Backdoor Cut: NBA Finals Review

Music to listen to:  Omar Rodriguez-Lopez live from Highline Ballroom in New York

There are many ways for me to go with my review of the NBA Finals.  I can look at the view of the Mavs, the Heat, Pat Riley, journalists, Dirk Nowtizki, fans, and everything in between.  Let’s go with that route.

Dallas Mavs organization, specifically Mark Cuban:  When Cuban purchased the Mavs in 2000, the franchise was one of the worst in the entire NBA.  The Mavs played in a media market where they were a distant fifth behind the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Longhorns football, Texas A&M Aggies football and the Texas Rangers.  They played in arguably the worst arena in the NBA and hadn’t even reached the playoffs in 1990.  In fact, here were the loss totals that the team had each season after 1990 before Cuban took over: 54, 60, 71, 69, 46, 56, 58, 62, 31 (strike-shortened year) and 42.

Dallas actually had a moment when it looked like its fortune would change in the mid-1990’s with Jason Kidd, Jimmy Jackson and Jamal Mashburn but that didn’t work out.  I’ll get to that later.

We now see the Mavs as one of the most consistent franchises in the NBA since they’ve won at least 50 games in each of the last 11 years and Cuban deserves a lot of credit for that.

The best move that Cuban made in his first year as owner was bring in Don Nelson as head coach.  Before that, the Mavs had many incompetent head coaches (shoot, Richie Adubato led the team for nearly four full seasons) but they finally brought a guy who has a system that could work in the NBA.

Cuban and Don Nelson would have clashes over personnel decisions which ultimately led to an ugly separation which included taking each other to court legally but without the foundation that Nelson laid down for the next man, last night wouldn’t have been possible.

Dirk Nowitzki:  I still remember the 1998 draft like it was yesterday.  As a teenager, I finally was able to have a tangible sense of evaluating college basketball talent and seeing it translate to the NBA.

My four overall thoughts were that Michael Olowokandi would be a terrible pro, especially with the Clippers, Vince Carter wouldn’t amount to a good pro player, everyone in the top-five would regret not taking Paul Pierce and the Bucks/Mavs were crazy for taking a German teenager that I never heard of.

Maybe I was being racist against him at the time because he was white, didn’t trust the prep European training techniques or honestly never saw the man play.  Whatever it was, I thought that Nowitzki would be a terrible NBA player.

I decided that I was going to take a flier on the guy because I liked Steve Nash since his Santa Clara days and he was on the Mavs with Dirk.  I also enjoyed watching Michael Finley on the squad as well at that time.

I saw a lanky seven-footer who struggled against physical defenses, wasn’t a great rebounder but could shoot, ran the floor well and understood the game.  I still didn’t think that Dirk would reach the level he has at that time until the 2001 playoffs.

The Mavs were on the road in game five of the first round of that playoffs against Utah.  Dallas had lost the first two games of the series in Utah but managed to get two wins at home to force the game five.  I thought that Utah would destroy Dallas at home because no one beat John Stockton and Karl Malone at home in the playoffs at that time, at least in the first round or against underdogs like Dallas was.

Finley has a career day, Dirk contributes 18 points, defends Malone hard and Dallas escaped with a two-point win.

At that moment, I had a feeling  that Dirk would become a special player if things broke right for him.  Unfortunately, Nash left for more money to Phoenix, Finley’s body broke down,  Nelson leaves, the Spurs become a dynasty and always seem to beat the Mavs in the playoffs, etc.

The low point was the 2007 playoffs when Dirk has a career year, wins the NBA MVP, leads the squad to a 67-win season and promptly gets dominated by the Golden State Warriors in the first round.

I thought that he would continue to be a top-10 NBA player, make double-digit All-Star games, be known as one of the best foreign players ever in the NBA, retire and never get a championship because of the competition.

However, this season seemed different.  Dirk had Dallas playing like the best team in the NBA for the first three months of the season.  The Mavs even get road wins at San Antonio, Boston and Miami during this stretch.  Then Dirk hurts his knee and has to miss a few weeks.  Knee injuries are tricky and there has to be concern that this may be a permanent issue.  He manages to come back and Dallas has good form but Caron Butler hurts his knee and is out for the year, leaving the team without its best second-option for scoring.

Furthermore, by the time the playoffs start, I would have taken Chicago, Miami, the Lakers, Oklahoma City and Boston as team more likely to win the NBA title before Dallas.

