The Sports Cult

Who won the 2011 NBA title? Was it:

Kobe and the Lakers – no that was 2009 and 2010.

Oh I got it, it was those Spurs led by that all-time great Tim Duncan – sorry, no.

Was it the NBA’s greatest franchise, the Boston Celtics, they won number 18 right? Wrong again.

It was Oklahoma City, led by the league’s youngest star Kevin Durant. No, what the heck?

Oh yeah I almost forgot, it was the Miami Heat – they won the title in July 2010, that’s what almost everyone said anyway. No no no, why I am so confused?     

Oh yes, it was the Dallas Mavericks led by that soft European fellow what is his name again? Oh yeah, Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk and a bunch of over-the-hill vets like Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry climbed to the top of the NBA mountain last June. So why is this team being ignored as a great champion, or not given any chance to repeat?

There has to be a reason – they must have gotten lucky last year; there must have been a bunch of upsets along the way. No again, the Mavs had to run the gauntlet, beating the Trail Blazers, Lakers, Thunder, and Heat.

Must have been a key injury to an opposing team’s superstar. Incorrect once more. LaMarcus Aldridge, Kobe, Durant, Russell Westbrook, Lebron James, and Dwyane Wade all played.

They had to squeak by, winning each series in seven games? Sorry, wrong once more. The Mavs went 16-5, the second best record in the playoffs since the NBA went to 7-game series’ throughout the playoffs in 2003.

So why is it that Kobe in a post game interview recently said that he will see OKC in the Western Conference Finals?

And why didn’t any experts from the  4 letter network pick the Mavs to repeat, and only one had them in the Finals?

The answers are simple.

The Mavs embarrassed the national media; they were picked to lose nearly every series by the majority of the media outside of Dallas last year, and then they had the gall to beat the Heat – the overwhelming favorite entering the year.

They also don’t have a stereotypical modern-day superstar. Dirk does not play above the rim; did not play for UNC or Duke; does not have his own shoe or star in Sprite or Gatorade commercials; and never was the flavor of the month like Lin or Griffin.

He just worked hard, stayed with the same team, hit big shots when it mattered, and outplayed every superstar along the way to winning the Finals MVP.

But even more important than that, Dallas played like a team in a star-driven league. They played unselfish and moved the ball to the open man. They won with the entire roster contributing.

Though there were a few changes to the roster this season, the pieces they added seem to fit well and the core of the title team is intact. In this lockout-shortened season, when just making the playoffs is more important than where you finish in the standings, the 2011 NBA Champs will be a hard out.

Photo courtesy of ballerstatus.com

Tags: Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, ESPN, Jeremy Lin, Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Miami Heat, NBA, NBA Finals, Russell Westbrook

This entry was posted on February 29, 2012 at 4:10 PM and is filed under ESPN Shenanigans, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.