The Mavericks on Saturday unveiled their new locker room, which is "bathed mostly in white with blue lighting and tons of luxurious touches," according to Eddie Sefko of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. The "most significant upgrade is in the oxygen system, lighting system and the scents that are pumped into the room." Mavs Owner Mark Cuban said, "One of the things we looked at was what else we could do to give ourselves an advantage. Having spent too many hours in casinos with Dirk (Nowitzki) and other players, we noticed that it keeps us up. There are things they did that kept us awake all night long. So we reached out to scientists that re-oxygenate the casinos to keep people awake and alert. It pulls out the oxygen, cleans it and re-oxygenates it. And we did the same thing with the lighting. There are different types of lights and colors." Sefko noted certain scents will be used to get "maximum alertness out of players." Meanwhile, the actual locker stalls have ventilated shoe drawers and "bigger screens for their televisions and laptops." Cuban "declined to give a ballpark figure on how much the renovation cost" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 10/1). Cuban said of new facial-recognition technology installed in the locker room, "When a player walks in or anybody walks in, we’ll have facial recognition that will take a picture of you and say ok, 'Here comes Mark,' 'Here comes Dirk.' And for any of the players or any of the staff, it'll put coaches' notes, here's what you're expected to do and tell you what's going on" (USATODAY.com, 9/30).
