Blackman: "In this photo, I can tell you right now that Byron wasn't in shooting range. There's no way I would've given him this much space if he was. He was such a great shooter. He's got to be looking to pass to Magic (Johnson), James (Worthy) or Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar). ... This 1987-88 team was one of my favorite memories with Dallas. We really just put our hearts and minds together as far as what we thought could come to fruition. The year before, we lost to Seattle in the first round even though we were supposed to go much further, so we had some scar tissue, which helped us with our resolve the following year. ... As a Mavericks coach now, I don't talk to the current team about our success back then. This is a new era; a new regime. I would love for these guys to carve their own path in getting deep into the playoffs and understanding that it takes tremendous resolve to get through these high-intensity games. ... Despite our recent struggles against the Lakers, I think our current team has a great style in competing against L.A. We have to hit shots from the outside, make Shaq play some defense, and also rebound. What we do works, in that we have great ball movement and we like to play a high-speed game. We can do a great job if other players hit their open shots. Nobody's leaving Dirk (Nowitzki), Steve (Nash) and Mike (Finley) open."
(Photo by Mike Powell/Getty Images)
