I've had a belief over my years of watching the playoffs that sometimes, no matter how deep or talented a team is, that certain past failures can doom a team. In baseball, we call them curses. In hockey...uh, Ron can take that one. In basketball, there are no "curses" to speak of. Neither is it in football. After last night, the Mavericks joined a club they'd rather not be a part of. The first team to EVER blow a 2-0 lead in a Finals series and then follow that up the following year with a loss to an 8 seed in a seven game format. And after hearing something on I believe it was ESPN last night, I agree. When teams get dropped in 5 games, anybody can get lucky three out of five times. But when you can take four out of seven or in this case, four out of six from a team, there isn't that much "luck" in the world to justify or rationalize it. You're just better than they were. And to be brutally honest, there's no denying that the Mavs will be near the top of the Vegas oddsmakers list of teams to win the 2008 title. But what do those degenerate gamblers know? They're gamblers. However, I can tell you this...no matter what Cubes does in the offseason or in the NBA Draft, this franchise is finished. Let me run down a few notables and show you just exactly what I'm talking about.
1998. The Minnesota Vikings had a high powered offense that made the later vaunted "Greatest Show On Turf" look like a sideshow routine. The Vikes had a rejuvenated Cunningham, two really good receivers and some hotshot rookie named Moss that burned more defenders than a pyromaniac on crank. They went 15-1 that year and were practically a shoo-in to win the whole damn thing that season. They had homefield and well, someone forgot to tell Atlanta this, because one botched field goal by Gary Anderson and one game winner by Morten later...the Vikes are done. How does this affect them you ask? Just three seasons later, they got back to the NFC Championship only this time in New Jersey against a not so vaunted Giants team. 41 to "Doughnut" as Randy Moss would put it. The franchise would later go on to star in such spectacles as Sex Boat and When Coaches Ticket Scalp. They haven't recovered since.

2003. The Cubs are six outs away from going to the World Series when a ball goes into foul territory down the third base side. Moises Alou tries to run it down and with a few fans reaching over for the ball and a possible souvenir, one actually grabs it away from Alou. Bartman. Cubs don't get another out, don't get another win, Marlins go on to win a World Series. Bartman earns an all expense paid trip into Witness Protection. That franchise needless to say, has NOT recovered since this collapse.

2004. The Yanks are only a few outs away from putting down their favorite whipping boys not named Blue Jays, O's or Devil Rays...the Red Sox. Only problem is, the Red Sox don't go down in Game 4. They win and force Game 5. Then a Game 6 in Yankee Stadium. By the time Game 7 rolled around, the tide had turned and the Sox didn't waste time with any late inning heroics or theatrics. They came out swinging early and shut the door on The House That Ruth Built along with putting the kibosh on the "Curse of the Bambino". Sox win, Yanks choke. The Yanks
have not won a playoff series since.

2004. The Lakers had a heavily stacked, yet fairly old team that was all but expected to walk away champions. They run into a good but not real great team in Detroit, coached by Larry Brown were supposed to just be happy to be there. Kobe and Shaq get another ring, Karl, Gary and the rest of the AARP Brigade get one for the road. Too bad things don't always play out as scripted, eh? The Pistons as a well oiled machine, much as their name implies, rolled over the Lakers in resounding fashion. The Lakers dumped Shaq to the Heat along with any future NBA Championships later that summer and the Lake Show hasn't won a playoff series since.

Despite how much this is put up to the scale or whatever, make no damn mistake about it, last night was the greatest upset in NBA playoff history. It's greater than the Nuggets beating the Sonics and most definitely bigger than the Knicks beating the Heat in a strike shortened year. The Mavericks were handpicked practically to represent the West in the playoffs after winning 67 games. They were supposed to atone for their Chernobyl last year in South Beach by winning the big one this year only instead of doing that, they decided to make the mushroom cloud even bigger this year by simply letting Golden State whip them like redheaded German stepchildren. The Mavs, will not recover from this one. I won't go as far to say that Dirk will never win a title, because I said the same thing about Peyton and hell...even HE grew a pair and got one. So now the question is, does Dirk have in him what Peyton ultimately got in him this past season. Will he grow tough enough to get past the collapse against the Heat and this year's Warriors, to bounce back and get it done? Right now, I say no. And that's all I got to say about that...enjoy Heartbreak Hotel Cubes. Your suite's still as it was after last June.