Dirk Nowitzki and the 2011 Dallas Mavericks authored one of the greatest sports stories of all time. Even LeBron James and Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat would have to admit this about the Mavs.
The Mavs were the third seed in the Western Conference entering the playoffs and they definitely weren't championship favorites. The beat the sixth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers in the first round in six games.
In the second round, the Mavs swept the reigning champion Los Angeles Lakers lead by Kobe Bryant.
The Western Conference Finals was a battle of young and old that year as the Mavs beat the up-and-coming Oklahoma City Thunder in five games. This set-up the legendary finals between the Mavs and the newly formed Miami Heat super team with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
We all know the story from there. The underdog Mavericks took on the Heat. LeBron collapsed, and Dirk Nowitzki got his ring. The Mavs completed an incredible upset, but it was far from expected.
In a recent interview, a member of the championship Mavericks, Corey Brewer, discussed the disrespect Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs faced.
“We were being disrespected,” Brewer said of the Mavs. “Nobody even talked about us. It was all about the ‘Heatles.' So for us, it was like ‘alright, they're disrespecting us.' And you gotta realize, we had a lot of great players on that team. We had Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, DeShawn Stevenson, Brandon Haywood. We had Tyson Chandler, the big anchor back there. We had a good team, so we felt disrespected and I think that's what we took into the Finals. If you're going to disrespect us, we're going to show you that we're not to be disrespected.”
Dirk Nowitzki clearly took these comments personally as he lead the Mavs to the championship and won Finals MVP. Dirk averaged 26 points per game in the series on good efficiency.
Dirk Nowitzki and the 2011 Mavs are forever etched in the history books despite the disrespect they received.
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