Carlisle: 'We play for championships here'
Earl K. Sneed reports from the Dallas Mavericks' introductory press conference for their off-season signees, where the talk centered around bringing a championship back to Big D.
Carlisle: 'We play for championships here'
DALLAS -- With a simple – yet very direct – decree on Monday, Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle made it clear what the expectation is for his new-look team this upcoming season.
Monday, the Mavericks introduced off-season additions Chris Kaman, Darren Collison, Dahntay Jones, Elton Brand and O.J. Mayo to the media and a group of approximately 300 season-ticket holders at the American Airlines Center. And although the newcomers have yet to don the Mavs’ blue just yet, Carlisle and his incoming talent didn’t shy away from setting the bar high just 15 months after the organization claimed its first NBA championship.
"This is Dallas, we play for championships here. It's as simple as that," Carlisle at one point declared during the press conference.
He added: “Having to integrate eight new guys (including rookies Jared Cunningham, Bernard James and Jae Crowder) is very challenging, on the one hand. But on the other hand, our system is going to change some and we’re excited about getting started.”
While Carlisle will have to wait another three weeks to get started with training camp, the championship talk didn’t stop at just the head coach, as Mavs owner Mark Cuban, president of basketball operations and GM Donnie Nelson and the mixture of young and seasoned veterans all shared the believe that the team can again join the league’s elite squads after last season’s first-round series sweep by Oklahoma City.
“Our goal is to have these guys in Mavericks uniforms for a long, long time,” Cuban said. “If we can do what we think we can do with these guys and Dirk [Nowitzki] and Roddy [Beaubois] and company, this is gonna be a very good team that can accomplish a lot. So, I hope with the introduction of the guys up here that this is a beginning of a long relationship and just carrying on the Mavericks’ tradition of winning.”
“I am so happy that we got the level of professional integrity and the leaders that are sitting at this table,” Nelson added. “If you look one through five, right down the list, collectively each and every one of these guys have won at every level. If you look at their track records, they’re gonna represent this team and this community like few others have. … And on the floor, I’m telling you, we’ve got some weapons that are gonna be really fun to watch.”
But there’s also zero titles collectively between the five newcomers, figuring to renew the sense of hunger for the team as it tries to get back to the apex of the basketball world.
“Well, I think just knowing the fan base, with [the fans] supporting us, we want to make [them] proud,” Brand explained. “Nothing has ever been given to this organization. [The Mavericks] have always been one of the elite teams, culminating with a championship two years ago. … We definitely want to bring another back to this city. So, we like our chances against any team, even the upper-echelon teams. We feel we can play with any team out there.”
“You know, coming into the league, every time I go into an arena, the first thing I do is look up top and count banners,” Mayo added with the Mavs’ championship banner hanging above his head. “Coming to Dallas and you have one. It was a lot of hard work the first time (the organization advanced to the NBA Finals in 2006) and you came up short. The second time you got it done. And after seeing them [the Mavericks] last year, you were just a play or two away from advancing. And I think bringing us in here, I think we can definitely make that happen and get back to that point to win a championship.”
