THAT’s how you party. After a few years of watching boring Laker parades – no one in L.A. ever seemed to get hype because, they only do this like once outta every three years – we got a special scene in Dallas yesterday. Whether you watched on TV, followed our live blog, or both, it was painfully obvious the Mavs were running on fumes. Mark Cuban could barely talk when the cameras got a hold of him. That’s a first. Then once inside the arena for a season-ticket holder pep rally, DeShawn Stevenson probably nearly got arrested for public intoxication again. Dude had no clue where he was. After that, they called Shawn Marion out for some dancing, and the droopy-eyed Matrix flipped the switch, called for the Dougie and got in 10 seconds of adrenaline-pumped stepping before he too ran out of gas. Everyone had the same look we all had senior year at graduation, our energy flushed from a week straight of partying. The Mavs fit all that into three days. Finally, there was Dirk, who had the same goofy smile he’s had on since Game 6. Something tells us a night out with the German would be life-altering … So how valuable is a center who averages 10 and 8? We’ll see in the next week or so. It’s being reported that Minnesota, realizing the Wizards’ crave the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft, offered the pick (probably Derrick Williams) for a package that included Washington’s No. 6 pick and young center JaVale McGee. The Wizards are probably toeing the line; on one hand, Williams has the potential to be an All-Star. But McGee is so athletic, so raw and so wild that you figure he’s going to get a lot better. Despite that, imagine a frontcourt of McGee and Kevin Love. Can the T’Wolves get more polar opposites? … At the same time, rumors persist that Cleveland wants Williams too and J.J. Hickson and Ramon Sessions are both available (Anderson Varejao isn’t for a pick). Who would you rather have out of the two young bigs: Hickson or McGee? … In other draft news, no one has risen higher or quicker than Jimmer Fredette. This seems to always happen with college vets: they come out and everyone can’t stop talking about what they can’t do. Then as the draft process moves along, GMs get tired of checking for prospects littered with potential, yet with basketball IQs of middle school kids, so they revert back to the college vets and start talking them up again. Oh, he’s a safe pick…you know what you’ll get…he’s gotten it done at every level. Sometimes it works (J.J. Redick, Shane Battier). Sometimes it doesn’t (Lonny Baxter, Adam Morrison). With Fredette, he’s outplayed everyone he’s gone up against in workouts and will probably see his name called in the top 10 … Can you compare Kyrie Irving to a sex tape? We can … Amar’e Stoudemire told reporters he thinks LeBron needs to do a better job of carrying himself in a way the public can relate to. STAT said it would go a long way towards reconnecting and rebuilding that relationship, that no matter how great of an athlete you are, people want to see you as a normal human being. Sound advice. One thing we want to point though: LeBron, and probably some other athletes who are at that level of celebrity, don’t live in the real world. They just don’t. LeBron’s been called “King” since he was a sophomore/junior in high school. In a way, he’s almost been brainwashed. Finally, perhaps the criticism will get to him … In a rather odd journalism scenario, ESPN’s Chris Sheridan is suing Peter Vecsey and NYP Holdings, claiming they “published a maliciously false article” aimed at deriding Sheridan during last season’s never-ending Carmelo-to-NY saga. If this is all it takes, everyone in the media world will be lining up to go at Vecsey … And while it’s pretty clear he’s coming to the NBA, we’ll finally hear this morning from Ricky Rubio himself on his future … We’re out like sleep in Dallas.
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