From Beijing to Big D: Playing Catch Up

Let's look around the Dallas sports world and get everybody caught up with everything going down:

Mavericks:
-A great article in Slam Magazine online with one of DallasDedicated's favorite Mavericks, Brandon Bass.

-The Spanish men's national team took a team photo for the Olympics doing a slant-eye pose. This has caused quite a stir in Beijing, also within the Team USA inner-circle. Team captain Jason Kidd told Yahoo Sports that the photo is uncalled for, and if anyone on the USA team would have done that, suspensions and/or fines would have been handed out. It is a double standard, and I'm not guessing that any Chinese fans will be cheering for Pau Gasol anytime soon. USA faces the controversial squad tomorrow morning, it should be a good one.

-Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of the German team fell to Spain on Thursday, 72-59. Up next is China, who's record stands at 1-2, same as Germany. "It's a must-win situation for us if we're to make it to the quarterfinals," Nowitzki said. "They all shoot extremely well. [China] should have beaten Spain. It will be a tough game with the home crowd but it will be fun."

-The Mavs preseason schedule has been released:
DATE, OPPONENT, TIME (CT), ARENA
Oct. 7, Washington, 7:30 p.m., American Airlines Center
Oct. 9, at Chicago, 7:30 p.m., United Center
Oct. 10, at Milwaukee, 7:30 p.m.,La Crosse Center
Oct. 15, at Indiana, 6 p.m., Conseco Fieldhouse
Oct. 16, at Detroit, 6:30 p.m., Palace of Auburn Hills
Oct. 18, Sacramento, 8 p.m., American Airlines Center
Oct. 21, Chicago, 7:30 p.m., American Airlines Center
Oct. 23, Indiana, 7:30 p.m., American Airlines Center

In case you missed it, the regular season schedule was posted earlier this week as well.

Rangers:
-The Texas Rangers chances for a playoff spot are all but over after getting swept by the Boston Red Sox. The starting rotation ERA for the season now stands at 5.80. Even more shocking is what the starter's ERA was on the 6 game road trip, where Texas went 1-5: 17.62! However, the cliche phrase "There's always next year" does actually apply for this baseball team. Not too long for now DallasDedicated will explain why this Rangers team will be a playoff contender next season! You heard it here first!

Stars:
-No big news in the hockey world, other than the fact that four Dallas Stars games during the 2008-09 season were selected by VERSUS as national broadcasts, while the Stars will also appear four times on national television in Canada (CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, TSN). The Stars' full television schedule is expected to be released in the next week. Below are the eight games that were selected as national broadcasts:

Dec. 3 at Edmonton, TSN
Jan. 3 at Edmonton, CBC
Jan. 12 vs. Detroit, VERSUS
Feb. 23 vs. San Jose, VERSUS
Mar. 17 at Vancouver, TSN
Mar. 18 at Calgary, TSN
Mar. 30 at Phoenix, VERSUS
Apr. 7 at Minnesota, VERSUS

Cowboys:
-Practice this week has been with the Denver Broncos, the same team that they will face Saturday night in their second preseason game. Apparently, it can’t get here quickly enough for either team. Flozell Adams got into a pushing match with Broncos defender Marcus Thomas, ripped his helmet off and began flinging it at Thomas as they were engulfed by a pile of players from both teams. A friendly workout instantly became ugly, as it seems like both teams are tired of seeing each other's faces. This makes for a great heated match tomorrow.

-Linebacker Kevin Burnett will undergo arthroscopic surgery today on his sprained right knee. The surgery is said to just be a minor cleanup by the Cowboys, who expect Burnett to miss no more than two weeks. He should be ready for the season opener Sept. 7 at Cleveland.

-Hard Knocks has been nothing but entertaining, and we are just 2 episodes in. If you have not yet checked out this show I highly recommend it! Here are brief highlights of Episode 1 and Episode 2.

--ND