Author: Kevin

Why Mark Cuban is a Good Leader

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I’ve blogged quite a few time on the Mavericks. Most recently I talked about Michael Finley and the decision to waive him. Mark Cuban just posted about the agony that came along with the decision to let Fin go. Let me state a few things.

I believe that one of the reasons Mark has done so well in business is that he’s not afraid to admit mistakes. In his post, he took the blame for the previous moves that cost the Mavs financial flexibility. He said it was his own fault. Now, anyone who follows sports closely knows that most moves are not made by one person alone. There is a group of people, such as owner, GM, coach, and others, who are involved with the process. Even though Mark could have use the language “we made mistakes” he decided to take the fall himself. That’s a sign of not only good, but great leaderhsip.

Jim Collins, in the book Good to Great, wrote that leaders of companies that have made the leap to being truly great companies were the one who would accept blame but deflect praise. That’s not normal. Most of us have the tendency to try to point the finger at others when things go bad while taking the credit when things go well.

In a post about success, Mark wrote “we knew that we would get a great audience” and “The Path of Least Resistance is a key to why HDNet Films is offering our slate of films in a variety of day and date options.” Notice the inclusive language. Mark is writing that his success was not an individual success, but it was part of a team. That’s great leadership.

I firmly believe that as long as Mark Cuban is leading the organization, the Dallas Mavericks will continue to be one of the best organizations in the NBA.

Finley Gone as a Maverick

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There are officially no ties in Dallas to the dark days of the Mavericks. The Mavericks waived Michael Finley on Monday to save $51 over the next three seasons. With Shawn Bradley’s retirement earlier this summer and Finley being waived there are no more player who came from the era when 20 games was considered a good season and you could get floor seats from a scalper for less than $25.

I’ve been a fan of the Mavericks since the Reuonion Rowdies days of the late 80s. In the past, I thought of Finley as the gel that kept the Mavericks together. While Dirk and Nash got all the attention, Finley quietly led the team and held the whole thing together. Over the past few years, however, Finley’s stats have steadily declined while Dirk’s stats and leadership have grown.

I think the Mavericks are better off without Finley. He hasn’t been producing and his starter position could have been filled easliy by the likes of Stackhouse, Jameson, or Howard. Now we can look to the post-Big 3 era. I believe the Mavs have the best core of players they have ever had. It was a bitter end last year, losing to the Suns on our court, but I think having Avery Johnson as the head coach for a full training camp and season will pay off in a big way.

November 1 can’t come soon enough!!!

Dirk’s German Coach in Jail

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If you’ve been following the Mavs for awhile like me, you know that Dirk Nowitzki has often spoke highly of his coach back home in Germany. Well, according to the AP his coach has been in jail for 3 weeks and was recently denied a request to be released. He’s being investigated for tax reasons.

My personal thought is that this will probably not affect Dirk too much. He’s grown a lot over the past few years. The only way this could play negatively in the Mavs season is if his coach is in jail for an extended potion of the regular season. Only then should we worry.

Read the story here.

80,000,000 Downloads for Firefox

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Just in case you haven’t heard, there’s a better option for web browsing out there than Internet Explorer. Firefox has quickly become one of my favorite software programs of all time. It’s a much more stable software (very rare for it to crash), highly customizable and user-friendly.

My favorite things about it are (in no particular order):
– Search box (you can search many different websites by typing in the box on the top right of the page)
– Tabbed browsing (doesn’t seem like big deal at first, but once you start using it a lot you can’t live without it)
– Extensions (this is where it blows IE out of the water!!!)

I currently use the following extensions:
– Adblock
– Forecastfox
– FoxyTunes
– SmoothWheel
– Tabbrowser Preferences
– Yahoo! Toolbar
– MapIt!
– downTHEMall!

Best of all, it’s FREE!!! If you haven’t got it yet, download it now!

Get Firefox!

Calica/Playa Del Carmen/Tulum, Mexico

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The second stop on our trip last week was at the port of Calica, Mexico. It’s a small port just south of Playa Del Carmen. This was a really different place for a cruise ship to dock. There were no other cruise ships anywhere close to where we were. The pier was back down a dirt road in an industrial area. There were huge pile of rocks/sand that it looked like they were developing. It was not a touristy type place at all.

The day started out the strangest out of any day on the trip. We had a reservation with Budget to have a car from 8:00 am – 4:00 pm. We took a taxi from the pier to the rental car place. We got there at about 8:15 and it wasn’t open. We thought that was strange, so we walked around the block to make sure we were at the right place. After waiting for about 15 minutes we asked around to see what time the place normally opened and some locals told us that the guy didn’t usually get there until around 10 am. We eventually worked out a deal with Hertz for a Dodge Atoz (raw power!!!) and finally headed back to the ship at around 9:30.

