The Old 97’s might be the Dallas Mavericks’ good-luck charm. Earlier this season, the country-rockers were part of Old 97’s Day with the Mavericks, during which they played a pre-game concert and frontman Rhett Miller sang the National Anthem.
The event happened to come at a low point for the season and Miller boldly declared, “We’re going to start a winning streak today.” The Mavs then won five games in a row. Now they’re competing for a spot in the NBA Finals.
“I’m not going to take credit for it ... [but] they’ve been great ever since,” Miller told ESPN.com’s Page 2.
The singer-guitarist is a huge Dallas sports fan, especially of the Mavericks. At that March event, he presented Mavs all-star Dirk Nowitzki with a custom Epiphone guitar that carried both the Old 97’s and the Mavericks logos on the front. The German-born power forward even jammed with the guys.
“We just noodled around,” Miller said. “He’s at a point ... where it’s more about chords and not about ripping through a bunch of songs or anything.”
