FORT WORTH, Texas _ Dean Palermo left his TCU dorm room and went to the rec center specifically just to punch the punching bag after he heard the news that his beloved New York Knicks just traded away their franchise player.
As Palmero's bare hands slammed into the punching bag, he screamed, "(Bleeping) Porzingis?!"
Actually, the name is Kristaps Porzingis but, in the case of New York Knick fans, it is "Bleeping Porzingis."
Poor kid.
Palermo is a TCU sophomore from Long Island, N.Y., who was just reminded that good players would prefer to be a Maverick more than a Knick.
Porzingis is a Dallas Maverick and his teammate will be Luka Doncic. That's a team. It's an incomplete team, and one that won't make the playoffs this year, but these two young men will do some damage.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's grand plan to rebuild the team after they won the 2011 NBA title was a disaster until now. He and GM Donnie Nelson just pulled off the reversal of the Hershel Walker trade, or the equivalent of sending Robert Traylor to the Bucks for Dirk Nowitzki.
Or Trae Young to the Hawks for Doncic.
The Dallas Mavericks are now Eastern Europe's favorite team, and have the whitest collection of basketball studs since the '80s Boston Celtics. Too bad Dirk Nowitzki is too old to enjoy this.
Doncic was never going to be the next Dirk, because their games are different. The guy who was going to be the next Dirk was Porzingis, and the Mavs just stole him from New York.
