Dirk Nowitzki won his first NBA championship in 2011 against the Miami Heat. The Dallas Mavericks had a tough task going against the Big 3 of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, but they were able to overcome the star power and win the series 4-2.
Nowitzki knows how tough the series was, but he also dropped a major truth bomb about why he thinks they won on Thanasis Antetokounmpo's podcast.
“It was tough, we had a good run there. That was a different beast and I always say we got a little lucky,” Nowitzki said. “We saw them in year one where they'd just gotten together and I think they were not quite sure yet. Is LeBron taking over, is Wade taking over, is Bosh taking the big shots? We caught them on the early side before they really figured it all out.”
The Mavericks had a magical run to the NBA Finals that season, and Nowitzki says their confidence was at a whole new level.
“We had a good team that had a good chemistry that year and that was our year. Once we started, we beat Portland first round. Then we ran into the Lakers who were the defending champs with Kobe and Pau,” Nowitzki said. “We ended up winning 4-0 and I think that gave us a huge confidence boost. When we won both road games in L.A. we were like ‘Okay.' This is when we took our confidence to the next level.”
Dirk Nowitzki got his revenge on the Miami Heat in 2011
2011 wasn't the first year that Dirk Nowitzki saw the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. In 2006 the two teams faced each other, and the Mavericks were actually favored, but the Heat won the title in six games after losing the first two games of the series. Dwyane Wade was named the Finals MVP, averaging 34.7 points per game.
In 2011, Nowitzki and the Mavericks came back and beat the Heat in six games, even with LeBron James and Chris Bosh on the team. Nowitzki won Finals MVP, averaging 26.0 points and 9.7 rebounds in the series. Wade had Nowitzki on his podcast in January and spoke about the moment that he and LeBron were faking coughs ahead of Game 4 of the NBA Finals, mocking Nowitzki.
“How childish was that moment,” Wade said.
“I didn’t appreciate it,” Nowitzki said. “I didn’t like it. To me, it felt disrespectful. I felt like I never had to fake an injury, I never had to fake an illness to show anything. I didn’t feel well that day, had a little fever and really that was it. I thought it was childish… But at the end of the day, that didn’t add to the motivation.”
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