Wading into the Fray

In August or September of 2012 there was a hole in my life. I didn't know it yet, but I was missing something.

I'd been a passionate Mavs fan since 1999, watching as the team grew into the Big three of Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash. From college in California (surrounded by Lakers fans) I watched the team morph in the summer of 2004, with Dallas becoming Dirk's team as Nash departed for Phoenix. I suffered alone in St. Louis in 2006 when the Mavs lost in devastating fashion in the finals at the hands of the Heat. From 2007 to 2009, before getting married, I continued to watch the Mavericks by myself since I didn't know anyone in DC as into basketball as I was.

Then, simply as a means to stop posting on Facebook and annoying my friends whenever the Mavericks were playing, I took to twitter. Seemed perfect, really. It was an outlet to vent through when watching. Outside of games it became a content aggregator, where I followed writers and sites which wrote things I found interesting. I joined in conversations, formed some really odd friendships, and, over time, became an even bigger fan of the Mavericks and a smarter fan of basketball in general.

As fate would have it, I found a community of basketball fans right as our Mavericks were destined to rise to the challenge and storm through the 2011 playoffs and win the championship. The 2011-2012 season was much more trying, mainly due to the lock out and Lamar Odom being a horrible person, hell bent on a selfish path. This last summer, with some coaxing from other folks on twitter, I decided to try to write about the Mavericks. I began posting fanposts here at Mavs Moneyball, which I had always read but never participated in, and with another website.

That something I was missing from the opening line? It was this. It was joining a family of Maverick fanatics. I'm still not very good at writing, but I'm having a blast trying.

Why had I never participated here? Mainly the log-in. Something about signing up through facebook bugged me and I was too lazy to actually sign up for a username and password. I finally did it though, and as a result a month or so later, Managing Editor LJ asked me to become part of the regular crew.

Why am I telling you this story? If you're reading this and you have never left a comment, we want you to join our our site. And this is OUR site. All of us. Writers and commenters together. The best part of being a fan in the internet age is forging that sense of community with people, particularly if you live outside the metroplex area. We want you to sign up, leave comments, create fanposts, follow and interact with us on twitter. It makes the fan experience that much more meaningful and helps the staff here become better at delivering the kind of content you want to read.

We're all fans, like you. Mavs Moneyball is a labor of love more than anything, and you all make us better at this. So please, if you don't participate, start! If you drop by from time to time, please consider visiting us more often. Share us with your friends, invite them to become part of the family. Follow us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Wade into the fray.

Thanks for being a part of this. You all matter to us. We appreciate you, and we ought to say it more often.

Follow the team on twitter.

Managing Editor LJ - @LJ Rotter

Andy Tobolowsky - @AndyTobo

Josh Bowe - @Boweman55

Kirk Henderson - @KirkSeriousFace

Tim Cato - @Tim_Cato

Alan Smithee - @SmitheeMMB

Jonathan Tjarks - @JonathanTjarks