Further proof that sportswriters like Tim Cowlishaw are completely out of touch with the real world

It’s bad enough that as of Monday both Dallas Morning News sportswriters Tim Cowlishaw and Eddie Sefko believed there was a chance that Deron Williams would sign with the Mavericks. The day after the NBA draft, when it became clear that the Mavericks were using the exercise not to get good young players but to clear cap space, my son in Austin and I were already working on the premise Williams would stay with the Nets (all along he has stated his preference for remaining) and trying to figure out what Plan B might be.

Not that Plan A was all that great.

Tim Cowlishaw

Let’s just say the Mavericks got Williams and lost Jason Kidd and Jason Terry (Terry is already gone and I can’t imagine the Mavs trying that hard to keep Kidd). Is that the ingredient for a NBA championship? Heavens no! If Williams was that good, the Nets would have won more than 22 games last year. The addition of Williams would have made the Mavericks at best – at the absolute best – the fifth best team in the Western Conference, and the way Denver and Utah are improving, what with the great draft Portland and Sacramento had this year and with the moves the Rockets keep making, there was a very good chance the Mavs don’t even make the playoffs even with Williams. (The Nets have never made it with him.)

Of course, the Mavericks dream was the add both Williams and Dwight Howard. Put those two together with Dirk Nowitzki and a second NBA title is easily within reach. But obviously that’s not going to happen.

For some reason, the Mavericks are looking for the instant fix that helped both the Celtics and then the Heat to titles. No realistic person can see that happening for this team. And now the Mavs have wasted the opportunity to get younger and are looking at AARP members like Ray Allen and Marcus Camby to help out. What they should have been doing is following the model created by the Spurs, who keep adding good young talent to their nucleus of outstanding veterans who remain with the team. Or at least follow the examples of Oklahoma City and Chicago, two teams that seem to get better and younger through the draft.

But the proof that Sefko and Cowlishaw are completely divorced from reality doesn’t stem from their lack of knowledge pertaining to the mind of Deron Williams. What really proves it is statements like this from the column Cowlishaw wrote for Tuesday’s paper:

"The Nets can offer more money (for Williams), but it’s not that substantial (emphasis mine). Some people like to say the Nets can offer an extra $25 million since the NBA salary cap rules give them a chance to pay Williams about $100 million over five years compared to Dallas’ $75 million over four. That’s only an extra $25 million …"

For heartless Cowlishaw to say $25 million is "not that substantial" and to call it "only an extra $25 million" is a slap in the face of just about every hard working man and woman in the world today who toils outside the world of mass entertainment or Wall Street brokerage firms. And imagine how insulted and angered the millions of unemployed are going to be by statements like that. Reading those words made me absolutely furious. Geez, I’ll never see one million samollions in my lifetime. If he really thinks $23 million is "not that substantial," then you refuse it, Tim, if it’s ever offered to you and pass it along to me.