NBA Finals 2011: Mavs @ Heat Post Game Six Quotes "Congratulations"

What the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat said 
after Game 6.

Quotes

Mavericks

Coach Carlisle

(Opening Statement) "I would like to say a couple of things before taking questions. First of all, as I mentioned on the court, our owner is now available for interviews. (Laughter). So you can talk to him.

I'm so happy for him. I'm so happy for Dirk. I'm so happy for the Mavericks' organization, which is such a class organization, as are the Miami Heat. A few minutes after the game, Pat Riley came down to congratulate us. And he just showed unbelievable class. We appreciate that. I know Mr. Arison a little bit. He's one of the great people. And so we hold them in high regard. They were a terrific team. And their time will come, but now it's our time. I also want to say hi to Donna and Abby at home. Hi, guys. See you tomorrow."

(On the Mavs) "This is a special team. This is the most special team that I've ever been around, because it's not about what you can't do; it's about what you can do. It's not about what your potential short comings are; it's what we could accomplish as a group together. And it was just phenomenal to be around them. In my third year, I've learned so much from these guys. Especially Jason Kidd. His view of the game is so different, and he's savant like. He's just been a thrill and a privilege to spend time with him. I don't think there's any doubt after this series that Dirk has certainly earned the clout of being one of the all time great players. His versatility, how he's done it in the clutch. He goes 1 for 12 in the first half, and then in the second half he was just absolute money. And so I'm really thrilled for him. A couple of people I want to thank that are behind the scenes guys. I want to thank Coach Tim Grguich, who came on board on a part time basis and made a big difference for. And Don Kalkstein, who is our director of sports psyche, who has been a phenomenal resource not only for me but for our players."

(On what he's most proud of) "The collective toughness of the group. It's a team that when you view it from afar, it doesn't look like a physically bruising type team. So a lot of people don't think we have the grit and the guts and the mental toughness. This is as mentally tough team I've been around. I was fortunate to play in the '80s with Boston teams. They were mentally tough. Those were four Hall of Famers on those teams. What these guys were able to do collectively, guys like Cardinal, Mahinmi, Barea, these guys played major, major roles in an elimination game in a championship series. You can't dismiss how everybody stayed ready and how everybody answered the bell.
So I am just really proud to be around this group."

(On struggles) "We had a saying, Mavericks' basketball is 48 minutes. It's not 36, it's not 40. It's 48. And over the course of 48 minutes, we're going to find a way to stay in a game. We're going to find a way to win a game. This team has more resourcefulness and grit and guts than any team I've ever been around. Game 2 was probably the key to the series. Because you go down 0 2, it's very difficult. So coming back from that deficit, coming back in Game 4 in Oklahoma City, those are key games. Because the Oklahoma City game keeps you from going six or seven games, which is really key. And again, it starts with your best players. Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, who was phenomenal tonight. I mean, absolutely 11 for 16 from the floor, 27 points. This guy is willing to come off the bench. I just can't tell you as a coach what it means to have guys that are that committed to winning that they will make those kinds of sacrifices."

(On JET) "We have a lot of guys with questionable sanity. It's not just him. It's interesting. A series like this gets very personal. It gets personal because we have guys that say things, and they do it to get themselves going. Then they have the incident with the camera and the coughing and all that stuff. You get to Game 5, Game 6, and it becomes personal. Our guys took it personally tonight. They were not going to be denied. Dirk and Jet have had to live for five years with what happened in 2006, and as of tonight, those demons are officially destroyed. They have made a statement that's a colossal statement. Not just about our team, but the game in general. Playing it a certain way. Trusting the pass. Playing collectively. Believing in each other. Our team is not about individual ability; it's about collective will, collective grit, collective guts. We're skilled and talented, too, but our game is on the ground. And the guys we were playing, their game was in the air. Fortunately, as the series went on, we stayed on the ground enough to be able to win it."

(On what Dirk was drinking at halftime in the locker room after that poor first half) "I saw YOU drinking in the locker room. (Laughter)."

(On being old) "Look, Miami's time is going to come. Their talent is undeniable. At some point it's going to carry the day. There's no doubt about that. But their time is not now. Our time is now. It needed to be now. They had a great phrase, "now is the time for us," and it was. It had to be. But the run that we went on with Dirk out of the game, the only thing I can chalk that up to you is one word, resourcefulness. We have the definition of the word "resourceful" in our locker room. It means able to devise ways and means to accomplish a difficult task in a challenging situation. That's what they did. Look, I can't tell you exactly how that's possible, but that's the kind of guys that Donnie Nelson, Mark Cuban have gotten on our roster. And it's one of the reasons that coaching this team has been so special."

(On if the Mavs laid a blueprint or if they are unique) "This is one of the really unique teams. This is my opinion now. This is one of the unique teams in NBA history. Because it wasn't about high flying star power. Come on, how often do we have to hear about the LeBron James reality show and what he is or isn't doing? When are people going to talk about the purity of our game and what these guys accomplished? That's what's special. And I played with Larry Bird, I played with Bill Walton, I played with Robert Parish, I played with Dennis Johnson. I played with the all time greats. And Dirk is up there with that upper, upper echelon of great players. He's arguably the most unique players in the history of the game. Because there's never been a seven foot player that has developed his skill and his resourcefulness for being able to find ways to score. And he's also a very underrated defensive player. When he wasn't on the floor, our defense suffered as well. I'm so proud of what our team stood for. I kept having people come up to me the last three or four days, "Hey, there's billions of people rooting for you guys. There's billions of people rooting for you guys." And we could feel it. We could feel it. We knew it was very important that we won this series for those reasons. Because of what the game is about, and what the game should stand for. And I'm so, so proud to be a small part of that."

Dirk Nowitzki

(Is this any sweeter because you got it done in Miami?) "Oh, man, I don't know. I mean, obviously that was one of my most disappointing losses in my career, to lose the Final series after being up 2-0. It took so long just to get here. I don't really know if it would have made a difference. Just this feeling to be on the best team of the world is just undescribable."

(On Terry) "Was he unbelievable tonight or what? Coming out right away in the first half and setting a tone. I think he watched me struggle there early, and he took it upon himself to really attack and look for his shot early and get going early. Man, he kept coming all night long. He was phenomenal. That one timeout he said to me, "Keep pushing. Remember '06." He said that to me in the fourth quarter. We kept plugging. It wasn't pretty for me, but I had to keep plugging and keep fighting."

(On Monkey off tha back) "I don't really think that way right now. If you're in this league for 13 years of just battling and playoffs last basically ten years, 11 years, and always coming up a little short. That's why this is extra special.
If I would have won one early in my career, maybe I would have never put all the work and the time in that I have over the last 13 years. So this feels amazing. I'm happy for Kidd. What a warrior he is at 38, chasing the most athletic players in this league out there and doing a great job on him, and also leading our squad. He's been in this league forever and had two chances. Just an unbelievable team. I said it all season long. We had great chemistry with the guys. We had fun in the locker room, on the buses and stuff. So this is a special group. We're world champions. It sounds unbelievable."

(On soft, clutch etc) "Well, I just think we're a resilient bunch, and we saw it. This whole series we were down some. We kept battling back. Kept believing in each other. I just think this is a win of team basketball. This is a win for playing as a team on both ends of the floor, of sharing the ball, of passing the ball, and we've been doing that all season long. I'm happy. We never looked at ourselves as soft. Not for one minute. And we just kept fighting."

