Mavs Moneyball introduces Championship Week

I joined Mavs Moneyball in the fall of 2010. I was an awkward high schooler and I already spent a lot of time talking about basketball on message boards. I thought it'd be a fun way to channel my enthusiasm towards the sport.

Little did I know where that season would lead me. Dallas coasted to one of their best starts ever with a record of 24-5. They won 17 of 18 games at one point. They beat the newly formed superteam in Miami once, and then did it again a few weeks later. It was the best basketball I had ever seen the Mavericks play, and others agreed with me.

But then Caron Butler had a season-ending injury and Dirk missed nine games with a knee problem, and the magic that had swelled up from the start of the season dissipated. Nobody knew a run to the NBA Finals and an eventual championship was coming.

It did, and it was glorious. An after-school hobby turned into a bit of an obsession. My first ever articles were about a team that became NBA Championship. Now, I'm a journalism major in college planning to write about sports for a living. I probably would have ended up here even if the Mavericks hadn't won, but I'll never forget the season I started.

Beginning tomorrow, we will be looking back at 2011 and the NBA Finals. It's the offseason; free agency is all but over and the Summer League has wrapped up. Hopefully, we still have your attention before you tune out for fantasy football and the start of the NFL. Three years later is a perfect time to reflect on all those moments that meant and still mean so much to us.

I'm grateful for a fantastically talented staff of writers, many of who will be giving their own personal spins and outlooks on the championship team. We will also have a few guest posts of various forms. We will look at the stats, the minor role players, the overall meaning of the "big picture" and even individual games that made a lasting impact on us.

We'll have multiple stories going up each day, so I encourage you to check back whenever you get a chance for a chance to relive 2011. Our normal day-to-day coverage isn't going anywhere, either -- if Maverick news happens, we'll have all the information and analysis you need.

Thanks for joining us for Championship Week.