Another NFL season starts, and my anthem plays on

Admittedly, it’s a hard sell at first. After all, this new group of Mavericks is made up largely of cast-offs who don’t have a championship ring among them. It’s a far cry from the familiar faces who defined the Mavericks for much of the last five seasons and won a championship just over a year ago.

It's the time to start to show the best field.... Heating spares

One week from today, most NBA teams will be hosting their media day events, which officially mark the beginning of training camp. In other words, the NBA season starts in seven days, and that means we can finally start talking about real basketball rather than hypothetical basketball.

Watkinson represents just one small part of new general manager Danny Ferry's makeover of the organization. The others include new assistant coaches and almost an entirely new corps of players. At times, he has lent a hand in explaining Drew's concepts to his new teammates. That has made Horford, in his sixth season, something of an elder statesman.

Allen just can’t quite understand his former fans’ quick turnaround considering everything he gave to the city of Boston.

“I think so. That’s why we, and other teams, valued him so much this summer,” Williams told HOOPSWORLD. “But he’s dealt with some things, and I think that’s the thing people don’t realize: it’s abnormal to play for a long time and not get hurt. The guys that do it are the ones where we should be like, ‘Wow!’ This game is tough on your body, man. I was just talking to Derek Harper, and we both walk different. It’s just a different deal playing in the NBA. It wears you out, and the way that Eric plays, a lot like Dwyane Wade, those guys are always going to be banged up because they’re so explosive they attack the basket. He’s been really diligent about getting back on the floor, and I’m sure he wants to be right before he steps out there.”