Larry Brown Sports

After coming back to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5, the Dallas Mavericks were happy to have closed out the series. But staying true to their workmanlike character, they refused to celebrate too heavily knowing they still have their toughest task ahead — a meeting with the Heat or Bulls in the NBA Finals.

ESPN brought out reporter Doris Burke to interview owner Mark Cuban and head coach Rick Carlisle about reaching the Finals, but when she turned to speak with Dirk Nowitzki, she realized the team’s MVP had already exited the floor. Soon after that, the party ended as all the players dispersed. Check out the ditch party:

Even though this is the second time Burke was embarrassed this week, you can’t blame her too much. She probably should have interviewed Dirk before Cuban, but players generally stick around to conduct interviews. The question I have for you is why did they do it? One suspicion I had was that Dirk Nowitzki was upset at the way Mark Cuban was going all WWE in his interview and getting carried away. After all, Dirk said the team was doing better this year because Cuban was keeping quiet, so maybe he was upset that Cuban was opening his mouth. But the overwhelming feeling is that he walked off the floor because he didn’t feel it was time to celebrate.

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You’re on the air, lady!  Doris Burke clearly thought she was doing a recorded segment for ESPN Saturday night before the Mavericks and Thunder squared off for Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.  As you can see below, she was live.  The talk surrounding this clip is that Burke mouthed the f-word the second time she got confused.  Not exactly.  Check out the Doris Burke screw-up video and allow an Italian-American to explain it for you below.

Yes, that was a curse word Doris muttered under her breath — it just wasn’t in our language.  She said “fangul,” which is an Italian term that is translated to mean either “f*** you,” “stick it up your a**,” or something of that variety.  As a result, this officially marks my father’s favorite blog post ever on LBS.  Needless to say, he doesn’t care for sports.  Chest bump to The Big Lead for the clip.

As seriously as some people take the NBA, I’m glad that ABC is there to remind us that it’s nothing more than entertainment. That’s the message they were trying to send, right? Flashing to celebrities left and right and sending a normally focused and to-the-point interviewer like Doris Burke out to do fluff pieces certainly showed us what their priorities were. I’m sure glad that the Lakers weren’t pushed around and that Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson put the clowns in their places.

While Kobe was trying to focus on winning Game 1 of the NBA Finals, comedian Chris Rock was sitting courtside and trying to crack jokes. Kobe straight pokerfaced Rock who didn’t seem to understand that Kobe was at work to perform his job. As if that wasn’t good enough, apparently Lakers coach Phil Jackson ruined Doris Burke’s courtside interview with Rock. Here’s the Phil Jackson/Chris Rock video:

I’ve always said that sideline reporters were useless in sports and this further confirms my feelings. Who would have thought that this is what it would take for me to connect with Phil and Kobe? Way to go guys!