Toasting the Champs with Lemon Drop Shots...

Last night, in a quaint pub on McKinney Ave in Dallas, a few people gathered to make new friends and talk about basketball. Some of us had met before, others were familiar only from the game threads. All of us love the Mavericks, and it was around this shared obsession that we built our epic evening.

After enduring zkmavz' ADD as he watched the Baylor game, we were able to get to know one another as real people instead of just silly avatars and angry Barea rants. One by one, members trickled in. We were even graced by a visit from the elusive Bryan Gutierrez, formerly our Edtior, current writer for Mavs.com.

Roderick P quietly joined us, and was dubbed @faketuffjuice because he looks EXACTLY like Caron Butler. Seriously. Look at his picture. It's freaky. New editors andytobo and Boweman55 were convinced (by me) that the generic SBNation star avatar simply wont cut it. And I was stoked to put actual faces to the people I bother on email 24-7.

New blog member and very important tech guru for Dallas sports teams ChrisFoley took probably the girliest shot he's ever taken with a group of strangers. Maximilian impressed us all with his very new, very fancy phone. And he couldn't stop fussing with it. Photographic evidence below. jonas m. photobombed said photographic evidence. And Bruce182 literally walked out on his job at Sam's Club so he could be there with us. And double-fist Miller Lites.

King of the Castle, Maximilian, went and bought a round of shots for the table. They were Lemon Drops, presumably because he was catering to my incredibly girly, lightweight needs. But the guys all manned up and took them, toasting to our Champion Dallas Mavericks.

And then Mark Followill showed up. And bought everyone drinks.

We called it a night after four hours of laughing, chatting, and playing on our cell phones. It really was a fun time, and I am SO glad I got to meet the handful of local MMBers. Maybe next year we can try again, and get TWICE as many people to show up. And we'll ALL do shots. Girly ones, of course.

Bruce182, Maximilian and jonas m.

See? Phones.

Boweman55, andytobo and new friend to the site, Justin,

Followeezy, Myself, Roderick P and zkmavz.

<3 you ALL!