<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody"> This week in the NBA, everybody is unbeaten and bulletproof.</p> If hope springs eternal in baseball, fear falls briefly for the Mavericks and everybody else in the NBA at this time of year.</p> The Mavericks are back in business with oodles of optimism. They will have physical exams this weekend and open training camp on Tuesday. The worries and agony of a long off-season after the epic first-round loss to Golden State will give way to positive vibes and a new commitment.</p> With good reason, says one of the newest Mavericks. Eddie Jones has been around long enough to know when he sees the goods. The Mavericks, in his opinion, have the goods. <span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody"> The 13-year veteran will be one of the few players on the roster this season who did not go through the Golden State humiliation. But he knows plenty about this team, partly from the 2006 playoffs, when Jones was with Memphis and the Mavericks beat the Grizzlies in four games in the first round.</p> What's happened to the Mavericks since then – a failed trip to the Finals in 2006 and a total meltdown in the first round in '07 – will help steel their will, Jones says.</p> "I felt like the team had it that year," Jones said of '06. "Unfortunately, they didn't finish it. That's why this team is growing. It's a steppingstone every year. The first year, they were halfway there. And it was sort of ripped out of their grasp.</p> "And then the next year, you know what happens when you face a team that has your number. That's just the way it goes.</p> "This year, I think they're hungry. Two years in a row with the best record, make it to the Finals and lose ... you've got to be hungry enough to try to attain it now."</div></p> Source: Dallas News</p> </span></span></p> </span></span></p>