However, when I saw Dirk perform against Portland in the first round, I decided to not bet against him in the rest of the playoffs.  I knew that a sinus infection, sprained finger or anything else wouldn’t prevent him from getting his championship.

Steve Nash:  For older NBA fans, its STILL strange to not see Nash and Dirk on different teams and wonder what could have been if they stayed together.

Tyson Chandler:  When he singed with Dallas, I felt that he would be the most significant free-agent signing in all of the NBA outside of Miami if he was able to stay healthy.  His defensive skills are the second-biggest reason the Mavs are champs right now.

Dwayne Wade:  He tried his best but if I’m Miami, I would be less concerned about a certain forward from Akron, Ohio and more about how long Wade is physically gong to be able to hold up.  That’s why there’s urgency on the side of Miami and why people shouldn’t be so sure that he’s going to be around for the next six to eight years.

Jason Terry:  Dumb arm tattoo aside, it seems like Terry has been playing the same role of offensive guard off of the bench to perfection for years.  He even did this at Arizona in 1996 when Miles Simon and Mike Bibby were the starting backcourt for  the Wildcats.

Jason Kidd:  Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas are the only two point guards that I’ve seen in my lifetime that I would take before Kidd.

Before I get the angry e-mail, I didn’t see Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy, Walt Frazier, Tiny Archibald and a cast of others play.

What wasn’t spoke about more during the Finals was  Kidd’s career path in the NBA.  He starts in Dallas, becomes Rookie of the Year, has a bright future in the city but for some reason (probably a love triangle with two of his teammates and a popular R&B singer), things don’t work out and he’s sent to Phoenix.

He becomes a top point guard for the Suns but an off the court incident makes the organization ship him off to New Jersey, where some believe that his career will be over.

Kidd only wins an MVP and leads the Nets to two consecutive NBA Finals appearances.  He eventually ends his time in New Jersey by getting traded back to Dallas in what’s considered a steal for the Nets because they get an All-Star point guard in Devin Harris who is younger and has a brighter future.

Kidd ends up becoming exactly what the Mavs need and wins a title.

Movies have been made with less.

Eric Spoelstra:  Time to brush up that resume.  Actually, its not all of his fault but Riley put him in a tough spot as a young coach and you could clearly see the inexperience throughout the season.  Whether it was telling the media in March that some players were crying in the locker room after a regular season loss, failing to install a zone offense, waiting too long to insert Mario Chalmers into the rotation, not showing urgency at any point in the NBA Finals (if he says “mental stability” one more time…), he was overmatched.

I think Spoelstra would have been better off being a head coach at a place that isn’t a top-10 NBA spot, working out these issues and than becoming the main man in this situation.  We were watching on the job training.  Unfortunately for Spoelstra, he may not get to keep his job.

Rick Carlisle:  He was an excellent assistant coach in Indiana, did well as a head coach in Indiana and Detroit and is now has an NBA title.

Why did it take him more than two years to get another head coaching job.

Pat Riley:  I don’t think that he’s going to be the head coach of the Heat, that time has passed, but his presence will be felt this offseason.

Cleveland Cavs fans:  Enjoy this moment in whatever way you feel.

Chris Bosh:  I’ve made plenty of jokes about Bosh throughout this season, some deserved and some in mean spirit.  However, he was the second-best player for Miami in the Finals.  I don’t mind the crying at all.  A lot of these athletes that we want to make out to be unemotional robots cry often.  The only difference is that we don’t see it on film.  Bosh just got caught.  No shame in that.

Sports journalists:  I don’t think I”ve seen more bias when covering an athlete or a specific team than James and the Heat.

I can tell from reading someone’s article or hearing them on television if they have a personal investment in the success and failures of the Heat.

It shouldn’t be the case but that’s what has happened in 2011.

NBA fans:  This was the most entertaining NBA season in a long time, both on and off the court and it was fun.  The main reason for that was the Heat.

I’ll save my NBA lockout stuff for another day.  However, I will say this.  If you think the NFL lockout is bad, the NBA has bigger issues and less money to work with.  Good luck with that.

LeBron James:  When you don’t have solid fundamentals and you’re struggling on the floor, you have James in the Finals.

Its been eight years and we still haven’t seen James develop a competent mid-range jumper or a post-up game.  That’s inexcusable and it finally caught up with him.

The Heat didn’t need James to put up triple-doubles, they needed him to put up 35 points.  That’s the bottom line.

He needs to work on his weaknesses on and off the court because this will happen more often if he’s isn’t careful.

OK, those are my thoughts, what are yours?