Sam Smith

So I was talking to Reggie Miller the other day about this little brush fire of talk about Miller coming to play for the Dallas Mavericks the rest of the season and in the playoffs.

I'm not always enamored of the ideas of Mark Cuban, but I kind of liked that one.

Actually, what I expected at some point was Cuban to suit up, like Ted Turner tried one time to manage the Atlanta Hawks.

What would be more Cuban than that?

The Mavericks are terrific and the favorite to win the NBA title this season, and we can only imagine what Cuban would do as David Stern handed him the championship trophy. Once in a blue moon thing, perhaps, with the emphasis on moon?

Though the Mavs are a terrific team, they don't draw much interest except for their record. They've got one legitimate All-Star and a terrific, demanding coach. Josh Howard made the All-Star team after the public and coaches rejected him, and Cuban's adversary, Stern, appointed Howard. After all, who's watching Jason Terry, Devin Harris and Erick Dampier?

So Cuban suits up. Heck, he's in the huddle half the time, anyway. He's in shape, as half the group interviews I've been involved in with him were conducted while he rode an exercise bicycle. He has this Walter Mitty thing going as well with time in Dairy Queen and challenging Donald Trump's TV ideas. And we know he loves the attention.

There never has been a hands on owner like Cuban, so what would be more appropriate than Cuban getting a minute or two as a reserve guard. He couldn't be worse or do any more damage than some of the 10-day contract players being signed, or, say, Doug Christie. And I have given up by dignity of the game any crusade against Cuban. Could he be worse than some of the pregame introductions?

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And the Mavs are so good could he even hurt them?

Even Scottie Pippen sort of agrees. The former Chicago Bull great was in Dallas this week on a business trip and was at a Mavs game. Reporters naturally assumed Pippen was there to talk to the Mavs since Pippen is trying to land somewhere he can collect that seventh championship ring. What better odds than Dallas?

"At the rate they're playing, they can keep that spot," Pippen said. "They can sign Mark Cuban to that spot. It's not like they need anything."

Actually, the Mavs do need something, and it could be Reggie.

And though Reggie isn't about to go begging, it sounded like he was curious.

No one has contacted him, Reggie said, wondering just what they were thinking about, what the Mavs might have in mind when Cuban threw this idea out a few weeks ago.

"I'm working Thursday's (for TNT) and sometimes Monday's (on ESPN radio with Dan Patrick)," said Miller. "I'm doing great."

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Knowing Miller, I have no doubt he's satisfied with his brilliant, if somewhat unappreciated career. Though Reggie is never one to indict his teammates, I always felt Reggie walked away a little prematurely because of the chaos that was developing with the young Indiana Pacers. He saw it coming before management and walked away rather than be a part of it.

I believe he was comfortable with his decision.

But there's always an ache and a question.

Karl Malone had it, and try as he might he could not help the Lakers get that championship when he broke down in the Finals. Even the greatest, Michael Jordan, couldn't shake it and stumbled through two seasons and the first true health problems of his career in Washington. Heck, the other greatest ever, Wilt, talked for years about coming back in football or volleyball, perhaps even in the NFL as a tight end. We know what happened with the true greatest, Muhammad Ali, when he kept coming back, against Trevor Berbick and Larry Holmes, his vital and irreplaceable voice taken from the world no doubt in those last beatings he took.

Look at your local park or YMCA or summer league softball field to see how difficult it is for competitors to give it up past their time. Check with the specialists who treat those broken bones to know how grateful they are for the aging athletes.

Now consider the greatest athletes and competitors in the world. Imagine how it burns within them.

So Pippen watches NBA games and sees kids running around launching dumb shots, unable to run an offense or set up a teammate, things that came to him naturally. And while he knows he can't run and jump with them anymore, for seven minutes a half he certainly could find Shaq with a post entry pass, which seems like a lost art, or get a ball to a shooter in motion. Watch some of the young point guards in the game and they have no idea how to do either.

And then you look at the Mavs, and they're deep and committed. They run good reserves at you from every position and wear down teams. But that isn't so much an edge in the playoffs when there are no back-to-backs and teams shorten their rotations.

Who on the Mavs can make a big shot? Nowitzki, certainly, though he was taken out of the Finals by the Heat last June. Maybe Jerry Stackhouse. Terry really doesn't often and Harris doesn't have much range. Devean George? Greg Buckner? Austin Croshere?

Why not Reggie?

I know he's comfortable in his own skin and with his career, that he doesn't need a championship to validate him and isn't about to chase around for one.

But I also know if I were a good team and had a roster spot open and I needed a guy to take a big shot for me in a big game and stand up to the pressure like few have done, I'd want Reggie Miller. Though I worry about one thing: I am now thinking like Mark Cuban.

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