Missed Cuban Crisis: What could have been for the Cubs

Cubs fans can only dream of Cuban owning and leading their team to the promised land.

this will sound weird. Im laying in bed. with the trophy next me.#dreamcometrue.

    This was a tweet posted by Mark Cuban earlier this morning. Can't say I blame the man for enjoying his (and the Mavericks') first ever championship. His Mavericks have come a long way since he bought the team back in 2000. In the 20 years before he bought the team, the Mavs won only 40% of their regular season games, with only 1 division championship in that period of time (which was followed by a quick 3-1 first round exit in 1986). Since Cuban took over, they are now winning close to 70% of their regular season games and have made the playoffs every year in his reign - including two Finals appearances. Before this year, they had been known as a regular season team who faded come May - including a rare upset to the #8th seed Golden State Warriors in 2007.

      Around that time, the Tribune company was looking to sell the Cubs - a team that Cuban highly coveted. So much so, that Cuban was rumored to be the highest bidder for the team ($1.3 billion). However, baseball being the way it is (Selig and Reinsdorf being the guys with power), it wanted nothing to do with a younger new age owner that may look to shake up MLB's status quo. His bid was never really taken seriously even though he did enter the 2nd round of negotiations (The Ricketts family ended up with the winning bid). To say that the Ricketts' tenure of ownership  has been rocky would be an understatement, especially with this insistence for public funding to rebuild Wrigley seemingly his focus over the product he has been putting on the field. To be fair, the bad deals made were done before him. But he has done nothing to inspire the loyal fan base, a base whose faith is starting to crumble.

    I don't know how much better Cuban could have done with this roster. But I do know his track record with the Mavericks (and his other business ventures) has been nothing but successful. He would have provided hope for a franchise needing a non-traditional owner to improve its long-term chances of winning. Instead of their franchise being in the hands of such an owner, Cubs fans will have to hope that Ricketts can get his focus more on the team and less on a stadium financing deal.

     If the Cubs organization hopes to light up some victory Cuban cigars celebrating a World Series title, it will have to do so without Cuban.

     Until then, cheaper knock-offs will be smoked, and likely only in situations involving stress, not celebration.

One in the Hand is Worth Two Busch Lights

Only took 70 years, but Americans are finally embracing an element of Germany again.

Disregard every I said in the past month about LeBron and the Heat. Everything they did right against the Bulls, they did wrong against the Mavericks. They couldn't close out games. They blew a big lead in what turned out to be the difference making game (to me anyways) in Game 2.

Everyone and their mother (except me and my mother) were rooting for the Mavericks in this series.

Correction. They were rooting against the Heat. Never have I seen such hatred for a team in my memory. The 2007 Patriots were close, but this Heat team takes the cake. Not to say I blame people, because all the elements of hatred were there.

(1) The declaration of a championship in July. Actually, make that 8 championships. Not too many people are going to like you when you do that.

(2) The Decision. Even though all the money he got for that went to charity, this was what made people hate LeBron and the Heat the most. Jim Gray goes from respected journalist willing to ask tough questions to a complete tool. Lebron made people think this The Decision was a difficult one when he knew all along he was going to join his boy Wade as early as 2008.

(3) Heat over Bulls in EC Finals. This was merely the icing on the cake. People from Chicago didn't need any extra reason to root against the Heatles in the Finals. But Chicago's exit made Miami a popular hate item on the menu. See: just about every bet I made with people on the Dallas/Miami series.

An aside here, but I don't think the Heat are going to relinquish their Eastern crown any time soon.

(4) Dirk - What do fringe basketball fans like rooting for more than anything? A white guy who can shoot hoops! Ok, this wasn't really a reason. I just needed to throw in a "White Guy is Good at Basketball" reference.

There's probably more reasons, but I don't care to go into them. I just lost $190 ($135 from series bets and $55 on Miami -5) and 6 pitchers of beer. And not only that, I'm drinking a 9 month old Busch Light at the moment. The point of the story is: people here (and everywhere aside from Dallas) were watching to root against the Heat, not necessarily rooting for the Mavericks. If Dallas beats Orlando, no one here gives a rat's ass.

Turn out the Busch lights, the party's over. As the 26 real Miami Heat fans sulk in defeat, the rest of Miami (and the world) parties.

