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So, our SB Nation community of NBA bloggers were recently polled for their one-word(usually) opinions on every NBA team. One word, one team, no other rules or suggestions for format.
For a lot of us, it can be difficult to get an accurate understanding of what other people think about our team. We have a tendency to insulate ourselves in our opinions, because why would anyone ever have a bad thing to say about our wonderful team, right? So, exercises like this give us a tiny snapshot of what a well-informed, passionate group thinks of when they hear "Dallas Mavericks".
Here were the responses for Dallas:
rich
Cubes
Plan-B
Dirk (x3)
Flailing
Rowdy
Cuban (x3)
spendthrift
window
swan song
money (x2)
Flukes
goingdown
WINNERS
Cubans
NBA front office loves smoking its Cubans
Nowitzki
Leadership
Searching (mine)
Graying-about-the-temples
Ego
German
Aging
Ok, so most of responses focused on either Dirk or Mark Cuban, but they also mention money and aggressive spending, which I admit I considered good until I was later informed those words were intended to be taken negatively.
There are some other, more overtly negative comments, which I think are understandable given the less than spectacular title-defense season, but I think a lot of the time these associations come from the last image in our head, and can be changed quickly.
According to the spreadsheet we were given, 7 of the 28 comments were negative, 25%. For some perspective, 20 out of 28 comments for the Knicks were considered "negative", and 24 of 28 for the hapless Bobcats.
Some of the most common responses:
7 times
"Old" for the Boston Celtics
5 times
"Bullets" for the Washington Wizards
4 times
"Jordan" for the Chicago Bulls(also two Michael's and an MJ)
"Russian" for the Brooklyn Nets
3 times
"LOL" for the Charlotte Bobcats(lol)
"Kaaaaahn" for the Minnesota Timberwolves
"injured" for the Portland Trailblazers
"White" for the Utah Jazz (yikes)
"Foreign" for the Toronto Raptors
Funniest responses:
"The-South-After-The-Civil-War" for the Orlando Magic
"FINGERGUNZ" for the Washington Wizards
"Mardi Brow" for the New Orleans Hornets
"Who?" for the Detroit Pistons
I think the message to take away from all this is...thank goodness we're not Bobcat fans.