Well the Good Guys have won! The Dallas Mavericks have taken the NBA title that was all but handed to the Miami Heat this past summer on a silver platter.

After last summer’s free agent signings of Lebron James and Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat along with Dwayne Wade looked like a certain lock to become champions. James, by dissing the Cleveland Cavaliers created many enemies last year as his method of “selection” was questioned by friend and foe alike.

And what a foe did he become.

All year the Heat were marked men. Be it in Boston, Golden State, Toronto and especially Cleveland the Heat Haters and anti-Heat sentiment was abound from coast to coast.

Not only did the Heat become the most hated franchise of the NBA since the Detroit Pistons’ Bad Boys of the last 1980’s, they were portrayed as the Evil Empire, a term usually referring the New York Yankees.

A team that was predestined to be number one, with swagger and cockiness.

A team that thought they were entitled to be number one.

A team that got exactly what they deserved.

Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry and the rest of the Dallas Mavericks were able to take the game right to the Heat.

Intimidate them.
Out shoot them.
Out play them.
Out run them.
And of course most importantly out score them.

It’s not so much that the Heat didn’t play well, it’s the fact that the Dallas Mavericks just played better and smarter basketball. They contained Lebron the past few games and they were able to effectively close out Wade & Bosh to become really non-factors.

How about this for you. Lebron James scoring average dropped almost 9 points between the regular season and the finals. Sorry King, you aren’t winning a title with those types of numbers. How can “the greatest NBA player” have 26+ point average all year and when the chips are down come through with 17 point average in six games.

Jason Kidd’s veteran leadership and the fact that he had played in Finals before was challenge enough for him. He had come so close a number of times and knew that this year was possibly his last good chance to win a championship.

Jason Terry, who had the gall to put a championship trophy tattoo on his arm, brought it when it counted most, to close out the series. How about 27 points, 19 in the 1st half alone off the bench.

And what can be siad about Dirk. The guy is amazing. A choker no longer. A guy that showed up. A player who played sick, who played hurt. Who played like a champion.

The ironies of ironies is that Mark Cuban, once one of the most hated people in the NBA is a winner, by his team beating out none other than the current most hated person in the NBA.

The Miami Heat have a lot of growing up to do. A lot of learning and a whole summer to lick their wounds and figure out, what went wrong.

To that I must say, NBA teams BEWARE! Next season you may see a team on a mission, a juggernaught, a team with absolutely no mercy and no care for its opponents. One that will try to overrun every NBA team record in existence.

The Empire will Strike Back. And it will be hard and painful for anyone in its way. The Heat just have to much good talent to not be able to be the most dominant team of this decade.

But for today, every NBA city across North America is celebrating. They are celebrating the victory of good over evil. People across the world are high-fiving each other, they are opening a can of beer and raising a toast to the Mavs. They realize they just witnessed one of the bigger sports upsets of the past 30 years.

Upsets don’t happen very frequently in sports and the rarest of all is in the NBA.

So go out and enjoy this victory for the good guys.

The Mavs showed a true heart of a champion, one that was able to bring the forces of good over the forces of evil for this year. But what waits around the corner, I fear will be a team out for revenge, a team ready to strike back.