(On the Importance of Carlisle) "Well, I think he's an experienced coach, and he pushed all the right buttons, and it took us a while to find a good mix. I think I mentioned that yesterday, of still keeping our defensive principles that Avery installed and also giving Kidd a little more freedom on the offensive end, letting him run the show a little bit, letting him create and letting him call some plays on the fly and push the pace up a little bit. So I think that he did a great job doing that, and during the course of the season, we had to adjust to some stuff. I thought in The Finals he did some phenomenal adjustments here to start J.J., and then decide to let Peja really sit for the series, bring Cardinal in, who has been phenomenal for us this series. Constant pro. Always stayed ready for us. It's an unbelievable team effort and the coaches and the whole organization. I give Mark a lot of credit. Cuban. He stuck with me through thick and thin. He brought all the right players always in, always trying to spend money and make this organization better and this team better. So, Mark is the best."

(On the Shitlist (Barkley's choice of words)) "Man, this is what I obviously played for the last couple of years. I think when you come in in this league you want to establish yourself. All these All Star Games and all those things are nice, in scoring, but when you get to a certain age, you've basically seen it all, and all you play for is for that ring. And I think that's the kind of energy we had from the beginning of the season this year, bringing Tyson in, who was unbelievable for us defensively again. Yeah, it feels amazing now to know that nobody can ever take this away from us again, and for one year we're the best team that was out there. That feels amazing."

(On when he felt they had it) "Well, I think in a lot of games we kept fighting back. All the wins we got in the fourth quarter, at some point we were down, besides today, and the way we kept plugging. Even in Game 5, we were up like 7 or 8. They made a huge run and they go up by a couple of points. And we had to battle back again and fight through it. So I don't really know where it happened, but we're just a resilient, veteran team that always kept coming. We never stopped playing, and we kept believing in each other. That was phenomenal. We talked about it in several time outs, even when we were down, we have to keep executing, keep playing. You never know what's going to happen. And some of these wins we were able to come back. That was big."

(On Leadership, calling out others, etc) "Well, you know, I think at the beginning I had some problems with the leadership role and talking. But over the last couple of years I think I've been more comfortable. Obviously my English is a lot better than it was when I first got here. So it's just being more experienced, more comfortable talking to the guys, talking to the fellows, and the experience of seeing something on the court that you want to address. And I just think it all came together for me with hard work and experience. It still feels unbelievable."

(On his shooting)  "It was weird. In the first half I had so many good looks. I can't even explain it. I had some threes top of the key. I had a wide open three in the corner. I had some pull ups. I had some one leg fadeaways that I normally make. But like I said, the team always told me, stay with it, stay with it. You're too good of a shooter, too good of a player to keep missing. So finally there in the third I made a three, and there in the fourth I was able to make a couple of pull ups. But like I said, this team every time somebody was down all season long, somebody else stepped in and picked them up. Mahinmi was unbelievable today, since Haywood went out a couple of days ago, and he gives us energy. All of a sudden makes some big shots today. So I think all season long if somebody was down, the team picked him up. So it was an amazing effort."

(On staying in Dallas and things now being different as far as careerearviewmirrorlooks are concerned) "I don't know. That's something I'll look back to and I can always look back to the '10 '11 season and say we're the world champs. Nobody can ever take that away from me. So that's really the best thing about this. Sticking to Dallas, that was the plan. We fell short so many times, and I committed for four more years this summer, and we didn't really know what was going to happen. We were a first round, second round exit a bunch of times. But consistency pays off. Like I said, Mark kept bringing in players. Losing Caron this year was an unbelievable blow. We kept playing, kept fighting through. Bringing Peja in, who was a big addition for us in earlier rounds of the playoffs. So it wouldn't have felt right to win it somewhere else. I'm happy. I obviously made the right decision. And this is also for the Mavs fans, who have been through a lot of disappointments with me over the last couple of years. And they always stuck with me and kept supporting us. And the gym was always full in Dallas during the regular season. This is for them."

Jason Terry

"Best believe"

(On his shooting, a la Lakers Game 4?) "No, it was nothing like the Lakers game. But to be able to get hot in the game to this magnitude, obviously, all the credit goes to my teammates. Greatest point guard in the world, he's sitting right next to me. Hall of Famer. Understands where to get his teammates the ball in the right situations, in situations to be successful. And I was able to do that early in the game."

(On Faith, Dirk, MVP) "My faith, first of all, is in God. And with that comes the confidence, knowing that you can be successful when you play with guys like we have on this team. You look at what Dirk was able to accomplish this postseason. He played like none other. The year he won MVP doesn't even compare to what he did this year in the postseason. All the critics talked about what he couldn't do, where he fell short. But to carry this team the way he's done is just phenomenal. I'm just happy to be a part of it."

(On 05-06) "Going in we never used '05 '06 as a motivating factor. Two totally different teams. You look at what we did along the way, along our journey, getting past Portland. Nobody said we could. Doing what we did to the Lakers. We continued to grind it out, believing in each other, and showed huge resiliency every time we stepped on the court. I thought in this series there was a time and situation where there was a turning point. That was in Game 2. Down 15, we all looked at each other, and we continued to believe. And we win that game and the rest is history."

(On Dirk) "Well, Dirk has huge resolve. Regardless of what people say about him, he's going to come to the gym every day and prepare the same way. He's been doing it for so long, and he still doesn't get the credit that he deserves. What he's able to do at his size, at his height, you haven't seen this before. The way he shoots the ball, the way he gets the shot off. What set him apart from all those other years, he made his teammates better. We look back on this whole entire year and what we've accomplished, you're going to look at Dirk Nowitzki's performance, you're going to look at the numbers, but what he meant to Shawn Marion, to Tyson Chandler, to myself, to Jason Kidd, to J.J. Barea, making us raise our level to another level. That's when you have a superstar. And that's when you have a Hall of Famer."

(Maybe my favorite moment of the whole night is you keep catching your reflection in the trophy and it's cracking you up. You mentioned the turning point was in Game 2. You guys both mentioned that. You got down 15. The celebration took place right in front of your bench. You followed LeBron out on the court. You stopped, you guys didn't get into it or anything, but you woke up from that point. You became a different player. I'm not saying that motivated the team or anything, but it seemed to motivate you. And now there's no bulletin board here, there's no reason to be PC, did that inspire you?) "Deuce is funny. He said being from Oakland, he said it brought out the GP in me. Everybody know who GP is, Gary Payton. One of my idols. A good friend. We're playing for the NBA Championship. In no way, shape or form with seven minutes left on the clock the game was over. As long as there's time on that clock, this Maverick team is going to play to the end."

(On Dirk starting 1 for 12) "It wasn't about me carrying the team. It was doing my job. My job is to come in and provide a spark, make plays, make shots. I did my job, and I knew if Dirk continued to get the shots he was getting, those were good shots. He wasn't forcing anything. It was coming off great ball movement. I told Jason, I said, "You might want to talk to him, but I know what I'm going to tell him." After Deuce said something to him, I told him about halftime, "'05 '06." I don't know what it did, but after that he got hot."

(On the little kid inside him) "Well for me, I just think about my journey. Where I come from in the city of Seattle, growing up many nights on the playground, emulating the greats, Isiah Thomas, even my hometown heroes like Slick Watts, Downtown Freddy Brown, Magic. Now I'm in the same breath as those guys. They're champions. Dr. J texted me before Game 6. He said, "Hey, son, it's your time." I responded to him, "I want to be a champion, just like you." Now I am."

