Don’t forget to enjoy the ride

The Dallas Mavericks are an interesting team to follow. The contributors and editors who make up this website have spent an incredibly large amount of time lamenting moves which weren’t made and hoping for the right types of moves to be made in the future but we all love the team.

This is an important part of sports fandom and an even more important part of covering a team. We have all imagined superstars from other teams on the teams we follow. There is nothing wrong with that!

Nico Harrison and his staff especially need to remain forever vigilant on ways to improve the Mavericks. As fans, we are not under the same obligations. Nothing we do will effect what the team does. We will continue to work on articles with ways to improve the team and hope you will continue to read them.

I am not trying to tell anyone how to be a fan. If being miserable makes you happy, by all means assume Luka Doncic will be gone sooner than later after the front office has failed to surround him with sufficient talent (Editor’s note: I resemble this remark). But if you are anything like me, the best part of being a fan is the absolute joy you feel when things go well for your favorite team.

Dirk Nowitzki was a fantastic basketball player and an absolute joy to follow. I am thrilled that I got to watch him for 21 years. The 2011 title validated him to people outside the city of Dallas, but he never needed that validation here. Some of my favorite memories of Dirk are from his early years when he was closer to a big wing than anything else. Only one playoff team each season wins their last game. Championships are hard to come by which is why they are so revered.

I believe Luka will win at least one title in his career. I hope that his title(s) come in Dallas. But either way, if we spend too much time looking to the future, we will realize that we missed so much fun that we could have had along the way.

Luka plays with so much joy and such prodigious talent. Dorian Finney-Smith plays so incredibly hard. Kristaps Porzingis tries to fit in to the role that is asked of him and has a skill set which has rarely been seen. Jalen Brunson is maximizing his talent as a second round pick. Maxi Kleber works so hard to do all the myriad things that are asked of him. Every Mavericks team since the 1998 draft has had one or both of Luka or Dirk on it. Even when the team has been bad, they have been shining stars for us to cherish.

As fans we should appreciate all of these things because one day all of them will be retired, traded or signed elsewhere, and we will be a bit older looking back wondering why we didn’t take some time to enjoy them while we could.