Mavs Fan Jabs At Lakers With Simple Website
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - It has now been more than 24 hours since the Dallas Mavericks swept the Los Angeles Lakers out of the NBA Playoffs, and the sports world is still buzzing about the four-game spanking. But while many Mavs fans will show their support with shirts and caps, it took a creative web designer from Arizona to sum up the victory best.
Sometimes, as the saying goes, less is more. That is certainly the philosophy of "Did the Lakers Get Swept?" -- a website created by Mavs fan Brad Benites. Launched moments after Dallas ousted last year's champs, the site poses its title question and follows with a simple one word answer: Yes.
"I came up with the idea for the site about 30 seconds into the second half of game four, when I realized the Lakers had no chance of coming back," Benites said. After spending 30 minutes to make the site and $7 for the domain name, Benites tweeted his creation to the world. "I never expected it to get as big as it did."
As it turns out, there are tens of thousands of people around the world who either love the Mavericks or despise the Lakers, and were happy to find a comical way to celebrate the Dallas win.
The site had reached over 118,000 views by Monday night, Benites said, adding that the number "increases exponentially" every hour and had seen web traffic from 121 countries. "Who would've thought that somebody in Kazakhstan actually cared whether or not the Lakers got swept?" wondered Benites.
Much of the site's success can be credited to Twitter, so one can only imagine who may have seen the simple-yet-epic jab at the Lakers. Perhaps Dirk Nowitzki? Kobe Bryant? Mark Cuban? "As long as Khloe Kardashian sees it, I'll be happy," said Benites, talking of course about the oft-mocked reality star wife of Lakers forward Lamar Odom, who got himself ejected in Sunday's series-ending game after a flagrant foul.
But Benites would surely be thrilled to receive attention from members of the Mavericks franchise, too. "I became a Mavericks fan when my wife and I were visiting our friends in Dallas during the 2006 NBA Playoffs," Benites said. "Obviously it was a heartbreaking ending, but I was hooked."
Benites moved to Dallas shortly afterward, but then left for Arizona in 2009. Still, he may have now cemented his place in Mavs fan lore. "I'll be a Mavericks fan forever," Benites said. "It's also just really easy to hate the Lakers."
