To the surprise of many — perhaps even the players themselves — the tortured season of the Dallas Mavericks will continue for at least one more game after the team pulled off the upset road win, 120-106, against the Sacramento Kings, in the NBA’s play-in round.
Helping the Mavs procure the win, starting forward PJ Washington finished with 17 point, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists in the season-saving win for the 10th-seeded Mavericks.
In what’s been a glimmer of something to celebrate in an otherwise brutal season (more on that shortly), nobody would blame Mavs stars like Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson for celebrating with some libations.
But Washington? He’s likely got his face buried in the Bible — and he should be commended for proudly sharing that with the world.
In a piece published by Andscape hours before the critical play-in game, the site spoke to Washington about how his Bible travels everywhere with him these days.
(And, as an aside, a rare bit of kudos to the notoriously leftist ESPN for allowing this piece to be published on a site it owns.)
The outlet said that Washington takes his Bible “everywhere for worship and daily guidance,” after finding it at his home after a game against the Charlotte Hornets (Washington’s former team) in January.
Prior to that, Washington had been using a Bible app.
“I just felt the need to just bring with me every day,” Washington told Andscape. “I know [God is] with me every step of the way, but He’s definitely here more now. Just being in the Word more, I just feel like it just opens up everything just in life. I’m just so much happier, and I just feel a lot better about myself …
Do you enjoy when athletes espouse their Christian beliefs?
“I just felt the need to get closer to God. I’ve been praying more and being in the word only helps me. I just encourage everybody else to do the same. God offers so much for all of us, and we wouldn’t be here in this position without Him. So, He deserves all the praise, glory and worship, and we deserve to do that for Him.”
Washington explained that the faith-forward approach extended to the entire team: “[W]e all keep God first and are just trying to go out there and fight for Him.”
The 6-foot-7 forward also cited one verse in particular that has helped him during a brutal year.
“Proverbs 3:5-6. It was also my first tattoo [on my chest],” Washington said. “‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Always submit to Him, and He will leave your path straight.’
“Leave it all up to Him. That’s all we can do. Keep praying, keep worshiping and keep believing. Just keep fighting.”
About that brutal year: Few sports teams have gone through the sort of disastrous year that the Mavericks have just gone through — and that’s coming from a longtime MFFL, or “Mavs Fan for Life,” who was there when the team won 24 games total in two seasons (1992-94).
No, this was the sort of sports year for the Mavs that truly does test one’s faith.
For starters, injuries have ravaged this team, which has never been fully healthy at any point this season. Various contributors like Dante Exum, Daniel Gafford, and Derek Lively II have all missed a large number of games.
That’s to say nothing of Mavs superstar Kyrie Irving — one of the most electric ball handlers in the sport’s history — tearing his ACL in early March.
Yes, every team has had a season or three torpedoed by rampant injury, but the Mavs made things so much worse by trading their then 25-year-old wunderkind Luka Doncic to the loathsome Los Angeles Lakers for the aforementioned Davis in a blockbuster Feb. 1 trade.
Davis is a great player and an NBA champion, but is also 32 and suffering through an injury-riddled season. Doncic, meanwhile, had a deep connection with the Mavs fan base, to say nothing of the fact that he’s generally considered a top 5 current NBA player by anyone with even a passing knowledge of basketball.
The trade has seemingly caused irreperable harm between those MFFLs and the entire Dallas front office regime, including Governor Patrick Dumont, general manager Nico Harrison and head coach Jason Kidd.
Having a player the caliber and age of Doncic and trading him for any player on the backside of their prime was NBA malpractice. The Dallas front office has made it so much worse with the way it’s tried to explain it away.
And that’s trickled onto the players. The fans’ love for Doncic was so deep that it almost seems like they resent Davis, who is little more than an innocent bystander in all of this.
When Doncic scored 45 points in an easy Lakers win over the Mavericks in Dallas on April 7, the home fans actually cheered for the road Slovenian Laker star.
That’s got to be a surreal feeling for the home players.
And yet, those players clearly have the ultimate guidance through all of that noise, if Washington’s indeed being truthful that the whole team takes a Christ-forward approach to life.
At the very least, Washington takes a Christ-forward approach to his social media, where he’s just as likely to be praising God as he is to be posting a team highlight.
God is undefeated
— PJ Washington (@PJWashington) July 20, 2019
When he’s not posting about it, he’s re-posting about it:
Jesus saw the ugliest version of me and still didn’t walk away. That’s love I can’t explain.
— Holy Gabbana (@holygabbana) April 3, 2025
The future may not be bright for the Mavs as a basketball team, but as men? They appear to be doing just fine.
The Mavericks next play Friday in Memphis in the final play-in round. The winner will go on to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.
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