As the clock ran down to zero and Dirk Nowitzki walked to the locker room to gather his thoughts, the rest of his Dallas Mavericks teammates were celebrating their accomplishment with class back on the court.
There was no running into the stands, players doing silly dances, or anything at all that made these Mavericks look less professional than how they carried themselves throughout the entire postseason. It was one of the classiest championship celebrations that has happened in recent sports history. The veteran-laced team never seemed to let their emotions get the better of them, even though they had played over 100 NBA seasons combined without one of them winning a championship.
As a fan, it was an absolute joy to see players like Peja Stojakovic, Shawn Marion, and Jason Kidd accomplish a goal that seemed to be a far reach at the beginning of the playoffs. They, along with Jason Terry and Dirk, had fallen short in their quest for the Larry O'Brien Trophy on multiple occasions in the past decade, thanks in most part to the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs.
With most players who fall short of winning an NBA Championship at the end of their prime years, the quest for winning a championship becomes a trail of underachieving role playing for teams that have legitimate shots at the title. Just ask Nick Van Exel, Glenn Robinson, Mitch Richmond, and Antoine Walker, who all won championships doing next to nothing for the Spurs, Lakers, and Heat.
Looking at the Dallas roster before the season, it looked like a cluster of underachieving ex-All-Stars. Only three players (Dirk, Jason Terry, and Kidd) had ever played in an NBA Finals. The rest of the bunch had histories of being injured, choking in big moments, or being apart of teams that didn't play on both ends of the floor. Mark Cuban had put together a roster unlike any other in tenure as the Mavs owner. It was a big risk to have a team heavily dependent on 30-something players, and they were fortunate with their health, unlike the Celtics and Lakers.
Through adversity, though, the Mavs' players showed that their playoff experiences could flourish in a system that relied on sharing the ball and utilizing Dirk's determination to never let his team lose.
It was a dream come true after years of falling short for these players:
Shawn Marion, who played for the run-and-gun Suns teams with Steve Nash, became a garbage basket hound with his knack for grabbing offensive boards, slashing to the rim for easy layups, and out-hustling everyone. Seriously, did he score a basket outside of 10-feet in the Finals?
Peja Stojakovic, who played on the Kings teams of the early 2000s, may not have been a factor in the Finals, but his clutch threes against the Lakers made him a vital part of this championship run. A bit of revenge, perhaps?
Jason Kidd, who single-handily carried the New Jersey Nets to two straight Finals appearances in the early 2000s, played some of the most brilliant and unselfish basketball of any point guard in recent Finals history. His contributions in guarding LeBron, setting up the Mavs offense, and hitting open threes was one of the main reasons the Mavs gelled so well together. His play is so under appreciated sometimes that we forget that he is one of the best point guards in the last 20 years, and he showed why in the Finals.
Which brings us back to the post game celebration. You would think that these three players, along with Cuban, Dirk, and Terry, would have been jumping off the walls after winning the one thing that always went to their rivals, the one thing that held back their legacies for over a decade, the one thing drove them to this point. Instead, they celebrated with a calm classiness that you just don't see in professional sports anymore. A classiness that let the world know, 'We finally did it.'
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