Congratulations Stackhouse!!!! Evil and Madape are proud of you! :)

[Five-ofan]

Wow. Add me to the list of people who are proud of him.

[kriD]

Stackhouse many players in one

By RACHEL COHEN / The Dallas Morning News

People see Jerry Stackhouse testifying before Congress to promote diabetes research.

They hear about him punching a teammate over a card game.

They listen to him sing the national anthem at American Airlines Center.

They read how he couldn't share the spotlight with a teammate.

And they don't know what to think.

Is this the same guy? The player who was traded three times in his first nine seasons, now lauded as a leader on a team two victories from a world championship?

The veteran swingman says he hasn't changed, it's just perceptions that have. Actions that draw ire on a losing squad earn acclaim on a winning one.

Call him edgy, call him overconfident, call him brazen. On the Mavericks, those are compliments.

"He brings a presence, a physical presence to our team," teammate Darrell Armstrong said. "He brings – I don't want to say a cockiness – but he brings a toughness to the team. ...

"That's good for any team, especially [one] that's known as so-called being soft."

Stackhouse, 31, calls himself the sort that players and fans love to have on their team but hate when he's on the other squad.

This postseason has featured Stackhouse staring down San Antonio's Michael Finley after blocking his shot and taking a Shaquille O'Neal elbow to the nose in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, resulting in three stitches and a Mavericks run.

In Game 2, Stackhouse single-handedly transformed a close contest into a rout with 10 points in the last 79 seconds before halftime.

"I think I give our guys confidence, guys that may have lacked a little bit of confidence in the past," Stackhouse said during the Spurs series. "They know I'm not going to back down from anybody. ... Having guys that have a little edge about themselves gives guys, who may be a little bit more passive, more confidence."

Stackhouse has occasionally teetered over that edge. As a rookie, he was suspended two games after punching Utah's Jeff Hornacek. In 1999, he and Pistons teammate Christian Laettner got in an altercation on a team flight.

Stackhouse was suspended for one contest last season after a postgame fight with the Jazz's Kirk Snyder. Coach Avery Johnson condemned his actions but added, "Stack is probably our toughest guy on the team. It was just a bad decision."

Stackhouse's brother traces that toughness to a summer back in junior high. Avery Dawson, who's 17 years older, lived in the Washington, D.C., area, and Jerry came to visit. Avery took his brother to play basketball against much older players who would knock him to the court time after time. Jerry wanted to quit, but Avery wouldn't let him.

It's that fearlessness he developed to drive to the basket against opponents twice his age that Avery now sees when Jerry refuses to back down from O'Neal.

Stackhouse came into the NBA in 1995, drafted third overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. He couldn't reverse their struggles, and, in 1997, they traded him to Detroit, with coach Larry Brown conceding that Stackhouse and Allen Iverson didn't coexist well on the court.

In 2002, just when the Pistons appeared on the verge of championship contention, they traded Stackhouse to the scuffling Wizards for Richard Hamilton. Hamilton emerged as a star, Detroit won a title, Washington continued to founder, and, fair or not, Stackhouse was starting to look like a bad-luck charm.

Not anymore. And not before, either. In college, he led North Carolina to the 1995 Final Four. Legendary coach Dean Smith recalls that Stackhouse was so competitive "we'd have a 10-minute scrimmage, and he'd treat it like an NCAA Tournament game."

Allen Jenkins, Stackhouse's best friend, said that early in his career, people misconstrued Stackhouse's competitiveness. He wasn't afraid to call out older teammates.

"People didn't accept it well coming from a young guy," Jenkins said. "They took it the wrong way, maybe took his vocalism in the locker room as, 'This guy is arrogant and cocky and can't play with anybody.' "

Stackhouse is more patient these days, Jenkins said. Takes constructive criticism better. Employs better shot selection. But make no mistake, he's still the same old Stack.

Stackhouse's arrival in Dallas before last season was heralded mostly as a possible harbinger of a trade for O'Neal. Team officials' proclamation that he would serve as the Mavericks' sixth man raised eyebrows.

Stackhouse needed convincing, too. Then-coach Don Nelson noted that as a player, he basically invented the concept of the sixth man. He told Stackhouse, "I want you to know I feel it's one of the most important roles on the team, period."

Said Stackhouse, "Whether that was helping my ego or whatever, it helped."

Stackhouse bristles at the assumption that his gaudy scoring numbers early in his career reflected a need to be the go-to player.

"I've always been in the role where I had to be that guy," Stackhouse said of playing on bad teams. "How are you going to judge me for something I've never been because of what you perceived that I might have thought about myself?"

But he did have to learn that it's OK to not always be aggressive, at least on a good team like the Mavericks. A knee injury limited Stackhouse to a then-career-low scoring average (13.9) his last season in Washington. It also forced him to play at a different speed, one that allows him to create opportunities for teammates within the offense.

With this season rolling into mid-June, it's easy to forget that back in November, Stackhouse's role was unclear. The Mavericks had signed Doug Christie, who plays the same position. Stackhouse would miss the first 26 games with a sore knee.

But Christie's career was ended by an ankle injury. And even when Stackhouse was sidelined, Johnson entrusted him with the leadership mantle.

"I just think Avery knew what was inside of me, the character," Stackhouse said.

That character is evident in his many charitable endeavors. Stackhouse sponsors scholarships in his hometown of Kinston, N.C. He buys turkeys that players at his alma mater distribute to the needy at Thanksgiving.

But his most personal contribution is the Triple Threat Foundation, which he founded in 2002. It raises money and awareness in the fight against diabetes. Two of his older sisters died from complications of the disease, and both his parents live with it.

"It's not because he's trying to make an impression," said his mother, Minnie. "It's just him in his heart."

[Nemesis]

Go Stackhouse!

[Arne]

Last night Stackhouse was awful. I hope he can pick it up once again and isn't tired again.

Stackhouse: 1-9, 4 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 turnovers in 31 minutes.

Griffin: 1-3, 2 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover in 14 minutes.

I want Stackhouse to at least rebound if he's cold like that.