Everybody started watching Dallas and finally saw what we’ve been seeing (and writing about) all along.

Being a Mavs fan is not an easy thing. Years of humiliation, frustration and desperate pleas to national media people and other fans to watch the Mavs more before forming an opinion. On Luka Dončić, on the culture and maybe even the approach.

Despite having two of the most groundbreaking and rule-defying superstars over the last two decades, the Mavericks have always been overlooked, under-appreciated and looked down on. That’s what it’s like for a smaller market team, and that’s what it’s like for an outsider, who keeps exceeding expectations.

No one believes you when you tell them about it, because no one is paying attention.

And so, we all get more frustrated and more desperate for our team and our star to get his due and acknowledgement in a world that’s too busy to pay attention and too stubborn to care.

The eternal underdog role becomes a cross we have to bear, a path we’re forced down. Just like the team, its owner and superstars.

And there’s something beautiful in that. When everyone is against you, you move closer together. It’s us against them, the oldest group dynamic of all time, and that’s a powerful force in sports.

When it’s us against them, when it finally works out and the path to success is closer, it’s just that much sweeter.

When it’s us against them, the connection is deeper, the feeling of being an underdog and having something to prove can be the most powerful catalyst imaginable.

And the sweet feeling of being right, of your team being acknowledged finally, is hard to describe. I wonder if there’s really anything quite like it.

And as a writer, it feels weird that the player and team you’ve been following, then covering for years, is finally getting the attention you’ve been pushing for.