As the Mavs Turn: a Big 3 Soap Opera - a podcast by Andrew, Ed, and Zak

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where it is a bonus week here as Ed continues on his Parisian honeymoon excursion. Today Andrew recounts the story of the Dallas Mavericks of the early 1990’s and the A-list recording artist who may (or may not) have played a hand in their demise and dissolution. So-called big 3’s have been a dominant narrative in NBA team building for much of modern history, reaching something of an apex when LeBron James famously took his talents to South Beach to team with fellow stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Some twenty years before the Decision, Dallas’ flagship sports franchise, the football Cowboys, were able to rise from their post-Tom Landry depths with their own big 3, selecting future Hall of Famers’ Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith with first round picks from 1988 thru 1990. The basketball Mavs found themselves in a similarly disconsolate situation in the early ‘90s, but where the Cowboys struck gold in assembling their cornerstone big 3, their hardwood counterparts struck out. Join us for the story of the Three J’s: Jim Jackson, Jamal Mashburn and Jason Kidd. These three consecutive Dallas lottery picks never quite got off the ground together, for real on-court reasons like chemistry issues, lack of continuity at head coach and roster deficiencies. But perhaps the biggest impediment to success for the Mavs: R&B superstar Toni Braxton and the fragile egos of Jackson and Kidd. That story is this week on the Bill Bradley Collective.

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