Our team is terrible. Our players did not show the speed that the opposition did (at least from the forward position), and worst of all, our offensive sets were, well, offensive.

Brazil put on an absolute clinic yesterday in the game after the USA bomb. Granted, they’re the best team in the world, but come on…All this hype for USA soccer, and they came out flatter than Nicole Ritchie.

I’m watchin usa vs Ghana in the world cup. I’m not american but i’m rooting for you guys in this game.

you’re 1 down at halftime.

but i think that the team is ‘smarter’ than Ghana, no offence to the opposition, and i mean smarter in footballing tearms.

And i think you got the history to pull through!

GO usa

Dirk made me look bad and than redeemed my opinion in this series.

Can’t figure this one out.

I feel your pain on losing though

I’m no NBA conspiracy theorist, but a few of those “phantom fouls” were ridiculous.

And no, I’m not making excuses. We lost, plain and simple.

Anyhoo, freakin Mavs. Freakin Cuban. I totally agree with Char about the free throw in game 3.

Also, I have to say that I think way too much attention was focused on Shaq defensively, as he spent much of the season proving that he was no longer the guy who averaged 29.4 ppg in his previous NBA finals appearances.

Sure, his series stats sucked, but what about DWade? He absolutely stomped the Mavs. He was getting like a point a minute. Ridiculous.

Somebody tell Avery – you shoulda put the clamps on DWade!

David, yeah, true. DWade is the real deal, but the Mavericks appeared to be the better all-around, integrated team with a much better bench. So much for that.

Char, you’re right on both counts. And despite how much he raised his profile in these playoffs, Dirk likely failed to overcome his marketing problem by flaming out in the Finals.

Here’s this season’s marketing lesson:

This season Mark Cuban became a superstar. He raised the bar for team owner participation in the game. His passion created Dallas fans all over the country.

That’s good marketing.

On another note, the Mavs loss this series when Dirk missed that free throw in game 3. He never recovered mentally and you could see it in his gameplay afterwards.

There’s a lesson in that, too.

But its really upsetting to see the Mavs work so hard to get this far over the years only to fail.

Well there’s always next year. I remember watching the Broncos work so hard in the NFL only to finally get over the hump and win a few of them.

I send you a virtual beer and kudos for a season well played.