June 20, 2006: The Miami Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks, 95-92 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, and win their 1st NBA Championship -- with Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton, but without LeBron James.
The Heat also had Antoine Walker and Derek Anderson, who had both helped the University of Kentucky win the 1996 National Championship.
The Mavs had won the 1st 2 games, but blew the next 4, 3 of them by a combined 6 points. The joke began that they should be renamed the Allas Mavericks, and their best player Irk Nowitzki, because they had no D. But they would get revenge on the Heat in the 2011 Finals, when the Heat no longer had Shaq, but did have Wade and LeBron.
To make matters even more confusing, in these 2 Finals, the Heat played their home games at the American Airlines Arena (since renamed the Kaseya Center), and the Mavericks played theirs at the American Airlines Center.
Sports Illustrated named Wade their Sportsman of the Year for 2006. He, O'Neal and Payton were named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players.
UPDATE: Udonis Haslem would play 20 seasons, all with the Heat, the most seasons any player would play with any NBA team, let alone with only 1 NBA team. The Heat have made the NBA Finals 7 times, and Haslem has played for all of them: 2006, '11, '12, '13, '14, '20 and '23.
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June 20, 2006 was a Monday. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup was won the day before, when the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Finals.
The World Cup was in progress. These 4 games were played:
* England and Sweden played to a 2-2 draw at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne.
* Hosts Germany beat Ecuador, 3-0 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.
* Poland beat Costa Rica, 2-1 at the Niedersachsenstadion in Hanover.
* And Paraguay beat Trinidad and Tobago, 2-0 at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion in Kaiserslautern.
And these Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-7 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Mike Mussina and Cory Lidle started. This game went back-and-forth: The Phillies led 3-0 after 1 inning, 5-3 after 4, and 7-5 after 7. But the Yankees scored 4 runs in the 8th, off Arthur Rhodes, whom they'd previously victimized with the Texas Rangers in the Playoffs in the late 1990s.
T.J. Beam became the winning pitcher. Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada hit home runs. Bernie Williams went 5-for-5 with an RBI. Derek Jeter went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Alex Rodriguez went 1-for-5 with an RBI. For the Phillies, Ryan Howard went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs and 7 RBIs.
Later in the season, the Phillies traded Lidle to the Yankees. After the season, he was killed in a plan crash.
* The New York Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-2 at Shea Stadium. Steve Trachsel was the winning pitcher, and helped his own cause with a home run. Carlos Delgado and Xavier Nady also hit home runs. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4 for the Reds.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Nationals, 11-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Coco Crisp hit a home run. Mark Loretta, Trot Nixon and Alex Cora each had 3 hits for the BoSox. David Ortiz went 1-for-5.
* The Florida Marlins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-2 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-5 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.
* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 8-5 at Tropicana Field at St. Petersburg, Florida.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-2 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 20-6 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-1 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-6 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Texas Rangers, 6-5 at Ameriquest Field (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Houston Astros, 6-5 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. Justin Morneau hit a home run in the top of the 10th inning.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-0 at Coors Field in Denver. How many Rockies does it take to pitch a 1-hit shutout? Apparently, 3:
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 9-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Ichiro Suzuki went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 3-2 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco. Barry Bonds went 0-for-4.
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