Did Mark Cuban have to waive Finley?

[fluid.forty.one]

Originally Posted by alexamenos

Next time you're feeling really, really bad about Michael Finley's pain and anguish, you should remind yourself that the Mavs are paying him $50 million over the next few years....you or I should feel such anguish, eh?

say what you will about this season's Spurs v. Mavs ramifications....the most basic facts are these...

1. The Mavs and Finley made a deal in which Finley was to be paid a huge sum of money;
2. After Finley accepted the deal, his production (and effort as it appeared) went into the toilet;
3. The Mavs upheld every bit of their end of the bargain.

I don't see any reason here to cry for Fin.

Cheers

exactly

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by Bookit

You Spurs fans are completely arrogant. The only reason you ever win anything is because you have Tim Duncan. Don't think that Pop is some great coach or the Spurs franchise is something special. It just isn't. You won the lottery in a year when Duncan was sitting there. That's all there is to your "special" franchise.

Sure can't argue this one.

[kriD]

SPURS NOTES

Finley squawks at singing boo birds

By DWAIN PRICE
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

SAN ANTONIO -- Three days have passed, and the San Antonio Spurs are still upset at Mavericks fans for loudly booing Michael Finley whenever he touched the basketball during Game 6 of this Western Conference semifinal series.

"Mike's a great guy," Spurs forward Bruce Bowen said. "Getting to know him this year has been a wonderful experience for me.

"But I just couldn't understand [Friday's booing incident]. They didn't boo [former Mavs guard] Steve Nash last year, but they boo Fin."

Finley said he believes a flippant remark by Mavs forward Dirk Nowitzki triggered the booing.

He also said owner Mark Cuban didn't help the situation when he said he should get booed.

"To be honest, I'm getting booed because Dirk -- in a joking way -- went to the media and said that they should boo me," Finley said after Sunday's practice. "And Cuban piggy-backed that and said I should be booed, and a result, with the way the fans feed into the media, they did as they were told.

"Dirk told me he said it in a joking way and it was blown out of context."

Finley, who played eight-plus years for the Mavs and never embarrassed the franchise, said in no way will the booing incident put a strain on his friendship with Nowitzki.

"That's still one of my close friends," Finley said. "I know in his heart what he was trying to say.

"But the media took what they were trying to hear and it got blown out of proportion."

Spurs in the Mavs' head?

After losing to San Antonio in the 2001 and '03 playoffs, and finishing second to them for the divisional title in five of the past six seasons, the Mavs might have built up an inferiority complex about the Spurs.

The problem might be worse now that the Spurs have recaptured homecourt advantage after fighting back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the series at 3-3.

"We probably got in their heads a little bit because of the fact that we were 3-1 down," Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. "It's not easy to come back from that, but now it gets to a point where it's one single game.

"So they don't want to blow out the 3-1 advantage that they had and now we don't want to mess up the great effort we did to come back to 3-3."

The 'D' on Dirk

The Spurs have defended Dirk Nowitzki with 6-foot-7 Michael Finley lately with some success.

Asked if he consulted with teammate Bruce Bowen on how to defend Nowitzki, Finley smiled and said, "No. Bruce is first-team all-defense [in the NBA]. I'm like 30th-team."

After he finished smiling, Finley said, "During our scouting report, in different situations, I might pick [Bowen's] brain or ask him how he may defend that particular play.

"But Bruce is a unique kind of perimeter defender. Things he can get away with, I can't, because of his expertise at the position."