit of it to the front curb where the City of Flower Mound assures us it’ll be picked up soon.

Following a brief recovery and some cold showers, we ate a wonderful dinner together at Mi Cocina at The Star in Frisco and then took in the RoughRiders game at the Frisco ballpark. The RoughRiders were hosting the Amarillo Sod Poodles, so C-A and I embraced our mixed loyalties and enjoyed the whole experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were especially blessed to worship with Collin and Carley at their church in Flower Mound Sunday morning before they treated me to my favorite Father’s Day lunch: the Buffalo chicken tenders at Cheddar’s.

It was a beautiful weekend all the way around. Fabulous. For everybody except that tree.

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If I were still making predictions about the NBA Finals, I’d say something about how the Celtics don’t have any pressure on them tonight in Game Five. Sure, the Mavs exploded Friday and destroyed Boston in Dallas, finally looking like the team that breezed through the first three rounds. Yes, Luka set the tone by refusing to complain to the refs and by embracing his defensive responsibilities and the rest of the team followed. Absolutely, it looks like the Mavs have finally figured it out. But it’s too late. Dallas can’t win four straight. Jayson Tatum admitted as much yesterday, saying something like, “It would be nice to close this out at home, but we don’t have to win Monday. Monday is not a must win. We only have to win one of the next three. There’s no pressure on us.”

Okay. There’s no pressure on either team tonight. Boston is expected to win to complete the “Gentlemen’s Sweep,” and Dallas is expected to lose the series, if not tonight, then certainly on Thursday.

But what if the Mavericks win a close one tonight? It’s possible, especially if Porzingas is not out there for the Celtics. Everything is clicking now for Dallas in their last five quarters. Kyrie has found his shot. Gafford and Lively have found the rim. Luka is not messing around. There’s an energy now they were really lacking in the first two-and-a-half games. What if they win tonight?

Now, it’s 3-2 and the series shifts back to Dallas and ALL the pressure is on Boston. The Celtics CAN’T lose Game Six because that would force a Game Seven and NOBODY wants a Game Seven because anything can happen in a Game Seven. If this thing comes back to Dallas, who is the pressure on? Not Dallas!

If I were still making predictions, I’d pick the Celtics in a tight one tonight to win their record 18th NBA championship. But if Dallas wins tonight, nobody’s trusting anybody’s predictions anymore.

Go Mavs.

Allan

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