2006 NBA Champions

*drumroll*

And the 2006 NBA Championship goes to, [opens envelope], the Miami Heat! After being down 2-0 the Heat stormed back to win four straight games and upset the Mavericks and win their first NBA title in franchise history. Wade got his well deserved finals MVP title after another spectacular game. It was a pretty damn good NBA finals this year, and on a sidenote, I won a little over 150$ worth of bets from the Heat winning

For Pat Riley, it’s the first time in 18 years he can say it. For Shaquille O’Neal, it’s been four years, and for Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton and Dwyane Wade — especially Wade — it’s the first time they can make the claim.

Champions, all of them. All of the Miami Heat.

In a decisive Game 6 that capped one of the most stunning turnarounds in NBA Finals history, the Heat finished off the Dallas Mavericks and showed themselves to be worthy of being crowned champions by riding their young superstar to the first title in franchise history with a 95-92 victory Tuesday night.

Wade didn’t quite score 40 this time, as he had twice before in this series, but he came awful close with 36 points and avoided a nightmare finish after blowing a pair of free throws with 9.1 seconds left to give the Mavericks one final chance.

But that chance ended with Jason Terry’s 3-point attempt bouncing high and hard off the rim, Wade getting the rebound with a second left and no Mavericks anywhere near him. He tossed the ball high in the air and the Heat players bounded off the bench in celebration, so many years of waiting for so many of them finally having come to an end.

“I don’t want to say I put the team on my back. You know, we did it together. Like Coach said, like we’ve all been saying, it’s been 15 strong,” Wade said. “They gave me the opportunity by putting the ball in my hands to prove people wrong. When I came [into] the series, it was, I can’t shoot. I don’t know where they got that from. So I proved to them I can shoot, and then after that, I proved I can play, and that’s all I tried to do: prove people wrong.”

Miami became just the third team in NBA Finals history to win a series after dropping the first two games, and the first to do it after losing Games 1 and 2 by double-digit margins. This series actually looked lost for the Heat with 6½ minutes left in Game 3 when they trailed by 13 on their home court, but the Mavericks relaxed too soon and never got their groove back, earning the dubious distinction of becoming the first team to lose the NBA Finals in the fourth quarter of Game 3. #