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By Gil LeBreton
glebreton@ star-telegram.com
Among the indelible memories from last week's Mavericks parade will be the sight of team owner Mark Cuban, humbled and beaming, riding through the streets of Dallas in a convertible with his wife, Tiffany, and their three children.
Cuban's content was plain to see. The NBA's Larry O'Brien Trophy sat at his feet.
This was his Father's Day gift, no doubt. Years from now, he'll be able to remind the kids that when Alexis, the oldest of the three, was 5 years old, he took them to a parade.
The scene later at American Airlines Center, during which fans chanted, "Thank you, Mark! Thank you, Mark!," rendering an emotional Cuban speechless, put a touching punctuation mark on the whole week.
And it made me think about another dad in town, the one who owns the Dallas Cowboys.
The Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999. The Rangers won the American League pennant and played in the World Series last season. The Mavericks celebrated their NBA championship last week in grand style.
And, as some fans choose to conveniently forget, the Cowboys have won exactly one NFL playoff game in the past 14 seasons.
"Did you like them three Super Bowls? Did you like them three Super Bowls? I hope you did," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones once said, infamously taunting a caller to KTCK-The Ticket.
Well, duh, of course the caller liked the Cowboys' three Super Bowl wins in the 1990s. With Jones as owner, the Cowboys were once at the top of the pro football world.
We live, however, in a place where wildcatters and bulldozers thrive like sacred cattle. Nostalgia has a fleeting shelf life.
Jones' original stadium -- and his original hair -- are just memories.
Texans take great pride in the past. But we don't always celebrate it.
If Jones, therefore, wasn't shifting uneasily last week as the Mavericks were being toasted, he should have been.
As of last week, Jones is officially on the clock. The Past-Due to Reach a Championship Game clock.
Once upon a time, the Cowboys were the community's gold standard for competing for championships. Now they're a retro act. A Beach Boys reunion. A Rocky rerun. Famous lately for nothing more than being famous.
But that can all change in a blink, as Cuban and the Mavericks just showed.
In the meantime, since the Cowboys last went to the Super Bowl, the unemployment rate doubled, a president was impeached, the world celebrated a new millennium, 9/11 changed the lives of all Americans, and Bill Parcells decided he could no longer work for Jones.
In the same span, 18 NFL teams other than the Cowboys have played in the Super Bowl. The list includes, among others, the New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals, Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans.
The entire NFC South has been to the Super Bowl since the Cowboys last went.
I will spare you the customary barking at the moon. Our periodic pleadings for Jones to hire a real general manager only seem to inspire Jerry to further dig in.
When Jones was asked by 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley if he thought his late friend, George Steinbrenner, would have fired him as GM by now, Jerry answered, "Of course he would have." And Jones laughed at the thought.
I don't see what's so funny.
Much was written during the Mavericks' playoff run about Cuban's voluntary silence. The Mavs' owner later downplayed its role, but both Dirk Nowitzki and coach Rick Carlisle said Cuban's absence from the other team's bulletin board probably helped.
If nothing else, Carlisle coached like a man who didn't have an owner perched at his shoulder and yelling in his ear. Carlisle flourished during the Mavericks' final three playoff series.
Are the Cowboys as close to a championship as Jones, only one year ago, seemed to think?
Recent history tells us that if the Panthers, Seahawks and Buccaneers can get to a Super Bowl, the Cowboys probably can. None of those teams, however, had a general manager who also was the owner.
The parade is waiting.
Jones could be hearing the same chants of gratitude that Cuban did - "Thank you, Jerry!"
Instead, what we'll probably hear is Jones' eternal shovel, stubbornly digging further in.
Happy Father's Day, Jerry. You are officially on the clock.
glebreton@ star-telegram.com
Among the indelible memories from last week's Mavericks parade will be the sight of team owner Mark Cuban, humbled and beaming, riding through the streets of Dallas in a convertible with his wife, Tiffany, and their three children.
Cuban's content was plain to see. The NBA's Larry O'Brien Trophy sat at his feet.
This was his Father's Day gift, no doubt. Years from now, he'll be able to remind the kids that when Alexis, the oldest of the three, was 5 years old, he took them to a parade.
The scene later at American Airlines Center, during which fans chanted, "Thank you, Mark! Thank you, Mark!," rendering an emotional Cuban speechless, put a touching punctuation mark on the whole week.
And it made me think about another dad in town, the one who owns the Dallas Cowboys.
The Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999. The Rangers won the American League pennant and played in the World Series last season. The Mavericks celebrated their NBA championship last week in grand style.
And, as some fans choose to conveniently forget, the Cowboys have won exactly one NFL playoff game in the past 14 seasons.
"Did you like them three Super Bowls? Did you like them three Super Bowls? I hope you did," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones once said, infamously taunting a caller to KTCK-The Ticket.
Well, duh, of course the caller liked the Cowboys' three Super Bowl wins in the 1990s. With Jones as owner, the Cowboys were once at the top of the pro football world.
We live, however, in a place where wildcatters and bulldozers thrive like sacred cattle. Nostalgia has a fleeting shelf life.
Jones' original stadium -- and his original hair -- are just memories.
Texans take great pride in the past. But we don't always celebrate it.
If Jones, therefore, wasn't shifting uneasily last week as the Mavericks were being toasted, he should have been.
As of last week, Jones is officially on the clock. The Past-Due to Reach a Championship Game clock.
Once upon a time, the Cowboys were the community's gold standard for competing for championships. Now they're a retro act. A Beach Boys reunion. A Rocky rerun. Famous lately for nothing more than being famous.
But that can all change in a blink, as Cuban and the Mavericks just showed.
In the meantime, since the Cowboys last went to the Super Bowl, the unemployment rate doubled, a president was impeached, the world celebrated a new millennium, 9/11 changed the lives of all Americans, and Bill Parcells decided he could no longer work for Jones.
In the same span, 18 NFL teams other than the Cowboys have played in the Super Bowl. The list includes, among others, the New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals, Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans.
The entire NFC South has been to the Super Bowl since the Cowboys last went.
I will spare you the customary barking at the moon. Our periodic pleadings for Jones to hire a real general manager only seem to inspire Jerry to further dig in.
When Jones was asked by 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley if he thought his late friend, George Steinbrenner, would have fired him as GM by now, Jerry answered, "Of course he would have." And Jones laughed at the thought.
I don't see what's so funny.
Much was written during the Mavericks' playoff run about Cuban's voluntary silence. The Mavs' owner later downplayed its role, but both Dirk Nowitzki and coach Rick Carlisle said Cuban's absence from the other team's bulletin board probably helped.
If nothing else, Carlisle coached like a man who didn't have an owner perched at his shoulder and yelling in his ear. Carlisle flourished during the Mavericks' final three playoff series.
Are the Cowboys as close to a championship as Jones, only one year ago, seemed to think?
Recent history tells us that if the Panthers, Seahawks and Buccaneers can get to a Super Bowl, the Cowboys probably can. None of those teams, however, had a general manager who also was the owner.
The parade is waiting.
Jones could be hearing the same chants of gratitude that Cuban did - "Thank you, Jerry!"
Instead, what we'll probably hear is Jones' eternal shovel, stubbornly digging further in.
Happy Father's Day, Jerry. You are officially on the clock.