Lost (in) Vegas, part 6

A view from a walkway during Vegas dusk, 6-5-11

No shock here...I lost in Vegas. My friend Tom says he is never coming back after some pretty big losses, notably the French Open and NASCAR. Sometimes I wish I could say the same thing - that I'm not coming back here. Rarely do I even come up on a trip here. In fact, most of my trips have had a similar feel. Very awful first day, moderate 2nd day, and then a comeback on the last day.

This trip was no different. I had won my first 2 bets of the trip but then fell into a hole with my Thursday night/Friday morning bets of Miami ($330 lost in 2 bets) and Djokovic ($300). A moderate comeback started with some horse bets, increase $ in my wallet from $13 at one point to over $200. I left the sportsbook with $103 that day and was about to call it a night when my friend reminded me that I was in Vegas so I went to plop down $100 at our casino's roulette table. I decided to play the #28 and #22, and not even 2 spins in, the 28 came in. 3 spins later, #28 again. Another couple spins later, another 28. At the end of the night, up about $360. I had to thank Tom for getting me out of the room.

Saturday seemed promising after I won my first bet (five inning under of Red Sox/A's) to get up to nearly $600, but then a string of three bets flushed nearly all of that away. I tried another horse race comeback to no avail - this failed attempt occuring as the annoying Canucks fans took over the Bellagio sportsbook. As the night closed, I decided I was gonna cave on my ATM avoidance and take money out so that I could bet on Nadal the next day. However, 7-8 failed attempts at getting money out of 4 different ATMs (first trying to take out $300, then $280, then $200, then $100 several times to no avail) made this a problem. I finally tried taking out just $80, which I was able to do twice before a third time said I exceeded my daily limit. I was able to bet Nadal $120 to win $50 profit (-240, which was a shock considering Djokovic was -270 and not the player on clay that Nadal is).

Sunday, we wake up around 7 to see the end of the first set, which went to Nadal, who then took the second set.  Federer took the third set around 9:35 local time, tying up my Nadal money and preventing me from betting the early games. I guess that wasn't such a bad thing, seeing as though I had no good feels on the games. After Federoff hurried back to the Flamingo to get that money, I wagered $120 of the $170 I got back from Nadal on a first 5-inning over for the Red Sox/A's - came in the 3rd or 4th inning. Unfortunately, everything after that up until the Heat game went to crap. I was throwing hay into the wind with some of the bets I was making (five inning bet on Astros against the Padres, Carl Edwards in NASCAR finished 5th). I had to make another ATM trip and took out $80 this time. I distributed it between first half under of 94.5 ($30 to win $30), Miami to win the first quarter ($30 to win $33), and then two separate first basket of the game props in Jason Kidd (10/1 odds) and Mike Bibby (12/1). In reverse order, Bibby got the first basket (+$120-10 for Kidd = $110); Miami pulled away at the end of the quarter (+$33) and a slow down of offense in the 2nd quarter allowed the first half under to clear no problem (+$30). The $60 I got back from the first half under went completely into the Heat/Mavs 2nd half under, which was juiced heavily in favor of the over ($60 to win $72 profit). That came in no problem, but unfortunately my $100 on the Heat covering a reverse line of -3.5 didn't come in.

Monday - the horse racing tradition continued. I won my first horse racing bet and then soon another one after that. But unlike previous last day trips, profits were not in order for this adventure. Tom and I grinded out a few hours of no betting before catching a cab back to the airport, and then eventually getting back to Chicago around midnight.

Tom kept saying he didn't want to go back to Vegas, that this was gonna be his last trip. As recently as a few days ago, he's already talking about going back.

Such is the power of a gambler's life in Vegas. You may lose your cash there, but the Vegas allure remains.

Fame of the Game

Much like politics with "Follow the Money", all one needs to do is to "Follow the Hall of Famers" to see what teams have a chance to win the championship.

Besides being in an NBA Finals matchup for the 2nd time in the past 6 years, what else do the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat have in common? They both have at least 2 future Hall of Famers.

According to data presented by basketball-reference.com, Dwyane Wade and Lebron James (both at 99% odds) as well as Dirk Nowitzki (95%) and Jason Kidd (90%) are likely Hall of Famers based on a probability formula of who will likely be in the Hall of Fame (not who deserves to be in it). Based on this, Chris Bosh has a 53% chance of making the Hall (likely to increase if the Heat become the dynasty they expect to become).

Why mention the obvious Hall-of-Fame angle, you ask? Well, I dug up the champions that have hoisted the Larry O'Brien Championship trophy since I was born (I'm 28, do the math). And I found out some things I already knew and some that I did not.

