The American Fallen Soldiers Project National Gallery bears the scars of a crime scene. Broken glass is scattered near the window thieves smashed-in Tuesday during a break-in at the Addison nonprofit.
But the gallery's owner, Lisa Taylor, said this was more than a petty crime, it was a desecration.
"We view this as sacred ground. To know that someone would come into a place like that that's basically sacred ground and steal; they're not only stealing from us, but they're stealing from their service. It's very upsetting," Taylor said.
For the last 10 years the American Fallen Soldiers Project has produced painted portraits of fallen soldiers and given them to their families.
The thieves stole nearly $21,000 in computer equipment Taylor's husband, Phil, uses to piece together the lives of soldiers and put them on canvass.
"We gift everything to the families. These guys died for our country and then someone comes in? And with no regard to where they are?" Taylor asked rhetorically."
The incident will likely delay the gallery's grand opening for the foreseeable future, but Taylor said it won't stop her and her husband from continuing to bring comfort to grieving families.
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"This is our service. It has no end date. We're going to do it until we can't do it anymore," she said.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban did what many of his fans wanted him to do, tank.
Cuban admitted this to the Dan Patrick Show one day after his Mavericks were officially slated to select ninth in the June 2017 NBA Draft.
"Once we were eliminated from the playoffs, we did everything possible to lose games," Cuban said. This is not breaking news because many NBA owners have done the same thing. Cuban just had the guts to admit his team was tanking.
The Lakers were doing all they could be lose games at the end of the season to protect their lottery pick and get more chances at the top overall draft pick with a worse record.
I asked Cuban what is the way to solve team from tanking. “The first step towards fixing an issue is admitting to the facts and reality,” replied. “I think it should be more like free agency with each team in the lottery having more or less money based on record.”
Dallas according to Cuban, decided to allow young players more of an opportunity to play major minutes as their strategy to lose games. Yogi Ferrell, Nerlens Noel, Dorain Finney-Smith, Nico Brussino found themselves with lots of playing time in the final 13 games of the season. Dallas would only win three games from March 21, 2017 to the end of the regular season. Dallas was officially eliminated April 1st meaning they won only two of their last seven NBA contests.
Cuban told the Dan Patrick show the Mavs players were not throwing games nor were they told to do so, “Once a guy walks on the court, they're going to play their heart out, Cuban said. “Particularly the young guys because they have something to prove. So Dorian Finney-Smith, Yogi Ferrell, there's nothing you could say or do to them to say 'Don't play hard or try to lose this game.' That wouldn't be right, and I don't think NBA team would do that. But when you have Salah Mejri shooting threes...you know the season's in the tank.”
The Mavericks finished the 2016-17 season 33-49.
One smart marketing ploy Cuban used to not admit publicly during the season the club went into tank mode was the Tony Romo Maverick For A Day stunt which the fans in Dallas ate up with a passion. The Romo game was the final home contest of the year for Dallas.
