The Dalls Mavericks are Officially the Worst Defending NBA Champions of the Post-ABA Merger

The last time an NBA champion opened a season with a 0-3 record was when the Boston Celtics played their first season after the retirement of Bill Russell. Today, the Dallas Mavericks have equaled that remarkably terrible statistic to become the worst defending NBA champion of the post-ABA merger. What makes these 3 losses worse though, is that they never had a chance to win any of them.


Their opening game against Miami was absolutely terrible and showed that losing TWO players from the bench and their starting center was absolutely devastating to the team. In their 2nd game against the Denver Nuggets, they were outplayed by a team with Nené as their best player. In their 3rd game, the Mavericks were outplayed by a team that allowed 26 turnovers and were visibly frustrated, picking really stupid fights and getting 4 technical fouls. Sending Lamar Odom to Dallas for a trade exception is beginning to look like the smartest trade Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak has ever made.


So what's a defending champion to do in a case like this? The last time a defending NBA champion was this bad, Shaq was playing for the Miami Heat. Before that, the 3-peat Lakers were saddled by numerous injuries throughout an entire season. And before that, the double 3-peat Bulls had lost Michael Jordan to retirement twice. These Mavericks have no excuse for being this bad other than their general manager being incredibly inept and owner Mark Cuban being unwilling to spend money to re-sign J.J. Barea, Tyson Chandler, and Rudy Fernandez. If Cuban and his lackey GM have some kind of grand scheme to get Dwight Howard, their team doesn't look very appealing at this point.