(1) Based on current players already in the hall and the basketball-reference article, 26 of 28 teams who have won the title have had 2 Hall-of-Fame worthy players on their team, with 11 of 28 teams having at least 3 Hall of Famers. The 1993-94 Rockets (Hakeem) and 2003-04 Pistons (no hall of famers) were the exception to the rule.

(2) Based on the list I am posting below, one could argue that the only team that was led by a point guard to a title in this span was Detroit in 1989 and 1990 (by Isiah Thomas). Otherwise, most of the teams had an inside presence (center or power forward) and/or a shooting guard that were arguably the best players on their teams.

Year	Champion	Hall of Famer 1	Primary Position	Hall of Famer 2	Primary Position	Hall of Famer 3	Primary Position	Hall of Famer 4	Position	Hall of Famer 5	Position
1983	76ers	Moses Malone	Center	Julius Erving	Small Forward
1984	Celtics	Larry Bird	Forward	Kevin McHale	Forward	Robert Parrish	Center	Dennis Johnson	Guard
1985	Lakers	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Center	Magic Johnson	Guard	James Worthy	Forward	Bob McAdoo	Forward
1986	Celtics	Larry Bird	Forward	Kevin McHale	Forward	Robert Parrish	Center	Dennis Johnson	Guard	Bill Walton	Forward/Center
1987	Lakers	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Center	Magic Johnson	Forward	James Worthy	Forward
1988	Lakers	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Center	Magic Johnson	Forward	James Worthy	Forward
1989	Pistons	Isiah Thomas	Point Guard	Adrian Dantley	Forward	Joe Dumars	Shooting Guard	Dennis Rodman	Forward
1990	Pistons	Isiah Thomas	Point Guard	Dennis Rodman	Forward	Joe Dumars	Shooting Guard
1991	Bulls	Michael Jordan	Shooting Guard	Scottie Pippen	Small Forward
1992	Bulls	Michael Jordan	Shooting Guard	Scottie Pippen	Small Forward
1993	Bulls	Michael Jordan	Shooting Guard	Scottie Pippen	Small Forward
1994	Rockets	Hakeem Olajuwon	Center
1995	Rockets	Hakeem Olajuwon	Center	Clyde Drexler	Shooting Guard
1996	Bulls	Michael Jordan	Shooting Guard	Scottie Pippen	Small Forward	Dennis Rodman	Forward
1997	Bulls	Michael Jordan	Shooting Guard	Scottie Pippen	Small Forward	Dennis Rodman	Forward	Robert Parrish	Center
1998	Bulls	Michael Jordan	Shooting Guard	Scottie Pippen	Small Forward	Dennis Rodman	Forward
1999	Spurs	Tim Duncan	Forward	David Robinson	Center
2000	Lakers	Kobe Bryant	Shooting Guard	Shaquille O'Neal	Center
2001	Lakers	Kobe Bryant	Shooting Guard	Shaquille O'Neal	Center
2002	Lakers	Kobe Bryant	Shooting Guard	Shaquille O'Neal	Center
2003	Spurs	Tim Duncan	Forward	Tony Parker*	Guard
2004	Pistons	None**
2005	Spurs	Tim Duncan	Forward	Tony Parker*	Guard
2006	Heat	Dwyane Wade	Guard	Shaquille O'Neal	Center
2007	Spurs	Tim Duncan	Forward	Tony Parker*	Guard
2008	Celtics	Kevin Garnett	Forward	Ray Allen	Guard	Paul Pierce	Guard
2009	Lakers	Kobe Bryant	Shooting Guard	Pau Gasol*	Forward
2010	Lakers	Kobe Bryant	Shooting Guard	Pau Gasol*	Forward
Chances	*As of 5/30/2011	Gasol has 60% of HOF,	according to basketball-reference.com
		Parker has 57% of HOF
	** Chauncey Billups -	best chances of making it - 21%

This somewhat references my last article that states that Derrick Rose needs another high caliber player next to him that can be a difference maker. The previous article never touched base on the fact that it'd likely need to be another likely perennial All-Star/potential Hall of Famer like Rose that would have to be the compliment. Outside of a trade for Howard, I don't see a potential Hall of Famer going to the Bulls this offseason (player lockout be damned).

Using this formula as a gambler, it'd be wise to look at each team and see which teams have 2 or more future Hall-of-Famers and make future bets based on this. Any teams with 1 or less Hall-worthy players should not be considered reasonable bets. Bet on the long-shots at your own risk (especially in the NBA, where only 9 different franchises have won titles in the past 30 years).

