After his ugly divorce from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004, Shaquille O’Neal aimed for one more NBA title with the best Shooting Guard in the league after his former partner Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade. Following a disappointing exit in the 2005 Playoffs, the Wade-Shaq duo marched on to the NBA Finals in 2006. They lost just seven games in the playoffs en route to the Finals series and had even dusted off the Eastern Conference favorites Detroit Pistons in six games.
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However, they met a pumped-up Dallas Mavericks squad in the ultimate stage that was thriving under sharpshooter Dirk Nowitzki. After a fairytale Eastern Conference run, their story saw an anti-climatic dip when the Mavs snatched the first two games from them in the series. With their backs against the wall, the team needed every bit of motivation they could get. And it was none other than Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban whose actions inadvertently inspired Shaq and Co to pull themselves out of the mud and facilitate a remarkable comeback.
Heat’s head coach Pat Riley had gotten hold of a newspaper that reported on Cuban’s future plans to organize a parade for the Mavericks in Dallas. Planning a parade after just two games was no doubt a disrespectful move. In his 2011 autobiography, Shaq Uncut: My Story, co-authored by Jackie McMullan, Shaquille O’Neal outlined Pat Riley’s reaction to Cuban’s announcement of a parade.
“After all we’ve been through, fifteen strong, are we going to give up? This fu**ing guy[Mark Cuban] is planning a goddamn parade,” Shaq quoted a pissed-off Riley in his 2011 memoir. The Diesel’s book also recounted how an angry Riley started dramatically banging tables and breaking furniture to prepare his team for retribution.
Upon hearing these words, Shaq got veterans “GP[Gary Payton] and Antoine[Walker] and [James]Posey riled up.” Meanwhile, Wade had taken command of the young players like Udonis Haslem. The Heat subsequently won four games in a row and clinched the championship despite being initially down 0-2. Cuban’s ploy to leak the details of the parade backfired monumentally.
However, Miami would taste their own medicine of vengeance just five years later. After Game 4 of the 2011 NBA Finals, Mavs’ Nowitzki contracted a Flu-like illness. Therefore, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade of the loaded Miami Heat, who were the overwhelming favorites to win the contest, decided to mock the Mavs star by fake coughing in the tunnel before a shootaround. Nowitzki felt disrespected by the move and would eventually lead the Mavs to victory in six games, causing one of the biggest upsets in NBA history.
Mark Cuban did get his parade
As mentioned earlier, five years later, Mark Cuban got another chance to throw a title parade in Dallas. The Mavericks and the Heat locked horns in the 2011 Finals in a rematch of 2006. The Mavs had made an unlikely run considering Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Jason Kidd, and Shawn Marion were nearing the twilight of their careers.
Despite the odds stacked against them, the aging Mavs team upset the much younger and dynamic Miami Heat in six games. They had limited LeBron James to just 17.8 points per game and the Mavs defense didn’t allow the Miami Heat to breach the 100-point mark more than once. Apart from the Mavs’ defensive masterclass, Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki rained down 26 points a game against the grueling defense of Joel Anthony, Udonis Haslem, and Chris Bosh. Meanwhile, vet Jason Terry dropped 18 points a game on 49.4% shooting.
This title had a huge significance as Cuban finally got his wish for a parade after a long time. For NBA fans, watching an emotional Dirk Nowitzki lift the title became one of the best memories. He had endured a lot of disappointment until then. The 2006 Finals heartbreak was worsened when in the following 2006-2007 season, his Mavs lost to the eighth-seeded Warriors in the first round after winning 67 games. In 2010, as a number-two seed, they suffered another defeat in the first round at the hands of seventh-seeded San Antonio Spurs. Therefore, this title buried the hatchet and helped the organization lift a much-needed banner.
