Like several teams today, the Dallas Mavericks of the early ‘90s were built by losing. Intentionally or not, the Mavs were the dregs of the league for several years in a row, and those historically bad records got them multiple consecutive high draft picks. With those picks, the Mavs built a young core that people called “Triple J Ranch”: young wings Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn, plus young, brilliant point guard Jason Kidd.
It didn’t work. Jackson would become a solid player, Mashburn would become an All-Star, and Kidd go on to be one of the greatest point guards ever, but none of them meshed in Dallas. Why? Beef. A bunch of young, headstrong players organized in an unclear hierarchy, surrounded by too few veteran presences, and coached by a revolving door of personalities and philosophies was never going to work. None of the care necessary for young guys to coalesce was present in Dallas, and so they fought. They fought about basketball, about business matters, and, famously, about women.
If you’ve heard anything about the Mavs, it’s that their relationship was broken apart by Toni Braxton, the pop superstar. But if you believe all the people involved (and follow the evidence a bit), you’ll find that story to be mostly false. And either way, it’s not close to the whole story of this feud. To learn the tale of a rebuild gone totally awry, check out this episode of BEEF HISTORY.
