June 12, 2011: The Dallas Mavericks win their 1st NBA Championship, beating the Miami Heat, and avenging their defeat in the 2006 NBA Finals.
The Mavericks began play in 1980, at the Reunion Arena. They reached the Playoffs for the 1st time in 1984, and reached the Western Conference Finals in 1988. They tailed off, and won just 11 games in 1992-93, and 13 in 1993-94. It took until 2000-01 for them to make the Playoffs again.
The next season, they moved into the new American Airlines Center, and reached the Conference Finals in 2003. In 2006, led by German power forward Dirk Nowitzki and guard Jason Terry (known as JET because of his initials and his speed), they won the 1st 2 games of the Finals, but the Heat won the next 4 straight. The Mavs won just 1 Playoff round over the next 4 seasons. They had little trouble scoring, but their defense wasn't very good: The joke became that they should be called the Allas Mavericks, and their best player should be called Irk, because they had no D.
But in 2008, Mavericks president Donnie Nelson (son of former Celtics star and Mavericks head coach Don Nelson) hired Rick Carlisle as head coach, and brought back former star guard Jason Kidd. In 2009, the Mavs added forward Shawn Marion. For 2010-11, they acquired forwards Peja Stojaković and Caron Butler, and center Tyson Chandler. They were ready.
But so were the Heat. They still had Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem and Žydrūnas Ilgauskas from their 2006 title. Since then, head coach Erik Spoelstra and team president Pat Riley had added Jamaal Magloire, Mario Chalmers. Just in the preceding off-season, they had added LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Juwan Howard and Mike Miller. And, in midseason, they added Mike Bibby. Building a superteam was the intention. And they would have home-court advantage, hosting Games 1 and 2, and, if necessary, Games 6 and 7.
To confuse things, the teams' arenas had the same sponsor. American Airlines is headquartered in Dallas, so it made sense for them to sponsor the Mavericks' home, the American Airlines Center. But they also sponsored the Heat's home, the American Airlines Arena. It has since been renamed the Kaseya Center. But this was the first time a Finals -- aside from the single-game format of the Super Bowl -- was held entirely at 2 different venues with, for all intents and purposes, the same name.
The Heat won Game 1, 92-84. But the Mavs found a road win in Game 2, 95-93. despite Wade scoring 36 points. The series moved to Dallas, and, despite Nowitzki scoring 34, the Heat stole home-court advantage back, 88-86.
Because of the next 3 games, and the NBA team owners locking the players out, delaying the start of the next season, the Heat didn't win another game that counted until the following Christmas Day. The Mavs took Game 4, 86-83. They took Game 5, 112-103.
LeBron made his 1st 4 shots in Game 6 in Miami, and the Heat led, 20-11. But Carlisle switched the Mavs to a zone defense, and they went on a 21-4 run that proved decisive. They turned the Heat's 1st 6 turnovers into 14 points. But the momentum shifted again, and the Heat went on a 14-0 run to retake the lead.
With 6:25 left in the half, the momentum shifted again. A midcourt fight during a timeout led to technical fouls for Haslem and Chalmers, and for DeShawn Stevenson of Dallas. From the start of the 3rd quarter until 1:49 left in it, LeBron didn't score at all. A buzzer-beater by Ian Mahinmi at the end of the quarter put the Mavs up 81-72. They led for the last 22 minutes of the 48, for a final score of 105-95.
Nowitzki went straight to the locker room in tears, but came out for the trophy presentation. Which was a good idea, since he was named the Finals' Most Valuable Player.
Carlisle had won an NBA Championship as a player, with the 1986 Boston Celtics. He became one of the few men to win a title as a player and as a head coach. Kidd hasn't done that yet, but he won one as an assistant coach, with the 2020 Los Angeles Lakers -- featuring LeBron James.
The Mavericks went for broke in 2011, and they made it. But they may have used up all of their good luck: Although they have remained a Playoff perennial, they didn't win another Playoff series until 2022, by which point Nowitzki and Kidd were retired, and Kidd was already in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Nowitzki becomes eligible for the Hall in 2023. (UPDATE: He was elected that year.)
But the Heat were built to win multiple titles. They did win titles in 2012 and 2013, and reached the Finals again in 2014, their 4th straight trip. But they lost to the San Antonio Spurs. LeBron then went back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and led them to 4 more straight Finals -- 8 straight Finals for him. But they only won 1. Then he went to the Lakers and won in 2020, beating the Heat, who were making the Finals without Wade for the 1st time.
UPDATE: The Mavericks do not have a team Hall of Fame, but they have retired numbers:12, for 1980s and '90 guard Derek Harper; 15, for 1980s guard Brad Davis; 22, for 1980s guard Rolando Blackman; 24, for 1980s forward Mark Aguirre, and 41 for 2000s and 2010s forward Dirk Nowitzki. Blackman, thus far, is the only Maverick who has been inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
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June 12, 2011 was a Sunday. This was also the day that the HBO TV series Game of Thrones proved that no character was safe from death. I have a separate entry for that event.
The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 5 and 6. The Boston Bruins went on to beat the Vancouver Canucks in 7 games. Football was out of season. And these Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-1 at Yankee Stadium. Freddy García was the winning pitcher. Derek Jeter went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Alex Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Curtis Granderson went 4-for-4 with 2 RBIs. But there were no home runs.
* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-0 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Chris Capuano was the winning pitcher. The Mets scored all their runs in the last 3 innings, including home runs in the 9th by Scott Hairston and José Reyes.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Ryan Howard went 3-for-3 with a walk and 3 RBIs.
* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-6 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 14-1 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. The Red Sox got home runs * from David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and Adrián González. Jon Lester was the winning pitcher.
* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Florida Marlins, 5-1 at Sun Life Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-3 at Comerica Park in Detroit. Miguel Olivo hit 2 home runs. Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-5 with an RBI. For the Tigers, Miguel Cabrera went 1-for-1 with 3 walks.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-4 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 6-1 at Target Field in Minneapolis.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 10-8 at Coors Field in Denver.
* The Washington Nationals beat the San Diego Padres, 2-0 at Petco Park in San Diego. Jordan Zimmerman pitched 7 innings of 4-hit shutout ball, striking out 10 and walking just 1, but he was not the winning pitcher. The Nats scored 2 runs in the 9th, on Danny Espinosa's sacrifice fly and Laynce Nix's single, so the winning pitcher was Todd Coffey, who pitched a perfect 8th. Drew Storen finished the 5-hit shutout.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Los Angeles Angels, 9-0 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Vin Mazzaro pitched 7 innings of 5-hit shutout ball, and Blake Wood finished the 5-hit shutout.
* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-2 at AT&T Park
(now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.
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