Dirk Nowitzki was the hand-down choice for the Finals Most Valuable Player. There’s no doubt to that. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Nowitzki, the German Bomber, was relentless in his pursuit for his very first NBA championship after toiling hard in the world’s most popular league for 13 years. His relentless chase for his first-ever NBA, spurred his teammates to follow suit.
Jason Kidd, the veteran Dallas point guard, who also ended his agony of waiting for 17 years before winning an NBA title, along with Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler and the rest of the Mavs, played together in the face of a boisterous Miami crowd at the American Airlines Arena in South Beach, Florida.
And the result as we all know now, was a 4-2 title romp of the much-ballyhooed Heat, who only last July 2010, unveiled their younger and more-talented version of the “Big Three” in the person of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. The trio promised to give not just, one, two, three or four championships with them playing together.
And yesterday, that promised hit the dirt, their egos completely bruised and shattered as Dallas played the old-school style of basketball — good ball movement, spot the open-man, three-point shooting, steady free throw shooting throughout the Finals as well as outstanding defense against a fastbreaking Miami squad.
While Dirk and Jason (Kidd) that is, are celebrating long and hard with the rest of the Mavs for the reward of their teamwork and years of hard work, LeBron, D-Wade, C-Bosh and the rest of the Heat have to analyze things now and see what really went wrong in their quest to bring the NBA championship back to South Beach.
There’s no question the Heat have the talent. At least, with the Big Three in tow, the Heat have so much talent — beating old Eastern Conference bully Boston Celtics in the post-season, before manhandling the ambitious, fast-rising Chicago Bulls in the East Finals.
But their “Big three” talent just were simply no match against Dallas’ “one-for-all-all-for-one” kind of spirit. Sure, Dirk was the main guy, but looking through the entire NBA 2011 season, you’d obviously notice that coach Rick Carlisle has consistently emphasized the importance of team play.
And that team play, that fantastic ball movement and that commitment to play hard on the defensive and offensive end of the floor paved the way for the the Mavericks to bag their first-ever NBA championship.
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