The Weight Of A Champion

Last night the Dallas Mavericks were able to do it, win the NBA Finals and hoist their championship trophy to the delight of the majority of basketball fans who were rooting for them or against Miami, whichever way you look at it.

This championship, the first for the Dallas Mavericks organization means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. There is the obvious, it being the first ever for the franchise. Then there are the individuals, Jason Terry who along with Dirk Nowitzki are the only remaining players left from the 06 team that lost to the Miami Heat in the 06 Finals. This win and championship is certainly a sense of vindication.

There is Jason Kidd, who although he has had a long and certain Hall Of Fame career, a championship always seemed to avoid him, coming up short twice in his time with the New Jersey Nets.

Owner Mark Cuban, who chose to stay quiet for virtually the entire playoff run. You can bet that the Cubes will be right there celebrating with all of the players he put on this team because the chemistry and camaraderie go from the front office in Cuban all the way down to the last players on the bench like Brian Cardinal and injured Caron Butler.

It means a lot to the game of basketball after all of the shenanigans that went down last summer and players in the league trying to push the notion that a superstar alone with just a decent supporting cast could not win it all. Well these Mavericks did just that with Dirk Nowitzki being the only All Star/Superstar on this Dallas team.

And then there is Dirk Nowitzki and what being a champhion will mean to him and what the weight of having that championship title means to his legacy. Dirk carried and willed his team to a championship with no one in the NBA playing as consistently as he. This playoff run kills all talk of Dirk being soft, choking under the pressure because of the collapse he and his teammates suffered at the hand of Miami just a few years ago, and more importantly has probably moved him into the discussion of top 5 power forwards to ever play the game.

Even though some of his teammates are getting a little older, Dirk is only in his early 30's and can still play another good 4-6 years in the NBA as long as no injuries hit him. If he can add one or even two more rings to his resume then you would certainly have to say Dirk would challenge Tim Duncan as the best PF in NBA history, and you can bet that owner Mark Cuban will see to it that his team is competing for a championship every season.

So with the last few years watching the Celtics form a "Big 3" and the Lakers able to stack their team from top to bottom with perennial all stars and former all stars at each position. Then Miami trying to follow the blueprint of the previously mentioned Celtics, except bringing stars in during their prime, and ending with Carmello Anthony forcing his way to the Knicks to team up with Amare Stoudemire, and Deron Williams talking his way out of Utah, it is kind of fitting that the team who won it all, was the team with an old school approach and an old school coach. A team who from top to bottom believed in doing whatever it took to get the job done.

People forget that Dirk was also a free agent in the summer of 2010, and he re-signed with the only team he had ever known. He did not leave and go to Chicago, or in the years since the 06 Finals talk about what needed to be done around him for him to be able to win a championship. He did not degrade his teammates and talk about not being able to get it done by himself. No instead he embraced it, he worked his butt off to get to where his team is at now, even if he is the only superstar on his team he still believed he could win no matter what the circumstance. So congratulations to the entire Dallas Mavericks organization and TEAM, and their ONE superstar who believed they could get it done with just that, after all, Texas is the "Lone Star" state.

Richard Rodawalt

AB3 Sports