Y13 [EN]: Chapter 249

Y13-249 Regular Season 2011-2012

Immediately after the game against the Atlanta Hawks, Donnie Nelson and Mark Cuban returned to Dallas and began an important discussion in the office without rest.

“Nelson, is there any additional news?”

Cuban offered Nelson a seat as he entered the office and immediately got down to business.

“Boris Diaw and Terrence Williams have officially been bought out. Along with J.J. Hickson, who was bought out yesterday, they are probably the biggest names in this buyout market. Other than that, Derek Fisher is the only one worth considering.”

In the buyout market, most players on rookie contracts weren’t released. This was because they were cheap, could be utilized for a long time, and still had potential. Therefore, players in their 30s or older often moved teams for the sake of winning a championship.

Last season, typical examples were Mike Bibby (Washington Wizards -> Miami Heat) and Rasual Butler (LA Clippers -> Chicago Bulls). However, Corey Brewer (New York Knicks -> Dallas Mavericks), who joined Dallas mid-season, was an unusual case; he was released despite being on a rookie contract because his style didn’t mesh with Coach D’Antoni.

“Terrence Williams’s mental issues make him undesirable to acquire mid-season. What about the other three?”

Cuban shook his head, recalling Williams’s well-known mental problems in the league. There had already been some discord last season, and with the current season’s battles over playing time and ego, bringing in another potential troublemaker could dismantle a team that was doing well.

“Diaw’s form has declined significantly in Charlotte this season, but he still has potential for a rebound. Boston, which needs a big man, and San Antonio, where Diaw’s close friend Tony Parker is, are actively pursuing him. Fisher has the same agent as Kevin Durant and is aiming for a championship, so he will almost certainly go to Oklahoma City. And J.J. Hickson is being targeted by Boston, Golden State, and Phoenix, all of whom need a big man.”

Fortunately, this season had more worthwhile players than last season. Since players are generally released due to declining performance, it was like scratching a lottery ticket, but these players had a higher chance of rebounding than those released last season.

“It’s ambiguous. Last season, we acquired Peja Stojakovic with the mindset of scratching a lottery ticket due to Caron Butler’s injury, but this season, there are no long-term injuries on the team, so unless it’s a top-tier player, it could be counterproductive. In fact, Brewer, who was acquired mid-season, was helpful, but being helpful and meeting expectations are completely different. He isn’t performing up to expectations. If we had to choose, considering Cardinal’s [referring to Caron Butler’s] slump, Diaw or Fisher to increase the number of guards would be necessary.”

Of course, Stojakovic was bought out before the season started, so it was a slightly different case. Brewer, who joined mid-season, still hadn’t properly fixed his unstable shooting, showing why Coach D’Antoni had released him. He was sometimes used for defense and fast breaks, but he wasn’t even included in the team’s 10-man rotation.

“That’s right. Hickson is most effective as a center, but he is undersized, and we already have three centers, so he is a redundant resource. In Diaw’s case, I don’t really want to recommend him either. He is good at passing, but his shooting is inconsistent, so it’s hard to expect him to play the role of Cardinal from last season. We also have French players like Beaubois and Mahinmi on our team, but they don’t have as close a relationship with Parker. Fisher is not a good fit for our team.”

Nelson and the scouting team concluded that it would be best not to acquire anyone in this buyout market. Diaw was the most needed for the team, but since he was likely to join San Antonio, they decided to contact him but not make an unreasonable salary offer.

“Then contact Boris Diaw’s agent. Offer only a one-year contract without any additional guarantees. In Brewer’s case, we needed him and gave him a long-term contract because he was a young player with future potential, but now the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement] has been revised, and we don’t feel a great need for him.”

“Understood. Then we will conclude this buyout market like that. You are spending this season quite quietly. You have always been a big player in the trade and buyout markets every year.”

Nelson smiled gently and gathered his documents. Cuban looked at him with a slightly empty smile.

“It’s unavoidable due to the CBA revision… I’ve decided that it’s no longer possible to strengthen our team with salary dumps like before. That’s why we re-signed our key free agents last season, and this season, unless we receive a beneficial offer, there’s no need to tamper with the team’s roster.”

The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Golden State Warriors 104-94 in their home game on April 21, securing a 10-point victory and enjoying a sweet five-day break before their final regular season game against the Chicago Bulls on April 26.

Dallas managed to gain momentum rapidly with two winning streaks of eight games or more in the second half, pushing Oklahoma City out of first place. Furthermore, despite the shortened season, they left room to set a record of 11 consecutive seasons with 50 or more wins.

