The Dallas Mavericks won their first and only NBA Finals in 2011, a championship they earned in upset fashion over the Miami Heat. Dirk Nowitzki led the way, while Jason Kidd also played a big role. Kidd, who is now the coach of the Mavs and led Dallas to its first NBA Finals since 2011 in 2024 (although they lost to the Boston Celtics), recently went golfing with LIV Golf star Bryson DeChambeau as filming took place as well. DeChambeau asked Kidd about the 2011 NBA Finals, which led to an honest admission from the Hall of Fame point guard, via Kidd's Instagram and crushers_gc.
“Great year,” Kidd said when DeChambeau mentioned 2011. The golfer then asked Kidd what the feeling of defeating the Heat was like. “When we won, we didn't know how to celebrate, but we didn't want to stop playing. Game 1, we thought we felt we should have won. Game 2, we're down 15, D-Wade (Dwyane Wade) and LeBron (James) do their shadow boxing against each other and it kind of pissed us off… And we go out of that timeout saying we ain't gonna lose.
“And then that's when everybody started to believe that we can win the championship.”
The Heat — as Kidd mentioned — were led by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Miami was expected to defeat Dallas, but the Mavs rebounded from a 15-point deficit in Game 2 to earn a 95-93 victory. Dallas went on to win the 2011 NBA Finals in six games.
It was a thrilling series. Nowitzki, the greatest Mavericks player of all-time, finally earned his championship. Kidd had spent his first couple of seasons in Dallas before playing for the Phoenix Suns and New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets) before returning to Dallas later in his career. He wasn't the same superstar-caliber player in 2011 that he once was as he was nearing the end of his career, but the guard still positively impacted the Mavs' championship run.
