The Dallas Mavericks Win 2011 NBA Finals (Final Seconds/Post Game)

For the first time in their franchise history, the Dallas Mavericks claimed their first NBA championship over the Miami Heat with a 105-95 victory in game six of the 2011 NBA Finals.

Here are the final seconds of game six and on-court aftermath:



The next below video is the post-game celebration that includes interviews with Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd:

Lebron James Posters Ian Mahinmi in 2011 NBA Finals Game 3

The Miami Heat rebounded in game three of the 2011 NBA Finals to take a 2-1 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks.

One of the more memorable Heat highlights was Lebron James poster dunk in the first quarter on recently-activated Dallas center Ian Mahinmi:

Did The Miami Heat Just Lose the 2011 NBA Finals?

In one of the most shocking finishes to an NBA Finals game that I have ever seen, the Dallas Mavericks came back from a fifteen point deficit midway through the fourth quarter to win game two of 2011 NBA Finals over the Miami Heat.

It appeared from the common fan view that the Heat were well on their way to claiming game two and taking a 2-0 lead to Dallas but the reemergence of Jason Terry and the clutch play of Dirk Nowitzki ended that dream for many Miami fans.

While the Heat offense turned into something similar to that of NBA Jam, the Mavericks kept their cool and continued to do what led them to success throughout the playoffs. So credit, the coaching of Rick Carlisle and the calm of a team that was facing a very impressive storm in uncharted waters.

For the Miami Heat, they reverted to the old Miami Heat of November/December 2010 that couldn't win a game if their lives depended on it. For a team to look so good, fall so fast, it just boggles the mind of how it occurred.

Questions now abound for the Miami Heat: Why didn't Dwayne Wade only get two touches with less than three minutes to play? Why didn't Chris Bosh foul Nowitzki before his final bucket with a foul to give? Why did Lebron James jack up those three point attempts instead of trying to go to the basket? How does this team bounce back from such a tough loss?

I find it hard to believe that a team can lose the NBA Finals based on one game but the way the Heat lost this affair, it's tough to see them fighting back in Dallas to send this series back to Miami.

However for an NBA season that has included more twists and turns than romance novel, it doesn't surprise me that the NBA Finals mirror that.

2011 NBA Finals More About Altering Identity Than Hoisting The Trophy

This year’s NBA Finals may crown the champion for this NBA season, but the teams that will play in it have been ready for this moment way before the start of this year.

In 2006, Dirk Nowitzki and his Mavericks slumped back into the locker room after being shellacked by the Heat in four straight losses, which was proceeded with wins in the first two games of the Finals. With that being the franchise’s only attempt at winning a title in their history, it was chalked up as another tally in the lose column for a team with no championships despite being constant regulars in the playoffs.

Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh were all heralded as dynamic players who were deeply beloved and followed since all three were drafted in the top five of the 2003 NBA Draft. Since they all joined up with the Miami Heat last summer, they have now been identified as the biggest antagonists in all sports because of their selfishness to come together and form an overpowering dynasty intent on taking over the NBA.

Both teams will now come to a head in the NBA season finale, with the winner understanding that it’s not just the Larry O’Brien trophy at stake, but a bigger justice of shedding away the negative connotations attached to themselves and their franchises.

The only two remaining members from the 2006 Mavericks team may be Nowitki and Jason Terry, but the rest of the team is filled with members who have been tagged with the same identity of being a choker throughout their careers.

Point guard Jason Kidd will go down in history as one of the top point guards to have ever played the sport of basketball. Yet, despite the numerous triple-doubles, all-star selections, and gold medals he’s won with the USA Olympic Basketball team; the former University of California, Berkeley star has come up empty in his previous thirteen postseason appearances (including two Finals losses to the Spurs and Lakers as a New Jersey Net).

Being in the playoffs regularly was always a part of Peja Stojakovic’s career. Having played in 76 postseason games for the Kings, Hornets, and Pacers, the 33-year-old sharpshooter was a notable part on a variety of team’s runs through the playoffs. Yet, he’s always come up short of being on a franchise that can truly call themselves champions.

Nowitzki, Kidd and Stojakovic’s inability to claim an NBA title as their own isn’t just reflective of Dallas’ key players, but for everyone who currently wears the teal and grey colors of the Mavericks. Of all the fifteen players on the current roster, no player has ever gone on and been a part of a championship team.

Being successful is an identity many of the guys on the squad have always had, but their constant failing to win a NBA title has always dominated their triumphs.


Supremacy is exactly the reason James, Wade and Bosh decided to join and stick around in Miami. The idea of “taking their talents to South Beach” was an excellent notion in the eyes of the three superstars. The choice to control their future was in their hands after the end of 2010 NBA playoffs, but none of them could have imagined just how hated they would become when it happened.

Prior to this season, the three were the darlings of the league. They were beloved in any city they went to play in and sold out stadiums anytime they were the opposition’s road team. All three were deemed saviors of their franchises and for a league whose key players were entering the twilight of their careers. Never had any of them ever had to endure being hated and mocked at any point in their career.

That is, until after their big declaration in Miami.

As they hosted, boasted, and toasted during their celebration party with the city after they all signed on to be a part of the Heat, the would proclaim loudly that not only would they win a title for their city, but they would do it on numerous occasions.

This became the defiant moment when they turned from the face of the NBA to the heels of the league. Everywhere they went they were booed extensively and fans would cry bloody-murder for their teams to destroy them.

When they finished the month of November with a 10-8 record, they were denigrated and laughed at for their pre-season, boastful antics. After constantly dropping games at the tail end of the fourth quarter from January through March, they were scorned as a franchise with high-end talent who were incapable of finishing off teams. Even coach Erik Spoelstra’s comment of players crying in the locker room was made a mockery of and added gasoline to the fire of labeling the Heat as the league’s top adversaries.

All that bantering and targeting of the big three in Miami as the enemy did was enrage them and allow them to grow stronger together for a greater cause: win the championship to erase those labels.

Winning the title is everything to each player in the NBA. It allows them to reach heights that most would do anything to get to. Only fifteen players a year get to say they are champions and reaching that status can do wonders for their legacy.

The Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks understand that concept very well; as the winner of the 2011 NBA Finals will not only be champions, but finally erase the labels they have come to be identified with.