Doncic, Flagg and Kidd compound newsy week for struggling Dallas Mavericks

“Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte” is a weekly newsletter curated by DMN sports columnist Kevin Sherrington where he hits all of the latest sports topics around North Texas and all major sports.

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Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte

– On the anniversary of the worst trade in Dallas’ sports history, Mark Cuban called it a “mistake” and says he’d have said no if only he’d been asked; Luka Doncic is in a “great place”; Nico Harrison is in purgatory and Jason Kidd is in a bad place, too. After a loss to Houston on Saturday, the Mavs’ fourth in a row, he went off on the refs for not giving Cooper Flagg more calls, then rained F-bombs on the media for questioning his handling of his rookie. Other than all that, nothing to see here.

Mavericks

– BTW: Asked a Mavs official for a one-on-one with Kidd to discuss his role in the Luka trade, and he declined. Considering his reaction in a group setting Saturday, might have been a blessing.

– Kidd noted he doesn’t care what the media thinks because we didn’t play the game, much less at his level. Points taken. Pretty much everyone I’ve ever criticized could make a similar case. Just the same, Kidd must care more than he allows, because most of the time he sounds like he’s reading bedtime stories to us.

– If Flagg isn’t getting calls, that would make him no different from just about any rookie ever. I don’t like it, either, but that’s just the way it is. Even I know that, and I didn’t play the game.

– The NFL’s coaching carousel has almost come to a stop after a record 10 vacancies came open, and not a single Black head coach was named in a league where 70% of the players are Black. With Mike Tomlin’s departure, only three Black head coaches remain, one more than in 2002, when the Rooney Rule was adopted.

– DeSoto wins three Class 6A state titles in four years in football, and now it’ll drop to 5A because of declining enrollment? Picking on someone their own size just doesn’t seem right.

– Our Shawn McFarland gets to the bottom of how a 5-3 Lake Dallas freshman became the biggest quarterback in the portal and Texas Tech’s $6 million dollar man. Brendan Sorsby has sure grown up.

– One last thing on Bill Belichick’s Pro Football HOF snub: Some voters who passed said he’s a HOFer but should have to wait because of the Spygate scandal. Look, either you’re a HOFer or you’re not. This first-ballot hierarchy business is nonsense.

– Former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, who led the Tigers to a national title game, announced his retirement at 60 to “spend more time with my family,” the usual reason coaches give. And, as usual, I give it a year, tops.

– Story time: The Olympics kick off this week in Milan, inciting memories from 10 Olympic assignments. Five winters, five summers. For an old boy from Texas who enjoyed exactly one snowfall growing up in Houston, and that one with a broken leg, winters were always more fun. Exotic events, smaller media scrums, athletes happy to talk.

Plus, you get to wear parkas!

And snow boots!

Albertville remains the most memorable, probably because it was the first. Once, during a hockey press conference, our Russian interpreter leaned over and whispered that the official interpreter was telling a different story from the one told by a Russian hockey player on the podium. I’m used to being lied to, but not by the person whose only job was to translate.

Foreign languages are both the challenge and charm of any Olympics. I never pretended to be fluent in anything. Once, in a panic, I had to ask our Mark McDonald the Spanish word for “thank you.” And that after two years of college Spanish. Mark, conversant in French and Spanish and probably several New Guinea dialects, looked me over like I was a bruised banana.

“Gracias,” he said, slowly, so I wouldn’t ask again.

I was on a media bus in France when an American sportswriter stepped to the door, only to be denied entry. Naturally, he wanted to know why and said, in his best Pepe Le Pew, “Zee booz ees fool?” Like that would make him understandable to a Frenchman. Of course, we told the driver to leave him.

One morning in Albertville I opened a stall in the bathroom of our lodgings to find a SportsDay photographer asleep on the toilet. Olympic media accommodations were usually spartan. In Lillehammer, I bunked with a SportsDay assistant sports editor. Our twin beds were so close together, I could have slapped him. And should have, probably.

I will enjoy the Milan Games from the comfort of the family castle, though I may break out the snow boots, even if we thaw out.

Doncic, Flagg and Kidd compound newsy week for struggling Dallas Mavericks

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