Money in the Manck: My night of greatness

Every now and then, something happens in your life that you will never forget.

A night that can only be described as greatness.

This past Saturday was one of those nights for me.

As a dedicated fan and season ticket holder, I was at the FC Dallas soccer match in Frisco, which started at the same time as the Mavericks game.

And our soccer game was simply awful. Then we decided to check our cell phones for Mavs scores at halftime, and those were highly depressing as well.

This was looking to be the worst sports Saturday I’d had in a long time.

But sometime as we were walking back to the tailgate party from FCD’s 2-1 loss, something happened.

As we set up the satellite dish and television to watch the Mavs, they came back.

The first Dallas possession we had the privilege of seeing was the first Mavericks lead of the second half.

A few minutes later, many frosty cold adult beverages were raised in honor of Dallas’ 102-93 victory.

The Mavs are going to the Finals! The freaking MAVERICKS!?!

Nobody could believe it was actually happening.

That’s when my night took a turn towards greatness.

Around 11:30 p.m., my phone rang with my friend Matt’s number in the caller ID.

“Hey man, how irresponsible do you want to be tonight?”I knew that only good things could come from this.

Matt had heard on the Ben and Skin Mavericks Playoff Postgame Show on KTCK-AM 1310 “The Ticket,” that the Mavericks were flying into Love Field around 2:30 a.m.

We were so there.

After gathering about seven of us at Matt’s house in Dallas, someone got the bright idea of calling into the postgame show, just to see if we could slip a naughty word into the broadcast.

These calls transmogrified themselves into impromptu chanting sessions, noting that the Mavs were awesome, everyone else was not, and the producer of the show was sub-par.

Around 1:30 a.m., Ben and Skin (yes, Skin is his name) thought the calls were so funny, there were multiple live postgame updates from “Josh’s Backyard.”

More people came by, and we eventually caravaned down Northwest Highway towards Love Field.

After parking a few blocks away, an audible roar of the crowd could be heard past the hangar.

As we crossed Lemmon Ave. towards the masses, the Mavs’ Boeing 757 with the logo on the tail swooped down, but never touching the runway. A flyby to tease the hungry crowd. Our group of nine started sprinting towards the private terminal.

Thousands upon thousands of people were there, and more were coming in from the streets.

I could only imagine that this was what Beatlemania was like.

As the players made their way off the plane, the collective arm raising and yelling made everyone best friends.

After a few brief speeches from a few players, Avery Johnson and Mark Cuban (none of which we could hear), people started to make their exits.

But someone saw a large throng of people near where we thought the Maverick players would drive out.

And then someone noticed a large man with a microphone. It was Ben from The Ticket! Our night was taking a turn towards legendary.

Me: “Hey man, you’re Ben. Right?”Ben: “Yeah....wait. Are you Josh?”

Ben, his assistant Jamie and the producer Mike Turley immediately decided there was a need to record this moment for posterity.

As we were letting Ben know that we were indeed “Josh’s Backyard,” other people who were listening to the show remembered our creative chants in the backyard. The chants degrading the Miami Heat started once again.

None of those chants can be printed in this publication.

And as Turley proceeded to be unable to work his recorder, the chants about him rose again.

It was surreal. My friends and I had influenced the masses.

Then, Ben was on the phone with other Maverick media types, trying to organize a post-post-game get together.

A night of sheer disappointment had transformed itself into a night of greatness, the likes of which have never been seen in my 23 years.

Ultimately, the party was never arranged.

We weren’t going to get to hang out with the big shot media folks. Turley screwed something up again, and they had to fix it.

But at 3:30 a.m., after the Mavs had just added another chapter to Dallas sports history, I couldn’t blame anybody for ditching us.

We needed a nap. Badly.

But know this, after every Mavericks game in the NBA Finals, there will most definitely be updates on the Ben and Skin Mavericks Playoff Postgame Show from “Josh’s Backyard.”

The night of greatness...will live on.



On the Radio:The Ben and Skin Mavericks Playoff Postgame Show

can be heard immediately following every Mavericks playoff game on KTCK-1310 AM “The Ticket”



Josh Manck can be reached at 817-645-2441, ext. 2335, or sportsreporter@trcle.com