Sometimes, winning a championship can make NBA players do some strange things.
Remember back in the day when Rasheed Wallace used to bring a championship belt to games to remind others that the Detroit Pistons were reigning champions back in 2005. The Spurs snuffed all that out with a seven-game series victory.
And it’s now caused Dallas forward Shawn Marion to tell the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that all Mavericks should be .
“I want y’all to address me like that from now on — world champion,” Marion told the Star-Telegram.
Marion is peeved that the national media has overlooked the Mavericks’ accomplishment of winning an NBA championship. It’s only been aggravated by the doubts of most observers of Dallas’ chances of being able to repeat as titleists.
“We’ve gotten to the point where everybody started overlooking us and talking about everybody else and I kind of got [upset] about it,” Marion said. “Y’all trying to take something away from us that we’ve worked hard for and we took.
“Everybody on this team has earned the right to be addressed as world champions, so everybody address us like that.”
Whatever.
It reminds me more of when wrestler Paul Orndorff demanded to be called “Mr. Wonderful” or else he wouldn’t participate in “Mean Gene” Okerlund’s interviews in the World Wrestling Federation back in the day.