As far as the NBA Finals for 2011 is concerned, I expect this to be a highly competitive series in Heat/Mavs II. Only 4 players (Dirk, Wade, Haslem and Jason Terry) remain from the 2006 series, which doesn't seem like a lot for a rematch. That shouldn't make the series any less entertaining.

Dirk enters this Finals on a roll that no one has ever seen from him before. He and LeBron have clearly been the best players in the postseason, which explains why their respective teams advanced to the final series of the season.

Unfortunately for Bulls fans who are bitter about the series loss to the Heat and to NBA fans who just flat out hate the Heat (you can't spell H-E-A-T without HATE, after all), I believe that the Heat are taking this series. Both teams are capable of winning games on the road (each team shared NBA best road records of 28-13), and I think each team will win at least a road game in the series. I flipped between Heat in 6 and in 7, but I'll go with my original choice and say Heat in 6.

Whatever the result, you can add 2011 to the Facts of NBA Life - another team with 2+ HOFers will win the title to make it 27 of 29.

Paging Gar Forman - your move.

Closing out the Bulls-eye?

In order for the Bulls to aim for their franchise's 7th title, they must get a scorer to compliment Rose.

I couldn't help but wonder after the Bulls game (that is, before I found out one of the waitresses misplaced my credit card, which I have since had to cancel): Was this the Bulls' best chance to win the title?

After Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bulls were picking up right where they left off in their regular season sweep of the Heat. However, the final four games of the series, all won by the Heat, showed a fatal flaw that will haunt the Bulls if they do not address it.

They desperately need a second scorer to compliment Derrick Rose, not only to help him out when he is having an off night, but also to open up the lane for him. Rose thrives in the paint, whether it be a spectacular dunk after blowing by a defender or drawing the fouls in the paint that make coaches go to their benches much sooner than they'd like.

So who might be some options for the Bulls to bring in next year to give Rose this chance?

Free agency

Top names with scoring capabilities: Tim Duncan, Jamal Crawford, Caron Butler, J.R. Smith, David West

Compared to 2010's free agents with the top guys resembling filet mignon, we're looking at Value Meals here. Duncan is in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career and like West, plays a position which the Bulls already have depth at.

Crawford has found his niche as a top 6th man in the league since joining the Atlanta Hawks. However, he isn't the type of guy who is going to draw people off of Rose. Crawford has only had one season in his 10 year career of shooting over 45%, so teams aren't likely to be scared to give up a defender that would be best suited for Rose.

The most intriguing of the bunch to me is J.R. Smith, who has shown flashes of brilliance in his troubled career. He is a guy who is very capable of creating a shot and ripping off 4 or 5 straight three-point bombs. No one else in this free agent class (outside of Ray Allen, who I think will stay with the Celtics and take his player option) has that ability but Smith.

However, if the Bulls' recent track record with players holds up, Smith's hot-headedness and immaturity may not be something that the Bulls want to add to their equation.

Trades

Top names with scoring capabilities: Dwight Howard (Orl)

The list begins and ends with Dwight Howard. This is what many Bulls fans want to see, and for good reason. Howard has age on his side and would immediately upgrade any team's interior (both offensively and defensively).

Howard led a less talented team to the NBA Finals a few years ago simply by being a monster and drawing the double teams necessary to give their three-point shooters the opportunity for open looks. Insert him into this version of the Bulls, and we're talking about the Bulls vs. Heat in the conference finals for years to come. Thibs, the defensive mind that he is, would drool at the sight of having a block shot/shot altering center like Howard moreso than the offensive presence he would bring.

Call it intuition, but I get this feeling that Howard is destined for the Celtics or Lakers. It's the Yankees/Red Sox theory applied to the NBA. I think the Celtics would be favorites to get him - seeing as though the Lakers keep making Bynum an untouchable commodity in trade offers to other teams.

Draft

Really? No. Not a chance at immediate impact for the Bulls, who draft 28th and 30th in this year's draft.

I hope I'm wrong about the Howard situation, as that would be the best way to solve the Bulls' problem and would give the Bulls an essential second weapon to contend with the Heat for the next 6-8 years. Free agency sure won't be the answer, so it will come down to how aggressive of a trade package that the Bulls can make to get Howard and how it stacks up to other teams' offers.

The Heat are only going to get better as Wade, James and Bosh continue to learn how to compliment each other and their future teammates, so it is necessary for the Bulls to make a big move to prevent 2010-11 from being a fluke.