(On Revenge and America vs Heat) "Again, it was not our motivating factor going in. Now that we have done it, you can say it was sweet vindication. We've been on the other end. We've been the team most hated, the team that's not picked to do anything. So we really didn't care what the critics were saying or what America thought. We just knew that each individual man in that locker room had what it took to win a championship."

Jason Kidd

(On this Mavs team vs all his others, what sets them apart) "I think adversity. We got off to a great start at the beginning of the season. Dirk was playing, if not at an MVP type season, and then we lose Caron and Dirk. And so everybody wrote us off but ourselves. I think going through that period where we lost six in a row and looked at each other and said we got to find a way, because those two aren't coming back anytime soon. Guys stepped up, and we turned it around. I think just going through the journey of those injuries made us a better team, because we had to do a lineup change, and then we did the lineup change during The Finals. And we didn't skip a beat. We just kept playing. That just shows the character of this team. No matter how old you are, we understood how to play the game, by passing the ball and making sure that we didn't take shots where three or four guys are on you. We just made the extra pass. We didn't care who put the ball in the basket."

(On figuring out the Heat D since Gm4) "I think the big thing is understanding the Heat and the way they play defense. They're a big help team. And they over help a lot of times. And we just felt early in the series we were getting great looks. We just couldn't make a shot. And as the series went on, we felt if we kept moving the ball, we're going to get those same shots, and those shots were going to start to go in for us. And I thought at the end of Game 4 and then in Game 5, the dam in a sense broke. We felt, we're a confident group, that this is the way we're going to play and we're going to continue to play until we find a way to win."

(On the turning point of the Series) "Shoot, the turning point was in that Game 2, when we looked at each other and we found a way to win, being down 15. We were in that same boat in the Oklahoma series. We were in the same boat in the Portland series, where actually, we were in that same situation in every series we were in. Portland we give up the 23 point lead and lose, and we looked at each other and said that can't happen again. And so L.A. Game 1 we're down 16 or 15 and we find a way to win that. So I think we were a little bit comfortable playing from behind. As much as we wanted to get the lead, it just didn't happen."

(On joking about his age for years) "You guys have talked about it for a long time."

(On winning at his age) "It's all about my teammates. When you surround yourself with positive guys, young guys that keep you young. And when you look at Jet, you look at Dirk, these guys can shoot the ball with the best of them. So that was my challenge, that I wanted to compete and to help my team, I had to be able to knock down the three to make it easier for these guys. So I worked on it every day. And no matter what age, as long as you feel you can do something to help your team win, it's a positive thing. I think for me my whole thing was I didn't have to score, but my calmness of telling guys to relax and what I saw out there that maybe helped guys defensively or on the offensive end. So being 38, you guys talked about it a lot. I don't feel 38 mentally or physically. I feel great."

(On adding the Chip to his resume) "Man, it's a dream come true. It's not real right now, because just the battles against the Heat and understanding the journey, it's been a long journey for 17 years. I thought I had an opportunity in '03 to win a championship, and I was on the other end; we lost to the Spurs. My teammates, their character and their will to come every day and work to get better, they deserve all the credit. And so I'm just happy to be at the right place at the right time."

(On Mr. Carter, who drafted him in 94) "I think this is huge for the Carter family. For the down years that Dallas has had and then to still be a part of it once Cuban bought the team, and just to see this day come, I mean, I think they're on cloud nine. We're so happy for them because of what they've done for the franchise is big, because Dallas before only won 27 games or 30 games. And once Cuban took over, he set the bar high of winning 50 games. So to finally finish across the line of the marathon in first place is huge."

Tyson Chandler

(You are a world champion) "This is unbelievable. Unbelievable. We did it for you, Dallas. We worked hard. We came together through training camp, through the regular season. Everything we did, we did it all for you, and now we're bringing a trophy back for everyone."

(On the journey) "It's been unbelievable. This team, through injuries, through ups and downs, and to get to this point now and be world champions, I don't even know if it's sunk in yet. It's unbelievable."

(What was it like to see Dirk hoist the championship trophy and hoist the MVP trophy?) "Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Peja Stojakovic - we really did it for those guys. And Jason Terry, excuse me. Those guys have been to a championship, been to Western Conference Finals, never got over the hump. And to be able to win now, have a legacy, when they decide to retire, as champions, it's an amazing feeling."

(I'm not asking you to take a shot at the Miami Heat, but they're a team of three, you guys are an entire team. In this series, that showed) "We were definitely a team, but those guys gave us everything we could handle. They're impressive players, athletes. You know, they're a tough team. Give them credit for making it this far. I'm sure it's tough for them right now, but they've had an unbelievable season."

(On Dirk's former labels) "They can no longer say that. They can no longer say that! Dirk Nowitzki is a champ, baby. You can throw all that soft out the window. The man is a champion!

Shawn Marion

(What's up?) "I'm excited. This is what this is all about. Twelve years, and man, I'm a champion. Nobody can take this away from me. We went out here, and all the doubters, all the haters, and we go out there and took this. And we did it the right way: with class, with dignity, and great basketball, and a great team. And I love these guys. We went out here. I came here two years ago to win a championship, and we did it, and that's what it's about."

(Did you think it was possible from the start?) "Once we got it rolling in the playoffs. In that first round, it seemed like we just got it clicking and we just took no prisoners. Everybody was on each other, and we were just doing it."

(On doubts in the 4th) "No. We've been legitimate. We've been determined to win, and that's what it's about."

(On being close before and winning now) "Great. You've got so many people that have been destined here. Everybody's been having that edge for a long time. We started this playoffs with our stomachs empty, now they're full. It's full, and it's gonna get more fuller."

Heat

Coach Spoelstra

(On the Season's End) "I think it goes without saying you're never really prepared, you know, for a moment like this. That's certainly not what we were expecting. Our hats go off to Dallas. Neither team deserved this championship more than the other, but Dallas earned it, and they should be congratulated. When it was time for them to make tough plays and make big baskets in crunch time when they needed it, they did. We had opportunities. There's certainly an emptiness right now with our group. We've been through a heck of a lot this season, where in many ways it felt like two seasons built in one. There's no excuses. There's no blame. Sometimes you simply come up short. All of the storylines and noise out there, that had nothing to do with this series and the outcome. But it doesn't make it feel any easier for the guys in the locker room. One day we'll probably be able to look back on this, sometime this summer, when the emptiness and the pain leaves, and we'll feel better about what happened. It's a special group. A lot of guys sacrificed to make this happen. It was unfortunate we just came up short."

(On Lebron) "Tonight they went to the zone obviously late in the first quarter and that took us out of our rhythm. They were in a very good flow. That's what they do. They don't stay in the zone very long. But it's enough to get you a little bit out of your rhythm, out of your comfort zone. By the time they come back into man, you've lost some possessions. So when he was able to be aggressive, the zone took him out of that. But he was still trying to make an impact. And ultimately you do have to give Dallas some credit."

