While Mark Cuban did come around on the idea of his players receiving championship rings (as opposed to anklets or bracelets or whatever zany idea he was working on), he will not be handing them out when the Mavericks open their season against the Miami Heat on Christmas Day (1:30 CT, ABC). In fact, the rings haven't even been designed yet.
↵↵↵Mavs owner Mark Cuban has not had the 2010-11 championship rings designed because he wants to get input from Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and Jason Kidd as to how the rings should look, Cuban confirmed Thursday night.
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↵↵Cuban added that he considered handing out fake rings at the opener, but decided to hold the banner raising ceremony and ring presentation on separate nights, giving fans that might have attended the canceled Nov. 1 opener, but have other plans on Christmas Day, a chance to see one of the special moments.
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So, the day will be a little less glorious than it could have been if the entire ceremony were held right in front of the Heat bench, but it will still be terrific. Chris Bosh's reaction confirms that:
↵↵↵It's going to suck. I'm not going to like it, but things happen and I think things happen for a reason.
↵I didn't want to hear all the fans. But it's funny because there wasn't a lot of Mavericks fans when I was a kid. But now all of a sudden, everybody's a Mavericks fan.
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As JP Starkey points out, that last comment is hilariously ironic. At any rate, we will be able to celebrate the Mavericks' first truly meaningful banner and the looks on LeBron's, Dwayde's and Chris' faces when it goes up.