June 20, 2006: The Heat Were On

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.

June 12, 2011: The Dallas Mavericks Win the NBA Title

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. Nowitzki and Kidd were named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players.

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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.

April 13, 2008: The End of the Seattle SuperSonics -- For Now

April 13, 2008: Although it is not yet official, the Seattle SuperSonics play their last game. They beat the Dallas Mavericks, 99-95 at the KeyArena. Earl Watson leads the Sonics with 21 points, and rookie Kevin Durant scored 19. In defeat, Dirk Nowitzki leads all scorers with 32.

The SuperSonics were Seattle's 1st true major league sports team. Before that, the city had the University of Washington, Seattle University, and the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, 1917 Stanley Cup winners, but they folded in 1926. The team known at various times as the Seattle Indians, the Seattle Rainiers and the Seattle Angels had won 7 Pennants, but they were all in the Pacific Coast League.

Losing the Sonics, a team that existed for 41 years, made the Playoffs 22 times, reaching 6 Conference Finals, winning 3 Conference Championships and the 1979 NBA title was a blow to the Queen City of the Northwest.

And, the thing is, it didn't seem to make any sense. Seattle's a big city: 650,000 people in the city, 4.4 million people in the metropolitan area. The arena was relatively new: It opened in 1994. Attendance wasn't an issue: Although their last 3 seasons in Seattle were competitively terrible, the attendance was good (15,955 in the next-to-last season, before they officially became a lame duck and dropped to 13,355).

Granted, since then, Oklahoma City has strongly supported the team. It proved to be a good city for the NBA. But they should have gotten an expansion team, not taken somebody else's team.

The NBA did a "Cleveland Browns" with the Sonics: The Thunder could take the organization and the players, but not the history or the trademarks. They do not hang banners for the titles won by the Sonics. The NBA committed itself to restoring the Sonics, but, through the 2021-22 season, has not done so.

UPDATE: The original version of the Sonics never had a team Hall of Fame. But they did retire 6 uniform numbers: 1, for 1970s and '80s guard Gus Williams; 10, for 1980s and '90s guard Nate McMillan; 19, for 1970s guard and head coach Lenny Wilkens; 24, for 1970s forward Spencer Haywood; 32, for 1970s and '80s guard Fred Brown; and 43, for 1970s and '80s guard Jack Sikma. They also raised a banner in honor of Bo Blackburn, who broadcast for them from their debut in 1967 until 1992.

Should the franchise be re-established, they would be entitled to re-raise those banners, as well as for their 1979 NBA Championship; their Western Conference Championships of 1978, 1979 and 1996; and their Division Championships of 1979, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2005.

Wilkens, Brown and Blackburn have been elected to the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame. So have 1990s guard Gary Payton, 1990s forward Detlef Schrempf (also a University of Washington graduate), and forward Steve Hawes, a UW graduate who played only the 1983-84 season with the Sonics.

For now, the Thunder do not have a team Hall of Fame, but are honoring the Sonics' retired numbers. To those, they have added 4, for 2000s and '10s forward Nick Collison. The only Thunder personnel yet elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame have been forward Carmelo Anthony, who played the 2017-18 season for them; and Billy Donovan, their head coach from 2015 to 2020, but elected on the basis of having coached the University of Florida to back-to-back National Championships in 2006 and '07.

There is an Oklahoma Hall of Fame, for citizens of the State in all walks of life, in Oklahoma City, but not yet an Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. 2007-16 forward Kevin Durant (taken in the team's last NBA Draft as the Sonics) and 2008-19 guard Russell Westbrook were elected to it while still with the Thunder. General manager Sam Presti was elected after the 2025 NBA Championship.

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April 13, 2008 was a Sunday. There were 5 other games in the NBA that day:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat, 84-76 at the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors, 91-84 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Chicago Bulls, 104-84 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Houston Rockets, 111-94 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Allen Iverson scored 33 for the Nugs.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-85 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, 8-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Daisuke Matsuzaka was the winning pitcher, while Phil Hughes didn't get an out in the 3rd inning. David Ortiz did not play, but the other main steroid cheat, Manny Ramirez, went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Of the Yankees' steroid users, Jason Giambi hit a home run, but Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-5. Derek Jeter did not play.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-7 at Shea Stadium. Gabe Kapler and Rickie Weeks hit home runs for the Brew Crew, David Wright for the Metropolitans.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. In the top of the 10th inning, Carlos Zambrano grounded out, but it allowed Ronny Cedeño to score the winning run. Mark DeRosa hit a home run for the Cubs, Jayson Werth and Eric Bruntlett for the Phils.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. 

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-0 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Javier Vázquez pitched 7 innings of 5-hit shutout ball. Matt Thornton and Nick Masset completed the 6-hit shutout. Paul Konerko went 2-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs. Joe Crede hit a grand slam.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Rangers Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Joe Inglett hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning, to score Marco Scutaro with the winning run.

* The Houston Astros beat the Florida Marlins, 5-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 13-5 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. How many Padre pitchers does it take to pitch a 5-hit shutout? On this afternoon, 5: Greg Maddux, 2 hits over 5 innings; Joe Thatcher, a hit in the 6th; Cla Meredith, a hitless 7th; Heath Bell, a hit in the 8th; and Trevor Hoffman, a hit in the 9th. The only run of the game came in the top of the 4th, Jim Edmonds scoring on a sacrifice fly by Paul McAnulty.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-5 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Ichiro Suzuki went 0-for-3, but drew 2 walks and stole a base.

Football was out of season. The NHL was in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and 4 games were played:

* The New Jersey Devils beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden. John Madden (no relation to the football coach, broadcaster and video game impresario) scored the winning goal, 6:01 into overtime. Unfortunately for me, that was the only game the Devils won in that series.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the TD Banknorth Garden (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Marc Savard scored the winning goal, 9:25 into overtime. Marc is not related to Canadiens legend Serge Savard, although Serge does have a son named Marc.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals, 2-0 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

And in English soccer, Manchester United beat Arsenal, 2-1 at Old Trafford in Salford. Owen Hargreaves scored the winning goal in the 72nd minute. This didn't quite clinch the Premier League title for United, but it did pretty much knock Arsenal out. United ended up beating Chelsea for the title by 2 points, and Arsenal by 4.