(On LeBron vs Chicago compared to vs Dallas) "Each series is different. I've said this many times and certainly I can say it to you all out there, it's a lot easier said than done. You do have to give credit to the Mavericks. They weren't given enough credit this season as a defensive team, but they're much improved. And so they were able to do some things that got us out of our rhythm, certainly from the first three rounds. LeBron has been a lightning rod for a lot of everything. Criticism, and a lot of the noise that's been created outside. I think it's really unfair. He made a tremendous sacrifice to come here, and he's been an ultimate team player. He should not be criticized for that.
Sometimes there's no excuses, there's no blame, sometimes you just simply come up short. And the competition you're playing against sometimes plays better."

(What's wrong with him?) "No, there's nothing physically wrong. Looking back on it, I'm sure all summer, I'll wish I could probably find ways to make it easier for our guys. Particularly in this series. We struggled at times. Sometimes we looked good offensively, other times we looked out of rhythm and we looked a little out of character. Again, I think part of that is the competition."

(On what he told his team) "Some of the same messages I told you. Some of them are between myself and the team. But this group has been through a lot this season. Not at all looking for any kind of sympathy. It was a memorable season, in terms of a group of guys coming together for a common goal to sacrifice a lot of things that they're comfortable with. It was a hard working, lunch pail type mentality group that came to work every day to try to chase down this dream. There's an emptiness when you don't reach your goal. There's nothing we can say right now that will make that pain go away. Maybe it's as simple as it being a rite of passage before we have to move on and take the next step."

(On resting LeBron at the start of the 4th) "Yeah. We had talked about it before the game. It was going to be a 1 1/2 minute, 2 minute burst depending on the game. It was either going to be right at the quarter or one minute into the quarter to take us to the nine minute timeout."

(On the 'special' season) "Well, I'm sure all of the unusual circumstances the way this team was viewed, right or wrong or indifferent, we had to go through a lot together. And it's really a beautiful thing. Where you are forced into uncomfortable zones, where there's some adversity, where there are things that you have to band together to get through. There's no question about it that we became a tougher team. A mentally tougher team by going through a lot of the things together, a lot of the pain. But we just couldn't get over this final hump."

(On 'Not 2, not 3...' - too much pressure?) "It doesn't matter what happened back then. We had an opportunity right now. That didn't affect it. It didn't affect our play. It didn't affect our competition. We put ourselves in a position to have an opportunity, and it might be as simple as that. We came up short. We got beat by a team that played better than us. Particularly at the moment of truth."

(On Dallas) "They'll be known as NBA champions. Nobody will ever take that away from them. Who cares about any other storyline. They have a bunch of Hall of Famers on that team, a lot of winners, a tremendous amount of experience. Those guys have been through some pain, some heartache, and that hardens you. It toughens you to when you get to the moment of truth, that they were able to respond. Dirk Nowitzki is simply one of the all time greats. And he was when we played him in 2006. His game has continued to elevate in his 30s. That's a remarkable thing. I think that's a great lesson for NBA players. You can still improve as you get older and add more skills and dimensions to your game. He is probably one of the most indefensible players in this league, because of his skill set, his shooting and his size. And now he's seen every single coverage he can possibly see."

(How much is this your fault and how much a process?) "No question about it. It will start with the leadership, and that's something that I'll be spending a great deal of time this summer on things we could have done better, things we could have done during the season to help us better prepare for this moment. It's too early to say right now, but it starts with the head coach."

(If losing before winning was part of his message to the team) "No. It could be that it is a rite of passage, but that's not what we were thinking about. This is the furthest thing from my mind, that I would be up here in front of you all right now. I told the guys before the game, don't apologize. Don't apologize for being confident. We thought that this was going to Game 7, and we thought that's where we would be our best. It just didn't happen that way. So we still have a young core. It's a bright future. In the next upcoming weeks, I'm sure we'll be able to highlight that in a better mood."

(On having 'enough') "Well, I mean, that will be a great question for my mentor, for Pat. Again, that's probably the furthest thing from my mind right now. Clearly, sitting where I am right now, I felt we had enough. And certainly you could watch this series and each game over and over and over and make a case that we had enough. But in the moment of truth, they played better than us four times."

(On execution, turnovers) "You know, it's probably a combination of a lot of things. You know, again, the habits that we built all season long would suggest that how we played at times during this series was very uncharacteristic. That's not how we played during the season, and that certainly wasn't the way we played in the first three rounds. And so that would probably lend and suggest that a large part of this would probably be the competition. Now, yes, we will beat ourselves up about so many things we could have done better. But ultimately, that's what this stage is about. And sometimes as tough as it is to admit, sometimes you get beat by a team that it was their time. And that will be a tough thing for us to swallow, this emptiness that we'll feel now during the off season. It will be a tough pill for all of us."

Dwyane Wade

(You da favorites, you choked) "First of all, we give credit to the Dallas Mavericks. They're a hell of a team.
The word "choked" is overused in sports, period. We lost ballgames. We lost The Finals. We ran into a team that at this time obviously was better than us. So we give them credit, and we take nothing away from that."

(On the emotions right now) "No matter what, you are never ready for your season to end. Whether it ends during the regular season, in the first round, you always are shocked, especially in the playoffs, when your season comes to an end. You can never predict it. At this point, obviously if you don't win a championship, no matter if it's Game 6 or Game 7, you're going to be highly disappointed. So, you know, obviously in the midst of losing, we feel it, but we'll feel it more tomorrow. And the more time we get to think about it and think about how close an opportunity we had, it will burn inside of us as competitors. At the end of the day, it will drive us to get back in this position again. So we understand that our goal is to win a championship. We wasn't able to accomplish that year one. But this ain't the end of the Miami Heat. We'll use this as motivation and come back and try to do it again."

(On the turning point of the series) "It got away from us tonight when they won. This series was a close series the whole way. They were able to put a great run together tonight. We can never get over the hump. Every time we closed within four or three, they just continued to make shots. So this series was could have went either way for a long time, until they pulled away tonight. Like I said, we give them much credit. Their resolve was stronger than ours in this series. So we'll learn from that, and we'll come back as a better team and try to use some of the experience that we learned in this championship round."

(Dwyane, you said a few months after you won your championship that Dirk was the reason the Mavericks lost that series because he wasn't the leader he was supposed to be in the closing moments. What do you think of the way he performed in those moments during this series?) "I think he's played awesome, man. Obviously Dirk, five years ago, it burned in him. He learned from that experience. Even though he was 1 for 12 in the first half, he came out and made big shots for his team. He kept being aggressive, he kept shooting. So there's no question he's been a great individual player, and now that he's a champion, it goes without saying, what does it mean for his career. So congratulations to him."

(Rick Carlisle was in here and he spoke of his team feeling that there were billions of people that wanted the Mavericks to win. I know you guys have talked all year about not feeling that America is on your side, but do you think that might change eventually? Would you like it to change? And do you think that going through a loss where it hasn't been easy for the Heat might get people to come around?) "Well, me personally, honestly, we can't worry about that. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has options in life, and whether they want to be a Miami Heat fan or not, we cannot worry about that. The only thing we can do is go out for our supporters and our fans and our family and play the game the right way and enjoy it while we have it. So obviously a lot of people wanted Dallas to win more so than us for many reasons. But that wasn't the reason that we lost, and that wasn't the reason they won. It had nothing to do about the game of basketball when it started. But, obviously, going forward, we're going to come back in and no matter if we're loved or not, we're going to come back in and we're going to work hard every day, like we do, and we're going to approach the game the way we always do."