San Antonio, which was aiming for 12 consecutive seasons with 50 or more wins (they failed to reach 50 wins in the shortened season of 99-00), followed Dallas in second place, running at 20 wins and 3 losses in the last 23 games (11-game winning streak, 6-game winning streak), and was also able to achieve 50 wins. On the other hand, Oklahoma City, which was the overwhelming leader in the first half, performed well enough in the second half but was pushed down to third place by the monstrous momentum of the two Texas teams. Oklahoma City might have felt wronged.

Western Conference Standings

1st: Dallas Mavericks 49 wins, 16 losses

2nd: San Antonio Spurs 46 wins, 16 losses

3rd: Oklahoma City Thunder 46 wins, 17 losses

4th: LA Lakers 39 wins, 24 losses

5th: Memphis Grizzlies 38 wins, 25 losses

6th: Utah Jazz 36 wins, 27 losses

7th: Denver Nuggets 36 wins, 27 losses

8th: LA Clippers 35 wins, 29 losses

[Dallas Mavericks Y13 Donates Daily Necessities to Regularly Sponsored Children’s Hospital]

[Mavericks Team Participates in Tyson Chandler’s Charity Event]

Players spent personal time going to charity events or fulfilling personal sponsorship obligations that they had to postpone, while others focused on resting to avoid affecting their performance after advancing to the playoffs.

“…”

April 23. After the morning team training, Coach Carlisle, along with Dirk Nowitzki, Tyson Chandler, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Shawn Marion, Youngjae, Chandler Parsons, Brandon Wright, J.J. Barea, and Corey Brewer, boarded a bus and started heading somewhere.

“Ugh… this is going to be so embarrassing.”

The Dallas Mavericks, befitting a team owned by the eccentric Mark Cuban, had an annual event that was funny and bizarre, and today was the day for the 2011-2012 season’s annual event.

“…”

Coach Carlisle boarded the bus with a resigned expression, sat in his seat, and closed his eyes for a moment, while Corey Brewer was fidgeting and very embarrassed.

“Try to think of it as fun. You’re not doing it alone; everyone is doing it. Sharing something embarrassing makes it less embarrassing, right?”

Nowitzki, who had done it for several years, smiled and tried to alleviate Brewer’s awkwardness, but Brewer still felt it was too much and scratched his arms.

“No, why this song out of all the songs! Would it hurt to do a cool song? Don’t you think so, Yoon [referring to Youngjae]!”

Brewer spoke to Youngjae, hoping that there would be a player who thought the same way, but Youngjae just had a look of resignation. It’s not like Youngjae wasn’t embarrassed.

“Ha, haha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Brewer, think of this as a memory. Yeah, a memory. These are the things you remember for a long time, right?”

“Your expression and words don’t match at all?!”

Even though Youngjae had a flexible personality, parodying such a song and even dressing up was extremely embarrassing. But what could he do? This was one of the Mavericks’ traditions, and if he couldn’t avoid it, he had to enjoy it. Youngjae had no choice but to think positively.

“What’s wrong with it? Try begging for a cool animal. Hehehe, like an elephant. Huh?”

Chandler poked Brewer’s side with his elbow and gave him a sly smile, and Brewer made a strange noise and shook his head wildly, saying he absolutely didn’t want to.

“I, I’ll just be satisfied with a normal animal…”

Brewer eventually gave up. If he was destined to film it no matter how much he whined, he had a small wish in his heart to at least be an ordinary animal without much presence.

“…”

With Coach Carlisle leading the way, wearing a dog ear headband with his nose painted black, Dirk Nowitzki with fox ears and a drawn mustache, Youngjae with his face painted white around his nose and wearing Mickey Mouse ears for a mouse costume, Shawn Marion with fluttering elephant ears, Jason Terry with a red Angry Bird shape embroidered on his head and a fur hat covering his ears, Jason Kidd wearing a pig nose, Tyson Chandler wearing a cow horn headband… they were all passable, but the most spectacular was Corey Brewer.

“Kitty kitty~ Kitty kitty~”

Chandler laughed as Brewer appeared in a bull costume, and Terry made cat-like gestures in front of Brewer, shaking his wrists up and down with his fists clenched.

“Ugh… I’m creating my dark history here…”

The filming set burst into laughter as Brewer appeared in a pink wig and pink fur gloves, dressed as a cat, and Brewer instinctively covered his forehead with one hand.

“The cat is grooming!”

At Chandler’s shout, Brewer screamed and threw off his gloves, but when the PD [Production Director] barely suppressed his laughter and said, ‘We’re going to start filming!’, Brewer resigned himself and put on the pink gloves.

