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CBS' Jim Spanarkel looks back happily on days with original Mavs, even the time a tiger was brought to the locker room

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Pictured: Jim Spanarkel.

Maverick fans of a certain generation may remember Jim Spanarkel, the player, charged this weekend with analyzing Sweet 16 games for Turner and CBS.

Spanarkel, who is courtside Friday night for the Baylor-South Carolina men's game at Madison Square Garden, was an original.

He joined the Mavericks in the 1980 expansion draft designed to stock Dallas' new NBA team with disposable bodies. A 6-5 guard in the pre-Mike Krzyzewski era at Duke, Spanarkel was the 16th pick of the 1979 draft. But things didn't quite work out with his first employer, the Philadelphia 76ers, where his teammates included Dr.