Like the ‘11 Mavs, these Mavs were no one’s preseason favorites. Thirteen long years later, Dallas is battling for a title again.
Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving and head coach Jason Kidd celebrate with the trophy after a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of the NBA basketball Western Conference Finals on Thursday, May 30, 2024, in Minneapolis.On the whole, coaches are loathe to compare players and teams from the past to the present. Different game, different times. Loyalty figures in, too.
Both teams beat long odds only to find themselves confronting the preseason favorite. Not that the prospects daunted the title team, to hear them tell it.AdvertisementMarion’s Mavs made it despite a path more treacherous than the one their heirs just took. After beating Portland in six, they swept the Lakers, then needed only five to eliminate Oklahoma City. Those were Kobe Bryant’s Lakers, by the way. Guarded by Kidd, Kobe scored 36, 23, 17 and 17 points.
Even after they’d disposed of a Thunder team led by 22-year-old Kevin Durant and his pals, James Harden and Russell Westbrook, the Mavs weren’t given much of a chance to beat the Heat. They had but the one superstar at the dawn of the 3-superstar era, one in which LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh would win back-to-back titles.What they were was tough, physically and mentally.
The Mavs rallied for a 95-93 win, then took three of the next four. Charles Barkley called it one of the greatest coaching jobs ever. The Mavs’ hierarchy thought it so singular, it declined an option to defend the title.At first glance, they don’t look much like the last version that got this far. Unlike Carlisle’s best team, this one can, indeed, jump out of the gym. More depth at center on the reach of Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II.
The biggest difference? Carlisle had just one superstar; Kidd has two. Dirk remains a franchise icon. Long ago retired the trophy of Dallas’ nicest superstar. But, as Jerry West told me in 2020, he had seen the man who would be considered the greatest player in Mavs’ history, and “Dirk is not him.”Before we put them on a pedestal, though, there’s still prep work to do. A second championship will require the same grit and intensity that went into the first. We’ve seen it.
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