(On this being a TEAM win over a group of individuals) "Well, I mean, I personally think we all are individuals that become a team. Same thing with Dallas. They had to put pieces together to get a championship. They did a great job of that. I think signing Tyson Chandler this summer was probably the thing that helped them get to this point. We did a good job of bringing individuals together to become a team. That's the way it happens. No matter what caliber of a player it is, everyone fits. It's like a puzzle. And their pieces came together a little bit better than ours at the end."

(On top heavy payroll vs balanced ones) "They have a top heavy payroll. We have a top three heavy payroll. A lot of guys who took minimums to be here. I believe they have a top payroll as well. I'm pretty sure. Obviously everyone looks at us three signing together and thinking we have the highest payroll in the NBA. We don't at all. They put a championship team together. No matter which way you do it, signing Dirk was big obviously this summer. Adding Tyson Chandler and adding Shawn Marion a year ago was big. So they've been building it. Eventually we're going to build it. It just didn't happen this year."

LeBron James

(On performing under pressure) "I mean, sometimes you got it, sometimes you don't. And that was this case in this series. I was able to do things in the last two series to help us win ballgames. Wasn't able to do that in this series. Once you get to the playoffs, every game is pressure. You want to win. You have to win. And I mean, we've seen some of that in the Chicago series, we seen some of that in the Boston series. Even though we lost Game 4, we lost Game 4 in Philly, there's pressure in that series as well. So it doesn't matter which round it is. Once you get to the postseason, every possession counts."

(On what he couldn't do in these Finals that he wanted to) "Live in the paint. They did a great job of every time I drove, they brought another extra defender in front of me. They did a great job defensively. Very underrated defensive team. Took me out of a lot of things that I'm capable of doing or used to doing. It took us out of a lot of things we're capable of doing, that's getting points to the paint and getting to the free throw line. So they did a good job. Much respect to them."

(What are your emotions losing The Finals now?) "It hurts of course. I'm not going to hang my head low. I know how much work as a team we put into it. I know how much work individually that I've put into it, when you guys are not around. That's something people don't see. I think you can never hang your head low when you know how much work, how much dedication you put into the game of basketball when the lights are off and the cameras are not on."

(On critizism bothering him) "No, that doesn't bother me. I understand this is a huge stage, and you want to perform well for nobody else besides your teammates. That's ultimately what it's about for me. If I can play well for my teammates, help my teammates win basketball games, then I'm always satisfied with that. It hurts me, and I get on myself when I'm not able to play well and help my teammates win."

(Does it bother you that so many people are happy to see you fail?) "Absolutely not. Because at the end of the day, all the people that was rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal, but they have to get back to the real world at some point."

(On the pressure being too much) "I don't think so. I pretty much don't listen to what everybody has to say about me or my game or what I've done with my career. I don't get involved in that. This is year after year after year for me. Me as an individual, people write or say what they want to say about me. It doesn't weigh on me at all. Like I said, the only thing that weighs on me is when I don't perform well for my teammates and the guys that I play for every day. That's the only thing that weighs on me. Because I take pride in going out there and doing the things that need to be done to help my teammates win. That's it."

(On the 4th Q) "Honestly, it was about fourth quarter defense and trying to get buckets. We got into a good groove to start the fourth. I think J.J. Barea's three at the end of the shot clock was a huge shot. Put them up seven. That was a huge shot. I think it was 81 77 at that time. He hit a shot, the three at the end of the shot clock. We played defense 23 straight great defense for 23 straight seconds and he hit a shot like that. So it took a little bit out of us. You don't want to dig a hole like that against anyone. Especially on your home floor going into the fourth."

(Do you take this as a personal failing?) "Any time you feel like you get to the top of the mountain and you fall off, there's definitely a personal failure. It was a failure in '07 when we lost to the Spurs when I was in Cleveland, it's a failure now for myself losing to the Mavericks. Absolutely."

(On what it takes to win a chip) "I can only prepare myself each year. In the summertime I'll put a lot of hard work into my individual game, try to bring my individual game to a team, and I work hard every day as an individual to go out there and perform at a high level for my teammates and for myself. I got close. Won two more games than I did in '07, and hopefully next time I get here I'll win two more games than I did in '11."

(LeBron, you were a closer in the Chicago series, probably the best player in the NBA. No offense, Dwyane. Everyone is going to figure out or try to figure out what happened in these fourth quarters in terms of not closing like you did in the East Finals. What was the reason for that? And in terms of lacking your usual aggression, the way it appeared, everything okay off the court in terms of distractions or anything like that?) "I've been in this league eight years. There's no distractions that can stop me from trying to chase an NBA championship. Not you guys, not anything that goes on that's not focused on my team and my teammates and what we're out there what we're out set to do. Like I said before, I work hard to try to put myself in position to play at a high level. When you go out on the court, does the ball always go in? Absolutely not. But the one thing I know, I never hold my head low in saying, I didn't do it the right way or I wish I would have did this. It's not about that. I put a lot of hard work into this season individually. We all did. So we have nothing to hang our heads low. Just use this as an extra motivation to help myself become a better player for next year."

Chris Bosh

(Jason Kidd said all three of you were pretty classy with things you said to him. He said he could hear some of the things you were saying to each other even on the court. What were you guys talking about as you left and then in the room afterward?) "I really don't remember. All I remember was telling those guys that they deserve it. Hands down, they were the better team in this series, and they played together well. They deserve everything they've gotten. It was really congratulating them and just moving on."

(Why did you guys fall short? Why were they the better team?) "Well, I think if you just look at it as far as playing the better series, they just played the best basketball. Dirk constantly knocked down open shots. I mean, today he showed a lot of perseverance in just bouncing back. They made our defense work at the end of the day. It's just a great team. I think we did everything we could to win. We made a lot of mistakes, they made a lot of mistakes. But at the end of the day, they came out on top. All we can do is just admit it and move forward."

(What was wrong with Bron) "Well, I mean at the end of the day, man, you know, you always want to play your best basketball at the most opportunistic time, but it just doesn't work out like that. Everything mentally and physically was good. I think with every individual, with the team. Physically, everybody is going to go through pain. They've done the same thing. But they wanted it more than we did. They played great, we came up short, and that's really it."

(Did you play together?) "We played together. They just did a better job. They were the better team. That's what I mean by that. And I mean there's no hiding. In the NBA you play a series, best of seven games, usually the better team is going to win. So we've got a lot of work to do. We have to go back to the drawing board. It hurts to come this far and come up short, but it's disappointing, but hopefully we can use this for motivation going forward."

(Was there a certain point that you felt like this game got away for you guys?) "I mean, you never feel that way. You always play the game out. You just play the game how it goes. Plenty of times they were down, they came back. We were down, we came back. It's always a game of runs. But today they just had that whole collective effort. They had timely shots, they had timely offensive rebounds, they never got flustered. They just kept their composure and kept coming in waves. And when it was time, they just stayed tight and they executed very well. When things broke down, Jason Terry, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, they hurt us with their shots."

(How do you think LeBron played out there tonight?) "Excuse me?" (How do you think LeBron played out there tonight? LeBron James? THE LEBRON JAMES? KING JAMES? ) "I mean, guys try. At the end of the day guys try. Fall short, whether it's good or bad, it doesn't really matter. We lost the game. Individual performances, whether you win or lose, it doesn't matter."

