From The Archives: “The Morning After.” Salt Lake City, Utah. May 4, 2001

In an emotional moment, just after the Dallas Mavericks won their first playoff series in 12 years, the new owner of the team Mark Cuban, through a squeaky nearly tearful voice, proclaimed to Bob Ortegel and the entire Mavericks television audience that the Dallas Mavericks “will never miss the playoffs ever again!”

The moment I heard him say it I knew it would be true.

Eight years and counting.

The picture above shows Mark leaving the team hotel in Salt Lake City the morning after his Mavericks overcame a 0-2 deficit in a 5-game NBA first round series to beat the Utah Jazz 3 games to 2.

He piled up all the morning papers for his ride to the airport. There was a lot to read about the Mavericks’ miracle comeback.

Comment

You need to be a member of friends.mavs.com to add comments!

Join friends.mavs.com

Comment by Lynda Villarreal on January 22, 2009 at 10:39pm: So what is so awesome about this shot is how you magically captured the SMILE on the page...LOL / pretty good!

Comment by Mark on January 14, 2009 at 12:01pm: I will never forget that year as a young fan it was my first taste of seeing my team in playoff basketball my Mom and I attended game 3 against Utah in that series Reunion Arena was electric the entire place was insane what an experience what a game truly a memory I will never forget I have been to some great Mavs games like game 5 of the 06 conference finals and the double overtime game against the Suns in 07 and the last minute comeback against the Warriors in game 5 of 2007 but the game against Utah sticks out in my mind most of all I hope for many more great times courtesy of the Mavs although many will criticize Mark for some of the moves he has made but all I can say is thank you Mr Cuban for reviving the Mavs and making the NBA fun again in Dallas

Comment by Eddyin on January 11, 2009 at 1:01am: Even though you sent my Devin away, you are still the best boss of the entire basketball circle to me. You are the biggest fan of the team and i am pretty sure we all appreciate a boss like this to own our LOVE team. But yeah, keep your eyes on the road man!