in the Dallas Morning News on 10 March 1976. During a KENS-TV broadcast of the 1978 NBA Eastern Conference semi-finals between the Washington Bullets and the San Antonio Spurs, KENS Sports anchor Dan Cook used the phrase in an attempt to encourage Spurs fans, as their team was down three games to one against the Bullets. Motta heard the broadcast and adopted his own rendition of the expression — "The 'opera' isn't over 'til the fat lady sings" — to warn Bullets fans against braggadocio. The odds were against the underdog Bullets, and sportswriters were forecasting a grim finale, so Motta rebounded with the upbeat ostinato, "Wait for the fat lady!" The Bullets won the Eastern Conference against the Atlantic Division Champion Philadelphia 76ers, and went on to beat the Western Conference Champion Seattle SuperSonics four games to three for the 1978 NBA title. The victory gave Washington, D.C. fans their first professional championship team in any sport since the Washington Redskins won the NFL title in 1942. (In Motta's second year as coach, the Bullets had become only the third team to win the NBA championship in a seventh game on the road). That 1978 championship remains the franchise's only NBA championship. After the climactic Game 7 victory to claim the title, Motta celebrated with his team wearing a beer-soaked The Opera Isn't Over 'Til The Fat Lady Sings T-shirt. What made the championship so great was that we weren’t supposed to win it. We came a long way. Most people didn’t give us a chance, but I felt all along we could. I really did. — Dick Motta In a Nov. 5, 2003 interview in the Utah Statesman, the student newspaper of his alma mater Utah State University, Motta said opera lovers were angry with him at first. "My wife said they were going to kill me when I said that." But that as time passed, Motta said, he was extended friendly invitations to a variety of events with "operatic" themes ranging from the Metropolitan Opera in New York to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Dallas Mavericks (1980–1987) Motta was the first head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, hired by the team on July 16, 1980. His first team went 15-67, dead last in the league. They did not lose as many games again until 1992 when they lost 60 games. Motta's Mavericks gradually rose up in