(On the process...of losing before winning) "Well, I mean, just looking back on it, this was our first year. Absolutely we would like to have won it this year. But just being optimistic, looking forward, yeah, I mean, there's a bright spot, but we have to work and we have to develop that mindset to go get it and just keep it there, and use it as motivation.
It's a disappointing thing, yeah. A bunch of other great teams always come up a little short year after year in some cases. Some turn around quicker than others. The process is not this isn't a good feeling, you know? We just have to move forward, man. We can't do anything about it right now. We'll never do anything about it. All we can do is look ahead."

(On only 3 shots in the 2nd half) "Well, I mean, I was frustrated that I would have liked to have gotten more involved, but I was just playing the game as it went. Looking back at it, yeah, I had it going a little bit. I was in a good place for the game. I was ready to play, and I was really looking forward to having a great output. But I don't know what to say, man. Yeah, I should have shot the ball way more."

(So much attention was given to yourself, LeBron and Dwyane Wade going into this series. If people were going to wager on who would be the Most Valuable Player going in, most of them would have picked one of you three guys. As it turned out it was Dirk Nowitzki. What did Dirk Nowitzki do that was so difficult for you to stop? And what did he prove in this series as a player?) "Well, I mean, Dirk was just being himself. You can't really take that away. You can't say he wasn't. There's nothing extra, there's nothing super. He was just himself. He's a consistent basketball player, a great shooter and a great leader of that team. And in these situations, I think when you're yourself and you play your basketball, the best things always happen. I know he's worked very hard for a very long time, and you know what, he deserves it. I think we can take a page out of their book and really just pay attention to people's work ethic and how much time they put into the game. Obviously, what we did wasn't enough. Unfortunately we have to go back to the drawing board and hopefully have a consistent off season and come back next year stronger."

Eddie House (of all people)

(On what went wrong) "[Expletive]. I don't know"

Vids

Nightly Notable

Game Recap

2nd Quarter Telephone Number exchanges

Final moments

Trophy Presentation

Russell giveth

Dirk talks

Phantom: Dirk wins one for Dallas

Phantom: Kidd wins his first (xtra 4 Lisa)

Phantom Cubes

Podium

Sum it up

Dirk

Fans?

The other side

NBA.com Postgamebits

Dirk | The Jasons | Rick | Spo | DWhistle & Bron | Bosh | Terry Gametime | Dirk Gametime | Kidd Gametime | Cubes

ESPN Audio

Links

MMB | Rottcap: Mavs win their first ever Championship (with many worthy pics in the comment section)

With the clock ticking down, Dallas defense took on a new level of insane, forcing turnovers and blocking shots. They even managed some second chance points thanks to a few offensive rebounds. The Mavericks began playing with the clock, running it down before they took their shots. They had a nine point lead with just under three minutes to play, and then Dirk, with hands in his face, hit a beautiful jump shot. It was at this point that Heat fans quietly began to file out of the arena. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you, your 2011 NBA Champions, the Dallas Mavericks.

Peninsula Is Mightier Dallas too much

The end of the game was just like the majority of this series, with the Mavericks converting on the big possessions while the Heat were not.  Between the turnovers and missed shots, it was painful watching the season end the way it did for Miami.  Credit has to go to Dallas though, they played amazingly well in this series from top to bottom, and it all starts with their coach Rick Carlisle. 

The shooting was really amazing to watch, though quite hard from a Heat fans perspective.  The Mavs D was just as good, keeping Miami off balance and uncomfortable for a good part of the series.  Make no mistake, the Heat will be back, but you have to hope that they learn some very valuable lessons in this one because they were definitely out-played and while I think Erik Spoelstra did a good job, he was still out coached by Carlisle, who couldn't seem to make a wrong move.

Congrats to Dallas for a great season and series.  They certainly deserved the win in this series as they played absolutely outstanding.  Like I said, the Heat will be back, and they will be that much better for going through this experience.   Thanks for a great season, everyone.

NBA.com Where Team happens | Dirk the Reason | Mark Cuban wins Title

All the smoke and glitter, laser shows and summertime hype generated in this building 11 months ago wasn't enough to overcome the unifying force of energy the Dallas Mavericks unleashed on this night and in this series.

In the end, the Miami Heat's Big 3 couldn't overcome the Mavericks' Big Team, from one through 12.

The old school bunch that fought off the demons that fuel its own collective history of coming up short, the missed opportunities from The Finals against the Heat in 2006 and all the other postseason missteps of the past five years, walked out AmericanAirlines Arena late Sunday night with that Larry O'Brien trophy they'd all dreamed of for years.

His pal, Steve Nash, had Tweeted in the afternoon that he sensed a "monster" game from Nowitzki, and he wasn't far off. His many misfires were scaring small children.

"It was weird," Nowitzki said. "I had so many good looks. I can't even explain it. I had some threes, top of the key. I had a wide-open three in the corner. I had some pull-ups. I had some one-leg fadeaways that I normally make.

"The team always told me, 'Stay with it. Stay with it. You're too good of a shooter, too good of a player to keep missing.' "

Ya think?

In his moment of truth, when the crowning achievement of his 11-plus years running the Dallas Mavericks was finally realized, a famously outspoken owner chose not to be sassy, but classy.

Mark Cuban won the Lawrence O'Brien trophy, but he did not accept it from commissioner David Stern. He left that honor to the cowboy in the 10-gallon hat, Donald Carter, the franchise's original owner. There is nothing that Cuban ever said in the past -- and he's said a lot, with millions in fines to show for it -- that spoke louder on the most glorious night in Mavericks' history.

ESPN Tears of a Crown

On the night he finally found vengeance, eternal validation and the highest measure of victory to wag in the face of anyone who had ever called him soft or mocked his cough, Dirk Nowitzki wasn't going to let the world see his tears.

So he left the scene of his greatest triumph before a single teammate or coach could grab him for a hug, faster than he's ever hurdled a scorer's table to bolt off the floor, to sneak back to the visitors' locker room.

To cry alone.

"I could already feel the tears coming," Nowitzki said in an AmericanAirlines Arena hallway, beaming now as he explained the mad dash at the final buzzer that superceded any desire he felt to dance on the court inside this house of old horrors ... or to find out how it feels to get a congratulatory man-hug from Dwyane Wade.

"I had to recover, bro."

[..]

It was a farewell flurry that took Nowitzki's fourth-quarter total for the series to a heady 62 points ... matching the combined total in the fourth for the series for Wade and LeBron James. It was a clinching salvo that left even Nowitzki's famously stoic shot doctor teary-eyed when the ABC cameras found Holger Geschwinder in the stands.

"Tomorrow he gets a day off," Geschwindner said with a laugh once he got himself steady. "As promised."

Hollinger: Carlisle pushed right buttons

Score one for the geeks.

Dallas won its first-ever championship for a lot of different reasons, most of which rhyme with the word "Birk." But in a playoffs where the difference between winning and losing was razor-thin, at the margin a key difference was that their brain trust was consistently a step ahead of the competition.

ESPN Dallas JET erases

It was the kind of series that should make Terry's dream of having his jersey hung from the American Airlines Center rafters once he retires a reality.

It was the kind of series that should shut up the legion of critics who questioned the clutch chops of Terry.

Those questions weren't without merit, by the way. Terry annually ranks among the NBA's leading fourth-quarter scorers, but his playoff performances had been progressively poorer in the past few years. To his credit, Terry didn't deny that, vowing before this miraculous Mavericks run to make up for his previous failure and following through on that promise.

