When you’re a fan of a team for decades, the issues and mishaps of an organization start to feel cyclical; you swear this or that particular thing has always been a problem. Concrete details be damned, because when you’ve followed a team for so long, a certain narrative takes hold. “The Dallas Mavericks have a problem with bigs,” something you’ve probably heard, doesn’t quite encapsulate it. They have a problem with athletes.
I have long repeated to people that in 2015, the Houston Rockets set an alley-oop record against the Dallas Mavericks in their first round playoff series.