DALLAS -- Shaquille O'Neal came to American Airlines Center for the first time with Phoenix last night, and there could be no better poster child to embody the changes that have transformed the Suns and the Mavericks.
Gone forever are the 129-127 shootouts that entertained everybody except the losing coach. In their place is Shaq. And Jason Kidd. And two new coaches who brought with them two new philosophies. And they also are two teams that clearly are improving after radical changes. That's a product of having some together-time since the changes that altered the look of the franchises.
"The key for us this year was we had Jason Kidd from the beginning of training camp, and it gave us a chance to integrate him with the rest of our team and see how we were going to play," coach Rick Carlisle said yesterday. "Phoenix had the same opportunity with Shaq.
"He's still one of the major forces in our game. In terms of inside dominance, he's one of the all-time greats. He would alter the personality of any team he went to -- for the better -- just because of what he's done."
Both teams lost in the first round of the playoffs. Both have former MVPs (Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash) and both expect 50 or more wins.
"It's funny how that works," Nowitzki said. "Both teams were at the top for a lot of years and never really got over the hump and finished the job. If you don't reach your goal -- a championship -- for a couple years in a row, changes are going to be made. We did them, and they did, too. We'll just see how this season plays out for both of us."