The drive to the Mayan ruins at Tulum took about 45 minutes. Chris and I followed the rule, “When in Mexico, drive like a Mexican.” There were a few passes that we were closer than we wanted to be to the cars going the other way, but we got there in one piece. The ruins were really cool. We couldn’t walk up on any of them, but the view at the beach was absolutely incredible. It was really humid and hot, but once we got in the water the trip was well worth it.

Here are some pictures at Tulum:
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Cozumel, Mexico

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I thought I’d share a little bit about the cruise we took last week and the different locations we visited. The first stop we made was in Cozumel, Mexico. We arrived at Cozumel and got of the ship at about 9:30 am. The port we were at was your typical cruise-tourist boat. There were about half a dozen cruise liners within the area and the port had all of your touristy type of shops.

Our main activity of the day was snorkeling. Thanks to Patti from International Scuba in Carrollton, we decided to head over to Chankanaab National Park. The snorkeling there was incredible. The beach went right up to the coastline, but then you had to walk into the water on rocks. Other than that, everything was perfect. It was definitely the best snorkeling I’ve ever done. The park itself was pretty beat up by hurricane Emily. There used to be a museum, but it was taken down by the storm. The trees were pretty beat up and one of the shops had its roof blown away. There were a few iguanas throughout the park as well.

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In the afternoon we did a little bit of shopping and pretty much took it easy. Tomorrow I’ll write about Calica and Tulum.

Back from Vacation

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We’re back from cruising through the Gulf of Mexico. We had good weather (no hurricanes, unlike my brother) and didn’t get rained on at Cozumel or Playa del Carmen. I’ve posted some pics over at Flickr.

The cruise was a lot of fun. Our head waiter was from Romania and did this strange mumbling thing when he served us anything. It was funny. As far as cruise ships go, the Carnival Ecstasy was ok, but didn’t blow us away. It was designed in the late 80’s and looks like it. The food was good, but didn’t blow us away. The room service didn’t have a huge selection.

But with all of that said, the cruise was still a blast and well worth it.

New Blog Look

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If you’ve been to my blog before, you’ve probably noticed the new look. I’ve switched from Typepad to WordPress and have it hosted at VizaWeb. I’ll be able to customize the site more and it’s cheaper!!! I’ll hopefully have a better look to the site very soon.

Yahoo Acquires Konfabulator

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I just downloaded the program and I’ve only been using it for a day, but Konfabulator looks like a pretty useful program. Basically, it’s a program that “lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, can tell you your WiFi signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather.” It’s free now (thanks to Yahoo), so check it out.

If you use Konfabulator, let me know what widgets you have and why. I’m trying to figure out more uses for it.

Patriotism and the Church

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I love the USA. I think it is one of the greatest countries on earth. We have incredible freedoms and have been blessed in many ways. One of the most obvious blessings we have is wealth. We have more money than we know what to do with (even though we don’t think we have that much and are always looking for more).

The 4th of July is a great opportunity to celebrate our freedoms and thank those who have protected and fought for them. One thing I have a hard time with, however, is when the USA is referred to as "God’s country" or a "Christian nation." I know that many of the founding fathers were indeed Christians (or at least Deists) and that most of our laws have their basis in biblical values.

There are many reasons I have a hard time with these ideas and when our churches glorify the USA. First off, it’s impossible for a nation to be Christian. A nation is not a living, breathing human. It’s an idea. That is, nations are philosophical divisions of land. I don’t think that the USA (that is the area of land) will be in heaven. Also, I don’t like the USA being called God’s people becuase it’s not biblical. There is only one nation that can claim the title of God’s chosen people and that’s Israel (although I would perhaps argue that the current nation of Israel is less God’s people and more a philosophical idea). Anytime we take biblical references to God’s chosen people or nation and apply it to the USA we are mis-interpreting the Bible and misleading both ourselves and others.

We can’t choose to be God’s chosen people. Only God can do that. I do believe that God does rise up nations and tear them down for his own purposes and I believe God has a plan for the USA. I just think we need to be sure we don’t think that the blessings that were promised to Abraham, Jacob, and the people of Israel apply to us as a nation. If anything, they apply to the church (which I believe is part of God’s promise to Abraham–Gen 12:1-3).

We stilll are called to be good citizens. We’re called to set an example for all people and to pray for our leaders. 1 Tim 2:1-4: "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

Let’s make sure we understand and apply the Bible properly in all areas of life.