"Jet had to take all that criticism," said owner Mark Cuban, who reminded that Terry dealt with the pressure of being the player the Mavs acquired to replace Steve Nash and the scapegoat of the playoff loss to Nash's Suns the next season. "The media was killing him: 'He can't perform in the playoffs. He's not clutch in the playoffs. He's too this, he's too that.'

"He shoved it up everybody's ass."

That's a harsh way of saying that Terry proved a lot of people wrong, but it's true. As an eternally positive person, Terry would probably prefer to say that he proved himself right.

Heat Index: The End

The screams and laughs wafted into the interview room from the nearby Dallas Mavericks locker room, and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade couldn’t avoid having it wash over them. All around them were the sounds of celebration in their own building, salt in their wounds as similar cheers were raging across the country.

Space, time, irony and remorse; these realities and emotions were crashing down on the Miami Heat. Everyone had a part in it. This defeat had many fathers. But no one felt the weight more James.

Hoopdata Boxscore  | Notes for Mavs Heat

Against a playoff slate that supposedly had them outmatched, the Dallas Mavericks went 16-5 versus the Portland Trailblazers, Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Miami Heat (8-2 on the road!). They sent Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol home. They sent Kevin Durant home. Sunday night, they sent LeBron James and Dwyane Wade home. Thanks to a multi-faceted offense with inside and outside threats...and creatively disruptive defensive schematics that CONSTANTLY forced opposing stars to shoot from outside their comfort zones...the Mavericks presented a 21-game clinic that may change the way basketball is played across the NBA...

You can give the ball to your star and get out of the way. Or, you can run an offense that gets your best shooters good looks from their favorite spots.

You can hope your toughest defender can deny the stud on the other team. Or, you can study the strengths and weaknesses of every opposing player, every schematic, and every style to keep other teams from running their preferred attacks.

Chess in sneakers beat hero ball. (And Ghidorah never was "King of the Monsters!")

An advanced Boxscore at Arturo

The Dallas Guards continued their resurgence from Game 5 and took the Heat out. Kidd, Terry, Barea and Stevenson killed out there. Per minute they were better than every single Miami player. Dirk had a horrible night (particularly in the first half where he made only one bucket) and this was the only thing that kept this game from becoming a rout.

As for the Heat, a few points:

• You’re not winning the NBA title if Bosh is your best big man. Pat Riley knows this. Pat Riley will fix this. Pat Riley probably called Tyson Chandler’s agent after the final whistle blew (what’s the line on Miami in 2012 again?).
• Wade injured hip was probably a much bigger deal than anyone thought. Sadly, injuries are a feature with Wade.
• Lebron needs a post game. Every team will cover him as a PG with little men until he develops one. Pat Riley probably already booked some time with Hakeem for him.

Let’s end with a hearty congrats to the Mavs.

SI.com Magnimavs

One was arriving. The other was leaving. In each case, their clothes described the man.

Dirk Nowitzki had on a champagne-soaked white T-shirt and a championship cap he wore as if he were a 12-year-old in a fireman's hat. He walked down the hallway of the enemy arena with a bottle in his right hand and the Finals MVP trophy upside down in his left. He was the one who had arrived.

LeBron James was on his way, with no smell of liquor about him. He wore a blue suit and a gray tie and an unhappy expression of business. It was altogether a look that Nowitzki understood and was glad to have left behind.

"If I would have won one early in my career, maybe I would have never put all the work and the time in that I have over the last 13 years," said Nowitzki as he celebrated the championship that came with his Mavericks' 105-95 win in Game 6 of the Finals. "So this feels amazing."

BDL Mavs down Heat

Losing what many assumed to be its second-best player to a season-ending injury midway through 2010-11, a slow start to finish the regular season that actually had coaches hoping to pair up against Dallas in the postseason, few picking it to win the first round, and a second round meeting with the defending championship Lakers all added to that doubt.

This wasn't a team of destiny like Miami, on the vanguard like Chicago, or battle-tested like the Lakers, Celtics and Spurs. This was just an expertly coached group of talented players who, working with the whole as greater than the sum of its parts, just had enough to win it all, with nary a caveat to be found.

Basketballprospectus Unheralded Champions

Dallas 105, at Miami 95 (Dallas wins series 4-2)
Pace: 90.5
Offensive Ratings: Dallas 116.5, Miami 104.7

Throughout the offseason, the Miami Heat is going to wonder where the NBA Finals got away from them. Twice, in both Game Two and Game Four, Miami was a few short minutes away from taking a commanding lead in the series. Had a couple of plays gone differently, it's not inconceivable that the Heat could actually have won in a sweep.

That's the odd thing, to me, about the Dallas Mavericks' playoff run. Every team the Mavericks beat can imagine a realistic scenario where they won the series. With the exception of the clinching Game Four against the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas almost never put opponents away early. Each game in this series, and nearly all the ones before it, was winnable within the last five minutes. Those deciding plays were consistently made by the Mavericks while the other team was left searching for answers.

 

NBAPlaybook Miami traps removed | Jumppassing | Zonetiming

Go check em out.

Refcalls During the Day

We’ve done a preliminary review of all the plays from last night’s Game 6 between Dallas and Miami. There were less wrong and missed ref calls than normal (but we’d still like this number to be reduced for all future games). We counted 12 total, but there were about 10 calls where we couldn’t make an accurate assessment because ABC didn’t show alternate angles like we have seen from other networks earlier in the playoffs and regular season.

Out of the 12 wrong or missed calls where we could make an assessment, 4 of them were to the benefit of the Mavericks for a rough estimate of +4 in points, and 8 favored the Heat for an estimated +10 point difference.

PBT Champs | Dallas may have won last Old-School Title in a while | Miami lack of Discipline | Dallas won, Miami didn't lose it | In Dirk's Moment

Dallas was the best team.

Dallas won it all. They earned it. They get the banner and the rings (if they do rings) and the bragging rights. They earned them.

But everybody wants to be Miami.

Not the fans. Outside of South Florida the Heat the Heat are despised, treated with the same venom usually reserved for politicians who text pictures of their junk to people who are not their wives.

But around the league Miami is the model for the future — everybody wants a trio of superstars.

Miami’s losses in Game 2 and Game 4 can be directly traced back to atrocious late-game execution on both ends of the floor and inexcusable performances from LeBron James. Miami had chances to win Game 5, but that game was ultimately decided by a red-hot Dallas shooting performance that the Heat had little hope of matching.

So what happened in Game 6? The Heat, a team capable of doing anything, failed to do the most basic of basketball tasks throughout the night, and their lack of fundamental execution ultimately ended their season.

 

The story was not the Dallas Mavericks and their incredible shooting, it was the Lakers collapse. Then it was how the Thunder were not ready.

Now, it was how the Miami Heat lacked discipline, could not execute at the end of games and how LeBron James faltered.

That’s not what the story should be.

The real story is the Dallas Mavericks are NBA champions because they are the best team. They won it. The Lakers and Thunder and Heat didn’t lose it, Dallas took it from them with better team play, better execution. A lot of us — myself included — were late to appreciating the Mavs and what they were doing, the kind of run they were on, where it would lead. But that’s about us. They believed in what they were doing and kept going forward, getting better with each step.

Dirk Nowitzki will never hear the end of the question. In the ensuing days, weeks, months, and even years, he’ll be posed the same inquiry over and over, so many times that his answer will grow repetitive but never robotic. The very thought will always invoke the same emotion he felt on this night, this perfect June evening in Miami, when the work and the effort and the torment and the perseverance all manifested itself into something undeniably beautiful.

