Dirk Nowitzki “Bleeds Blue”; Kevin Durant’s Time Is Now

The Mavericks have stayed on our radar more than Tropical storm Isaac in the south after owner Mark Cuban‘s rant about Jason Kidd, justification of not getting Deron Williams, and discussion of Jason Terry‘s place in Dallas lore. Sunday didn’t change much: speculation reigned supreme from another Mavericks’ headliner. This time though we had to pay attention, because it was Dirk Nowitzki on his future. Dirk was on his Twitter account, saying what Mavs fans have wondered since his last contract was signed in 2010: Will there be another contract? Here’s how he is feeling. “2 for sure and then see how I feel.” He won’t join a team manufactured to win a title, such as the Lakers or Heat, because he “bleeds blue” and presumably won’t hop ship for a try at a chip. It was a wide-ranging question-and-answer session to say the least, ranging from Terry (“Fam for life. We won chip together. Wish him well in Boston.”) to pests (“i hate cockroaches”) to how he spent his Sunday afternoon (“chillen”). Yep, Swish41 was answering questions from all comers. If you’re not following him on Twitter yet you have no excuse now. Not saying he’s going to open up the floor for questions like Mitt and Barack on the campaign trail again anytime soon, but you never know what the players are going to put online. When Dirk isn’t tweeting in German that is. … Speaking of Isaac, his predicted landfall near New Orleans has everyone making plans for cover — and the Hornets players working out in town are no different. The 11 players who have been at the team’s training facility are keeping a close watch. … We told you back when the Olympics ended about the possibility of seeing 3-on-3 basketball in the Games in the future. The world championship has already arrived, though, and the women’s title is coming to the U.S. The team of Notre Dame senior Skylar Diggins, Connecticut junior Bria Hartley, Stanford junior Chiney Ogwumike and Ann Strother (a reserve) went 9-0 in Athens for the title over France, 17-16. The win gives Diggins her fifth gold medal in international play and her U.S. teams are unbeaten in their last 23 games together. Not too shabby for the Golden Domer to have another gold to match. Will Weezy send out some more tweets about Diggins after this latest gold? … Of course, we have to belatedly mention that the U.S. team was bounced by Serbia in the quarterfinals. … Deron Williams just chatting up President Clinton today, nothing to see here. … Hit the jump to read about Kevin Durant’s ambition. …

Kevin Durant‘s Era is upon us, according to KD. Not just the year of KD, but a prolonged period where he rules the game. He told The Washington Post “my time is now.” “I’ve got a long way to go to being the ultimate best, but I think my time is now,” he said. “And I’m starting to enter my prime.” Starting to enter his prime? Good lord, with three scoring titles already earned and an NBA Finals trip booked, whatever KD’s picture of his potential is, we want to hear more about it. He said he’s wanted to let people know how he’s felt since the 2011 All-Star game, but that he didn’t want to come off as me-me-me. That leads us to think he’s still holding off. … Wait, did Dirk get the Twitter Q-and-A idea from LeBron? LBJ wasn’t active on there at all during the playoffs, locking down himself for a stretch run he knew would define him. Since then, though, he’s been posting like the rest of us. This weekend he came out and said he’d like to be in Space Jam 2. The movie was hoops gospel when it came out but then again most of us were in grade school when it dropped. But how do you update that movie? Is this the chance to finally pit MJ vs. LeBron or could the ’92 and ’12 Dream Teams team up to fight off another villain? LeBron didn’t come to mind when we were thinking up the 10 players we needed to see in a movie, but he could have potential. Some critics said he couldn’t develop a post game a few years ago, too, remember. … Before Philly got Andrew Bynum this summer we don’t know one person who was thrilled about the offseason moves. Doug Collins, however, is so high on the Sixers’ future he says he wants to coach four or five more years there. Collins was at the first meeting of all 12 members of the ’72 U.S. Olympic team since that controversial loss to Russia on Sunday in Kentucky. He sidestepped the notion of becoming the next Olympic coach but it seemed like he wants to be a part of it (his son, Chris, scouted for Coach K the last two Olympics). He wants it, but he just can’t say it. … Darvin Ham has been one of our favorite players ever since he broke a backboard into pieces and we were stoked to see him on the Lakers’ bench assisting last year. Now he’s one of four people going to Myanmar as part of a “basketball envoy” the U.S. is sending. We hope some of those kids can be as inspired by his hops as we were back in the day. Also heading over is former Myanmar native Rich Cho, Charlotte’s GM, and Marty Conlon and Allison Feaster. … We’re out like Deron and Clinton.