“Lastly, I’ll tell you the filming concept. We’re parodying the song The Fox by Ylvis, which was released this year and has been incredibly popular. Nowitzki? You’ll be in charge of the fox sound; you’ve heard it a few times, so you know what it feels like, right?”

Nowitzki nodded, and the PD hurriedly started filming before the laughter disappeared.

– Dog goes woof (강아지는 woof 하고 울고) –

As the song played, the costumed players each began to ride the rhythm, and Youngjae also shrugged his shoulders, thinking that he might as well shake it properly. Coach Carlisle, dressed as a dog, shook his body slightly with both hands in his suit pockets.

– Cat goes meow (고양이는 meow 하고 울고) –

When it was Brewer’s turn, he meowed as if he had never been embarrassed, waving his gloved hands in the air.

“Pfft!”

The players and PDs who saw it barely suppressed the laughter that was about to burst out and filmed the parody video.

– and mouse goes squeek (쥐는 squeek 하고 울고) –

When it was the mouse’s turn, Youngjae shook his shoulders more excitedly, and as each person’s role passed, it was now the fox’s turn.

– What do the mavs say? bing-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding –

Nowitzki made the bing-ding-ding sound with a smiling face as best as he could, and the players reached the point where they didn’t know whether they were laughing or filming because of the unbearable laughter.

“Gather around!”

Chandler, who knew how to have fun, went to Nowitzki’s side first, shook his arms down, and raised his shoulders one by one, singing bing-ding-ding. Then Youngjae went to the opposite side of Chandler and sang bing-ding-ding, matching the beat as if dancing in sync with Chandler.

– wa-pa-pa-pa-papapow –

The next turn was Terry’s. Watching Terry, who was immersed in the excitement as if dancing the Dooly dance [a popular Korean dance] while making the wa-pa-pa sound with his mouth, the players simply lay down and laughed on the ground.

[Dallas Mavericks’ Parody Video, This Year’s Ylvis’s The Fox!]

The bizarre video, What do the mavs say?, which surpassed 1 million views on YouTube in 24 hours of posting, is a video of the Dallas Mavericks players dressing up as animals and parodying Ylvis’s The Fox.

(Omitted)

Accordingly, the Dallas fan forum calls Nowitzki by the nickname Foxiztki, and it is said to be gaining explosive popularity not only in Dallas but also among NBA fans around the world.

Re: Brewer lololol Kitty kitty~

Re: Foxiztki! That’s really funny, is this a hit?

Re: Foxiztki, Kitty Brewer, Mickey Youngjae… Ah, that’s really funny.

Re: This kind of B-grade humor is always welcome lololol

============================ Author’s Notes ============================

★Thank you to those who gave advance reservations, recommendations, comments, and coupons!!

＠The video is real. Dallas shoots strange videos every year. I think it’s probably because the owner is Cuban, but I don’t know why they shoot with a unique concept every year. It’s fun for the fans to watch lol

The address of the video is posted in the yard. It’s useless to write it in the afterword because the link doesn’t work. The actual video is from the 13th season, but I pulled it forward a bit. The Fox is a 2013 song. Dallas actually used this song as a parody in 2013.

＠The second half of the two senior citizen teams: Class is forever. Age is just a number.

Durant, Westbrook: What the hell!! Why are the old guys doing better in the second half!!

Diaw’s buyout and addition to San Antonio greatly helps their rise. Dallas is originally a 막장 [makjang – Korean slang for ‘over-the-top’ or ‘dramatic’] route, but Youngjae makes them super powerful. Good chemistry, good balance.

Naye-nim, sis-yuki-nim, Pabian-nim/// ㅋㅋ There was a perfect word to rhyme with.

H0h-nim, Goddess Yuri Praise-nim/// Those things are fun for the fans to watch. That’s why there should be one or two players with a lot of talk on each team to make it fun to watch. Just like there is a 허세 [heose – Korean slang for ‘bluff’ or ‘exaggeration’] character in entertainment.

Disappearing Soul-nim/// Hmm? Was there another problem with Joara?

Lee Dongseokdong-nim/// Youngjae: Thank you.

-DarkANGEL-nim, Financia-nim, Omarion-nim/// Thank you for your comments!!

Ultra10-nim/// Most Asians have alligator arms ㅠ.ㅠ One of the reasons why Choo Shin-soo struggles with outside pitches in the major leagues is because his arms are short… Conversely, Leonard, Gobert, Whiteside, etc. are seeing the great advantages of long arms.

Lafir and Jint-nim/// Thank you for the manuscript fee coupon!! Have a good weekend^^