14-8, 5:33 1Q Dal FTO

I don’t know if my feeling is shared by “Heat” fans or the org  Dallas is my most detested rival for the “Heat.”We’re not even in the same conference and only play them, I suppose, twice a year. My bitterness goes back 12 and 17 years. 2006 NBA Finals. Underdog Miami won its first NBA championship with four straight wins over the “Mavericks” after losing the first two games. They were Dwayne Wade’s coming out party as a superstar. And Mark Cuban wouldn’t have it. Cuban went absolutely nuts multiple times at the alleged favoritism of the refs toward a kid who was not a superstar going into the series. I don’t know what the total was of the fines David Stern hit him with. It was Pat Riley’s last championship as a coach. Cuban was so vocal and so often that it really did take a little of the joy out of that first “Heat” championship for me.

In 2011 the roles were reversed, the “Heat”, in the first year of the Big Three, were heavy favorites. That series ended 4-2 also, but in Dallas’s favor. Miami won the first game and game three to lead two games to one and Dallas won three straight. It was humiliating for LeBron, who had to make good on his promise to fans to win “not one, not two, not three, not four…” championships. The “Heat” were the most hated team in the Association when LBJ took his talents to South Beach. There were bumperstickers in Miami—I saw them—“Don’t Hate the Heat.” The hatred took some of the joy off the arrival of the Big Three for me. And the reaction to Dallas winning the 2011 Finals was depressing for me. Everybody hoped LeBron and the “Heat” would fail and everybody reveled in their failure. Mark Cuban literally slept with the Larry O’Brien trophy. Detestable Dan Gilbert congratulated Cuban for winning a championship “the right way.” 

I don’t know this for sure or if it is just my sensitivity but it seems like Dallas has had our number ever since 2011. Like in these meaningless January games. It seems to me, maybe because I just pay attention to them more, that Dallas has won more of the regular season games than the “Heat” have. 

So for me, Mark Cuban’s “Mavericks” are the team I most…I’ll say it, I’m not proud of it, hate. And it is now 43-30 Dallas, 8:05 2Q.