by Hayden Kane and Michael Mason
1. The Mavs are no longer soft....at all (MRM). As a fan of the Denver Nuggets I will be the first to admit I thought we had the best chance to advance in these playoffs playing Dallas in the first round, and I could not have been more wrong. These old Mavericks are not the Mavericks of old. Whether it was the addition of Tyson Chandler or the coming out party for Dirk, this team was far from soft. I can't look at one player on that team, especially during the playoffs, that could be labeled as such. Jason Terry had a few lapses towards the end of games and sometimes the big guys get lost underneath the basket, but that was really the only knock against Dallas defensively during the playoffs. And when they had to have it they did. Tyson Chandler and Shawn Marion played unbelievably, and Jason Kidd point blank locked up LBJ. While this may be a one season run, the Mavs proved everybody wrong and made myself and the majority of the pundits eat their words.
2. It feels weird to be this happy for Mark Cuban (HK). For so long, he was an insufferable loud mouth. Unfortunately this overshadowed the great things he brought to the league and to the role of owner more generally. Cuban will always speak his mind, but he faded into the background and enjoyed his team's playoff run, which made it easy for fans to be happy for him. How cool was the visual of him on the podium in a t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes? How cool was the footage of him leading the Mavericks off the plane with the trophy in one hand and a huge cigar in his mouth? The reason fans can be happy for Cuban, free of guilt, is because his first priority has always been the team itself, because he loves it as much as anybody. Also, check out this link he posted to his twitter account.
3. Dazzling Dirk (MRM). Dirk finally got his ring and there aren't too many guys in the league that deserve it more except one guy on his team now in J Kidd, and one guy he used to play with in Steve Nash. Anyone would be hard pressed to convince me that Dirk wasn't far and away the best player, and more importantly the best leader, in these playoffs. While I have been a long time fan of Dirk I think more people really got to see him in the spotlight during these playoffs. Obviously he was in this position before in 2006, and he was amazing then. That wasn't good enough for him. He worked hard enough between then and now to go from league superstar to absolutely unguardable. Everything he does with his footwork is a fundamental nightmare, but it is what works for him. He is so tall and so unorthodox that he may be the most unique player in NBA history, and he never tried to stray from that, he embraced it and then he perfected it. While we can argue the top players of all time for years to come, Dirk if nothing else has to now be in the conversation. Congrats to him and the Mavs for the win and the class in which they handled it.
Links to interesting day-after pieces about the Mavericks
John Hollinger breaks down the great coaching moves made by Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle http://espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/post/_/id/30227/carlisle-pushed-all-of-the-right-buttons
Adrian Wojnarowski with a great recap of the Finals and what the Mavs accomplished http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AgNEkR6_yEKl1TJOWWVKTZw5nYcB?slug=aw-wojnarowski_nowitzki_mavericks_win_nba_finals_061311
Chris Mannix writes about the best team in 2011 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/chris_mannix/06/13/heat.finals/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a10
Bill Barnwell writes about J.J. Barea's playoff run http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-Triangle/post/_/id/135/
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