"Dirk, what does it feel like to finally win an NBA title?"

Hoopshyp Tweets

too much, click for yourself....(may pick some later)

Dirk Nowitzki: We r world champs babyyy. Absolutely amazing. Tanks to all mavs fans across the world. This one is for you guys. Flyin bak home now. Cheers about 1 hour ago

Tyson Chandler: I slept like a CHAMP last night! about 1 hour ago

Jose Juan Barea: NBA champ love it ... Coqui about 1 hour ago

George Hill: Congrats to My old teammate n brother Ian Mahinmi ://twitpic.com/5av45j about 2 hours ago

Mark Cuban: how amazing was it that dirk, brian cardinal and ian mahini planned to all sign with the Mavs this summer !! #big3 #makingithappen about 3 hours ago

Caron Butler: 2011 NBA CHAMPIONS, WELL DINE EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!! THE TIME IS NOW 7 hours ago

Jose Manuel Calderon: Congratulations Mavs! Great Finals! These playoffs are gonna make a lot of new fans about 7 hours ago

Ty Lawson: The most swagged put shit I seen in my life .... Dirk walks in liv with the NBA trophy on his shoulder... #gotdamn about 9 hours ago

Corey Brewer: Yeah we are the champs its all said and done and yes to all the haters I can say it I'm a world champion about 9 hours ago

Jason Kidd: #winning about 9 hours ago

Marcus Camby: Congrats #dallasmavericks about 9 hours ago

Rudy Gay: How come Dallas just won and they still talking about mia about 9 hours ago

Rudy Gay: Congrats to the big homies @Tyson Chandler and @Caron Butler well deserved about 9 hours ago

Matt Barnes: Congrats to the mavs, you defiantly earned that.. 9 hours ago

Earl Barron: That's f'd up. about 10 hours ago

Trevor Ariza: Congrat's to the Mavs. about 10 hours ago

Earl Barron: The jokes have already started. Breaking news! Dallas is announcing tomorrow is lebron James day! Everyone gets to leave work 12 mins early! about 10 hours ago

LeBron James: The Greater Man upstairs know when it's my time. Right now isn't the time. about 10 hours ago

Paul Pierce: Congrats to Jkidd happy for u top 50 all time player about 10 hours ago

Kenyon Martin: The media about to be on LJ like he stole a government mule!!! Lmao yesterday

Kenyon Martin: I'll be crying like a newborn baby yesterday

Kenyon Martin: Good for the city of Dallas (oakcliff) Already yesterday

Andy Rautins: Biig congrats to the #Mavs! True vets finally getting those well deserved rings.. Very motivational.. #stuffthatdreamsaremadeof yesterday

Kenyon Martin: Congratulating Jason Kidd very happy for you! Well deserved!! Much love yesterday

Baron Davis: How about that!!! #LAUNFD fam @Tyson Chandler a champion! Congrats bro Proud of U... yesterday

Pau Gasol: Congrats @dallasmavs for the championship. Congrats to you too Dirk, you deserved that. yesterday

Nazr Mohammed: Congrats to the homies @Shawn Marion, B Haywood, & Brian Cardinal on ur NBA Championship yesterday

Tony Allen: This only make the NBA that much! Better!! yesterday

Caron Butler: Yes we can and yes we did................ yesterday

Nicolas Batum: I'm so happy for my 2 balas Roddy and Ian...congrats les gros bandes d enfoires va lol yesterday

 JJ Redick: Congrats to Mavs (esp Dirk, JET, JKidd, Marion, Chandler, JJ). Great TEAM. Now, let's get a deal done and get ready for next season! yesterday

Chris Kaman: Congrats @Dirk Nowitzki !!! Now we have to figure out if we are playing in Lithuania this summer? yesterday

Landry Fields: "Faith in God and faith in teammates.." -Jason Terry.. Perfectly put. Congrats to the Mavs. yesterday

Derrick Williams: MARC CUBAN IS GOIN HAM TONIGHT !!! yesterday

David West: Wow! yesterday

Patrick Patterson: Good game. Great series. yesterday

The Point Forward Complete Package

Think about the Mavs’ four playoff opponents. The Trail Blazers made a huge trade at the deadline for Gerald Wallace, and they had no idea night to night whether Brandon Roy could bring anything. The Lakers self-destructed, unable to defend the league’s most basic play (the pick-and-roll) or find the right balance on offense. The Thunder had no clue how to score in crunch time. Then came the Heat, with their still-evolving offense, tricky James/Wade balance, major rotation questions and two key cogs who spent much of the season injured in Miller and Udonis Haslem.

The Mavs? They were a finished product, basically, requiring only tweaks on the fringes to deal with Miami’s athleticism. They were the most refined team in the NBA in their own way, and now they are champions.

2MG's The Difference

One expect it to hit the stores monday.

Stats

FT-Watch

Haywood bricked nil of [twiceasmuch] from the line bench. Should'Ve chopped that wood while you still could, Portland Lakers Thunder Miami. He ends this postseason 20-43 on FTs in 16 games. Celebration for our third-best Center, Beaches! [nsfw]

Dirk missed no FTs on two Attempts. Two attempts? Who does he think he is, the best player in the world?!?

Miami bricked 13 of 33, Dallas 6 of 18

20-20-4 Watch

Chandler 5-8-0, Haywood DNP-Hippy. Mahinmi DNP-Playoffs/French 4-3-0 Well, it didn't happen this year. Beware of the day it does.....

Field Goals

Mavs 41, Heat 34  Make the shot.

Boarding

Mavs 40 (10 O) Heat 39 (9 O) Evil Knievel

PIP-Boys

MIA 36 DAL 34. Less is more.

Bench

MIA 20 Pts on 18 Shots, DAL 43 on 25 Shots  OEff wowzas!

Break it FAST

DAL 17(but allowed 'only' 10 Points off 14 Turnovers) That's called Transition D!

MIA 13 (allowed 27 Pts off 17 To) That's called Vacation D.

The TEAM STAT

DAL 19 Assists MIA 20 Assists  You're slowly gettin' there, Miami. Insert Coin to continue.

 Bonus(patience ..more later in the day)

No bueno.

AAC

via Joehaden23

That's one expensive party.

A few off BwB

Should be landing in Dallas soon...

Disclaimer: If you couldn't tell by now, all italic sentences are made up thoughts, not actual quotes. Also, it is done. Party Time!

Finally....KneeJerk Recap (TM) Jonthefon v5.06

The Mavs/fans (punked the shit out of/lost to) [the Miami Heat/fans]¹ tonight (thanks to/despite) totol reliance on Dirk’s Awesomeness in general and especially late in the 4th Quarter. The (cloud in the silver lining/major culprit) once more as usual was the (reliabilty/lack) of support from his team-mates, with the exception of Jason Kidd/Jason Terry². Especially useless was Tyson Chandler/Jose Barea/Peja Stojakovic for not inviting Siena/Brendan Haywood's hip flexor before the Belt/DeShawn Stevenson's Facebookskillz/Shawn Marion/Brian Cardinal³ and it is (GUESS WHAT) THEY’RE ALMOST NOT ALL USELESS!

¹ Inserted Opponent

² Only one of them, mind you. The Jason one.

³ Two at the minimum, up to all six seven of them.