Concluding the 2011 NBA Championship with random thoughts and views.

The NBA Championship has proven one fact, talent alone will not win for you without execution. Mavs defense plus the inability of the Heat to execute was their downfall. In addition I owe an apology to Jason Terry, I was upset with some of the posturing (trophy tattoo) prior to the series but he proved something to me. Terry is clutch and certainly unafraid to play at a high level unlike the more highly touted trio from Miami. To Chris Bosh, after being criticized most of the season by the media and this writer came up big in the finals. The Heatles forced to eat humble pie must now begin refocusing their effort and must decide this is Wade's team. James as talented as he is has proven (at least in this series) is too passive at times, he seems to prefer dishing the rock. Finally to Chris Broussard and ESPN, all season long your hype machine has worked overtime for the Heatles. Please I implore you to turn off the hype machine----on second thought I guess you can't, you were part of the creation. You were the network who chose to broadcast the one hour "Decision" last summer.

I could see why many thought the Lakers might seem old after all 10 of the 12 players on the current Laker roster are 30+. Guess what, 9 of the 12 players on the Mavs roster are age 31 and beyond. This number includes key players Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd. This is intended to point out execution not age might be key to winning an NBA Championship. The Mavs play through this post-season was superior to all other NBA teams including the South Beach crew despite their average age.

I'm not to proud to admit it but I was wrong, last Tuesday I expressed to several Rick Carlisle must be in a panic mood. Nobody I informed these folks would change their starting lineup (excepting injury) in the middle of a series. Well unlike a rather rotund pretend sports writer I'm back to confess my assessment was off-base. Rick Calisle knew what he was doing and knew his team much better than me. In the last three games 6-8 250 pound LeBron James outscored 5-11 (?) 175 pound Barea by six points. James scored 46 points to Barea's 40 isn't that interesting?

I've never thought of Mark Cuban as a bad guy, a little crazy but not bad. Over the years he's been a constant thorn in the side of Commissioner David Stern, sometimes Cuban's complaints have been way off base other times valid. He's always been outspoken providing opposing teams plenty of bulletin board material. This post-season we just witnessed his alter-ego, the quiet refrained Mark Cuban. I remember few instances of him jumping out of his seat as he usually would do, I remember few media interviews. At the trophy presentation I thought we'd have a Pete Rozelle-Al Davis moment. To refresh your memory Raiders owner Al Davis had attempted to move the Raiders to Los Angeles in 1980 but was blocked by a court injunction. He filed suit against the NFL and eventually won, he then moved his team to Los Angeles. In 1981 Commissioner Rozelle was "forced" to award Al Davis the Super Bowl Trophy. It was well known the two men did not get along so I thought we might have a Kodak moment in Miami. The Mark Cuban clone stepped aside and allowed the original Mavs owner Donald Carter to receive the championship trophy from Commissioner Stern.

Okay folks I get it, many of you hate Kobe Bryant no matter what he accomplishes. Last year I heard plenty of howls about Kobe Bryant winning the series MVP. They pointed at Kobe's poor shooting in the seventh game, I can agree he did shot poorly but it's an MVP award for the series not one game. Many expressed the view teammate Paul Gasol should have been MVP. Kobe had scored but had a low .250 shooting percentage for the game. Could we not make the same claim about this year's MVP Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk shot .333 from the floor yet was awarded the MVP, was there no love for Jason Terry?

In 1948 a Chicago newspaper ran a headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" which was an error. Early voting returns indicated Thomas Dewey would be elected president, Harry Truman who assumed the presidency on FDR's death would be replaced. The headline went down in history, Truman was elected president by the narrowest of margins. This past Monday the Miami Herald ran a full-page Macy's ad that read "Congratulations Miami" with photos of championship gear and to compound the error it ran beneath a story of the Heat loss.


"Snatching Victory from the jaws of Defeat" = Win when it appears you will lose!