Finally! A Ring to Remember

Photoshop by Payton Wales

MIAMI -- For one group of wily veterans, June 12 will be the day that cemented their basketball legacies. For Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki, the night's victory also added the extra sweet taste of redemption. On the other side of the spectrum, LeBron James left more questions than answers.

When it was all said and done, the Dallas Mavericks hoisted the Larry O'Brien trophy far above their heads after defeating the Miami Heat, 105-95, in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. It was the first championship in the Mavericks 31-year history.

"Tonight, we got vindication," Terry, who led all scorers with 27 points, said after the win. The vindication Terry is talking about is the 2006 NBA Finals in which he and co-star Nowitzki lost to the Miami Heat in questionable fashion.

"I really still can't believe it," said Nowitzki, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds in the Game 6 win. "We worked so hard and so long for it. The team has had an unbelievable ride."

Nowitzki also took home MVP honors, averaging 25.8 points and 10 rebounds over the course of the Finals.



The win also provided a slew of veterans with their first taste of a championship. Among them, Jason Kidd, Peja Stojakovic, Shawn Marion, DeShawn Stevenson, Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood made up a variable who's who of ringless veterans. That void is now filled, specifically for Kidd, who has been chasing a ring for 17 years, falling short twice in New Jersey. It's a career validation many of his contemporaries, including the great John Stockton, never obtained and one that puts him firmly into the conversation of best point guard ever.

For the Heat, the loss had the opposite effect for most of its players, specifically the ever-polarizing James, who scored 21 points and was left wondering what went wrong. He seemed to have a look of disbelief as he quickly shook hands and left the court. Dwyane Wade, who had been hurt in the previous game, seemed to be healthy, scoring 17 points in the loss. Chris Bosh, 19 points, and Mario Chalmers, 18 points, rounded out the scoring for the Heat.

James, who had fallen under a lot of scrutiny from the media and public, found himself labeled a vanishing act and rightfully so. In Game 4, James disappeared from the scoreboard, posting the lowest scoring total of his career with only 8 points in the game.

James followed that performance with a triple double in Game 5, but it was a quiet one as James seemed disinterested and discombulated, especially in the fourth quarter where he managed to score only 2 points. James' lack of scoring became a pattern that would continue throughout the series, playing passively even when his team was losing or other teammates, such as Wade, were injured and benched for a majority of the game.

The failure of the Heat had most of the American public in a tizzy, seemingly drunk off Miami's inability to keep their promise of seven-straight rings for the city. But more so than the Heat's failure as a collective, the media and public seemed to thrive on the failure of James, who 10 months earlier had turned his free agency into what some would call a circus of arrogance.

When asked if the criticism off the court was bothering him, James said, "Absolutely not, because at the end of the day, all the people that were 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."

The quote drew the immediate ire of the American public and became the focus of the social media landscape, including one last jab from his previous employer, Dan Gilbert, via Twitter: "Congrats to Mark C.&entire Mavs org. Mavs NEVER stopped & now entire franchise gets rings. Old Lesson for all: There are NO SHORTCUTS. NONE."

The night belonged to Dallas and not everyone on the Heat was too bitter to show respect to the champions.

"All I remember is telling those guys that they deserved it," Bosh said. "Hands down, they were the better team in this series. ... All we can do is just admit it and move forward."

Dallas started the game with an early deficit, going down by 9 points with just more than six minutes to go in the opening quarter behind a poor shooting performance from Nowitzki who hit only one of his first 12 shots. But the Mavericks would close the gap behind the marksmanship of Terry and take the lead by the end of the first quarter, 32-27. The two teams exchanged the lead one last time late in the second quarter before  regaining it by the end of the first half.

The Heat made runs at the Mavericks' lead over the next two quarters, each time being thwarted until finally, with 2:27 left to go in the fourth, Nowitzki hit a 17-foot jumper, giving the Mavericks a 10-point lead. The Heat would not threaten the lead again as many of their fans headed for the exits.

Mark Cuban gave credit and praise in the ceremony that followed to his team, coach and the fans, in particular the ones who made the trip to South Beach and made up well over a quarter of the night's attendance. Cuban made it his personal mission to exchange hugs and handshakes with every one of those fans before concluding his night in the American Airlines Arena.

The rest of the Mavericks hoisted the trophy above their heads and gave loud yawlps of victory while enjoying the moment they had fought so hard to obtain, one that no one could take away from them. The Mavericks center Tyson Chandler summed it up best.

"We had no champions on this team,"  Chandler said. "And we walked away with a team full of champions."

All of the Lights

Photoshop by Payton Wales

MIAMI -- This was not where the Miami Heat thought they would be when this series started. Flying back home to Miami not for a parade, rather for Game 6 in a series they are down 3-2.

If you ask the Heat, they would say they should be up in the series 3-2. If you ask the Mavericks, they would tell you they should have won this already 4-1.  The Mavericks may have a case though.

Game 3 was riddled with bad calls in favor of the Heat, including a buzzer beater at halftime that, upon further review, was a backcourt violation. The shot covered the margin of victory for the Heat and gave them a 2-1 series lead.

Truth is this series has been one of the closest in years. Both teams fought for every second of every game, giving viewers the feeling of an epic tug-of-war. The Mavericks, who started the series heavily depending on superstar Dirk Nowitzki, have come together as a team, playing better defense and increasing their scoring in every game.

The Heat, who looked to be unstoppable after Game 1, sputtered in the last two games, finding it hard to keep up with the Mavericks' late-game charges. LeBron James has seemingly lost confidence in the last two games, proving ineffective and almost nonexistent in fourth quarters, a far cry from his dominance in the Eaastern Conference Finals.

To add injury to insult, Heat guard and team leader Dwyane Wade severely injured his hip in Game 5, limiting his minutes and effectiveness as a scorer. Miami's role players have done a good job keeping them in the last two games, but their efforts have not been enough.

Tonight, there is an air of finality to the game for the first time in this series. Tonight, the Dallas Mavericks can close out the Heat, ending the hype and making waste of all the pomp and circumstance that started almost a year ago with "The Decision."

Tonight, all of the lights will be shining and these two teams will finally feel the full-on pressure of the Finals.

The Mavericks will know the pressure of closing out the Finals against a team fighting desperately to stay alive, a team trying to prove there is more to them than rumors of collusion and bad decisions, that they are more than two superstars and Chris Bosh, but rather a collection of like-minded individuals with good chemistry and a respect for team.

For the Heat, they battle not only the Mavericks, but also the American public. A public that wants them to lose, a public that has been disgusted with the hype, the media coverage and arrogance the Heat have garnered. Tonight, the Heat have one game to keep their dream alive and earn the right to play one last time, to prove the critics, the media, the Mavericks and America wrong.

Tonight, there is no place left for either team to hide. Tonight, it's now or never, and tonight we will see it, right before our eyes, under all of the lights.