At the end of Game 6 last night, Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Bosh were crying. For completely different reasons, obviously. Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks are the 2010-11 NBA Champions after defeating the Miami Heat 105-95 and winning the Finals series 4-2. Nowitzki was awarded the series MVP trophy and millions of Americans high-fived each other through Twitter while Heat fans mumbled something about us all being haters.
Meanwhile, LeBron James and his six toes scored 21 points to lead the Heat, but let’s be real – the self-anointed King vanished when it mattered, at least in comparison to Nowitzki. Ultimately, it seemed like the real intensity of Game 6 was coming from Dwyane Wade (who was fourth in scoring for the Heat, mind you), Mario Chalmers and Bosh, but this is not the time to criticize the Heat.
For it is the Mavericks’ time to celebrate their first ever NBA Championship with the class and dignity that Jason Kidd and his pimp slap are known for. It’s also a time for NBA fans to think about the future of the league as the lockout looms. But mostly, it’s time for us to be glad that Mark Jackson will no longer be announcing games and making comments like, “Jason Kidd’s DNA is all over this team’s title.” Gross, dude.
In the meantime, here is this morning’s lazily organized collection of Tweets from last night’s stars and interested parties, as well as some of the Internet’s finest humor offerings, and just the general aftermath of the Mavericks’ first NBA Championship.
Nowitzki left the court immediately after the buzzer, overcome with emotion. James left the court after the buzzer as well, but he was overcome with not ever shaking anybody’s hand.
I guess you could say he’s a man of many hats. And if you do say that, punch yourself in the nuts.
That’s Mark Cuban dancing in a club with the Larry O’Brien Trophy in case you can’t tell. He apparently ordered 250 bottles for the guests at Miami’s Club Liv. It’s nice to see that the years have humbled him.
This was Cuban’s Tweet this morning, but to be fair I don’t think he went to sleep because my timeline is littered with his ramblings. Somewhere David Stern is filing this championship in his “Contractual Championship Guarantees” folder and moving on.
James showed humility with this Tweet, but not with much else and that’s fine because he’s a pissed off superstar who may have been treated unfairly by the media and Rashard Lewis’ penis throughout the Finals. But we’ll get to all that treatment later today. James said in the postgame press conference that he’s not concerned with his critics and the people who cheered for him to lose because they’ll wake up in the morning and have the same problems that they did yesterday. He’s right, too. I woke up this morning and immediately thought, “F*ck, I still don’t have a championship.”
Showing that he’s moved on from comic sans, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert weighed in after the game, offering his congratulations to Cuban and the Mavs and reminding James that there are no shortcuts to a championship just like he’ll be reminding Kyrie Irving in a few years.
I give the guy credit, Bosh played his heart out. He gained a lot of respect in my book during this series. Now he just needs to get his ex-wife to vanish.
(Gif via @Jose3030)
This fun image popped up all over Twitter and Tumblr after the game, so I’m not sure who to credit for it, but it’s delightful.
But hey, Miami already won.
Update: Miami didn’t win.
