The problem with taking a winning team, which is what the Mavericks are, and looking toward the future is that next year is always a crap shoot. People get hurt. Teams go into funks. Players come and go. And you never know if a team that hasn’t won will learn how to win.

Especially in an era of free agency and salary caps, all you have is right now. If there’s a way to win today, that’s the way you go, and damn the future. You can worry about that when you get to it.

The Yankees are the prime example of that line of thinking, and it’s worked fairly well for them; four championships in the five years from 1996-2000, six World Series appearances and 10 straight years in the playoffs.

Compare that record to the Braves, who carefully consider the future and the budget and all those other petty things. Yes, they’ve gotten into the playoffs with unmatched consistency, but for all their care and thinking about the future, they have just one championship, and that came against Cleveland. I’m not sure, but I think there’s a rule somewhere that if you beat Cleveland, it’s not a real championship.

Sure, the Yankees have traded some players who have become exceptionally good players. And, yes, the whole team could get old all at once and collapse. And if it does, you just do what Steinbrenner does and buy a new team.

It’s not as easy to do in basketball, given the salary structure, but it can be done. Even Nowitzki will get old some day; ultimately, everyone has to rebuild, or at least reload.

The point is that with Shaq, the Mavericks would have a magnificent shot at the title this season. He might be aging, but he’s not dead yet, and the Mavs could have expected at least three more really good years out of him, three years that all would have had title possibilities.

If you win one of them, that’s one more than you have. If you win two in three or four years, that’s the same number the Rockets won during the long and great career of Hakeem Olajuwon, the same number the Spurs won during David Robinson’s long career.

Can Cuban say he’ll win two titles in the eight or 10 years Nowitzki has left? Can he say he’ll win even one? Can he honestly look at what Miami’s got going and say he’s better off than the Heat?

Finally, can he look in the mirror in the morning and admit he had a title in his grasp and let it slip away?

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