But this bitterness is still gnawing at me, and why? Walking out of our 3 point loss to the Phoenix Suns, sure I felt disappointed but far from angry. After all, I had the privilege to watch a very well-played game. Even after a blowout loss to the Knicks last week I just shook my head and started looking forward to Christmas Day. It’s going to happen from time to time. What left such a bad taste in my mouth wasn’t our losing, it was the way the Mavericks handled winning.

The most striking moment for me came with 1:30 left in the 4th quarter. Westbrook had just driven to the basket and had been cleanly blocked by Tyson Chandler. On the way down RW landed awkwardly on his right elbow. While he lay writhing on the ground in pain, Chandler chooses that moment to leap in the air, beat his chest, and gesture provocatively at the Thunder fans sitting near the baseline. So rather than showing any sort of concern for the fallen competitor, or at least keeping a respectful distance, he performs a long and unseemly series of self-congratulatory gesticulation right next to an injured player. Not at other players or the Thunder bench, not even at the cameras, but directly in the faces of the fans.

Allow your mind to freeze on that mental image for a moment as we remember this same Tyson Chandler, who first came to Oklahoma City in 2006 after being traded to the New Orleans Hornets. He himself has told stories of the warm and neighborly way every member of the community tried to help Tyson and his family feel at home. This is the same Tyson Chandler who 2 years later was actually traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, only to be turned away at the last moment by a medically questionable toe. This is the same Tyson Chandler for whom I heard genuine applause as he took the floor for the Mavericks back in November and during introductions last night. Considering this, you can see how at that moment my mind was wracked with the question: how did it come to this? How had a once fond relationship become so antagonistic?

The answer, I believe, starts at the very top of the Mavericks organization with a presumptuous attitude that trickles all the way down to the players on the hardwood. For further evidence, you can resume your mental playback to the moment that Jason Terry egged on a rightly disapproving crowd with sarcastic arm motions and an insincere smile. Or perhaps the very last second of the game when Caron Butler spiked the ball at midcourt with so much force, you might have thought he had never won a basketball game before. Are you seeing the same pattern I am?

If the San Antonio Spurs are a model for the Thunder organization, then let the Mavericks be our antithesis. Here are a few other hallmarks of Maverick-brand basketball that we would do well to avoid. The owner, Mark Cuban, can regularly be seen and heard bemoaning referee calls right from the sidelines. He resorts to name-calling other owners in the public arena, demonstrating that he can’t even control himself much less a basketball franchise. Ultimately, the man is the embodiment of the universal truth that you can have everything in the world and still be a total loser. And that’s not name-calling. Be honest, if Mark Cuban was just another guy who worked at your office, would you accept his friend request? Mmm-hmmm, thought so.

Harder to measure is his meddlesome impact on the front office, which seems to prefer an assembly of overpaid hired guns year after year, but has found far more success in the regular season than in the playoffs. From all of this derives a culture of cockiness that, at least last night, seemed to reach the characters of the players themselves.

This is to take nothing away from the Mavericks’ performance last night. And they won without their best player, who I hope is able to play again in time for our January 6th rematch because he makes the game better. My central point is that the Thunder, and all of us as Thunder fans, need to learn through reverse example. We don’t want an ownership like their ownership. We don’t want management like their management, and we certainly don’t want our players to act anything like their players acted. Thank goodness for bad toes.

Any question of “Is there a rivalry” is now settled. There has always been a rivalry between the proud and the humble. These two organizations represent diametrically opposed philosophies of winning, as different as night is from day. One is built on community, commitment, and teamwork. The other on narcissism, disrespect, and underperformance. Both can produce winning teams, but only one affords that organization the respect of this NBA fan.

So if that’s what they want to represent, so be it. After all, you can only control yourself and I can’t make the decisions for them. Yeah, I’d dearly like to see us beat them on January 6th. Even sweeter would be to bounce them out of the playoffs in the first round for the 3rd time in 4 years. But who knows what will happen? Maybe the Mavericks will reach the finals this year. Or maybe they’re chances will disappear faster than you can Dwayne Wade. But no matter what happens on the basketball court this year or any other, I’ve found another reason to be grateful this holiday season. That reason? I’m not a Dallas Mavericks fan.

Phew. I do feel better.