Presented by ZAMZOWS.
This Day In Sports…June 12, 2011, 15 years ago today:
Trailing at one point two games-to-one in the NBA Finals, the underdog Dallas Mavericks win their third straight game to claim their first championship in a 105-95 win over the Miami Heat. And heat is what LeBron James took after consistently fading in the fourth quarter. James, in his first season in Miami after “The Decision,” scored almost nine points per game less in the Finals than he did during the regular season. James formed the “Big Three” with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, and their first campaign ended on a decidedly sour note.
Conversely, the Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki was outstanding, taking Finals MVP honors as he hugged an NBA championship trophy for the first time in his 13-year career. Thursday’s feature here was about Michael Jordan’s courageous performance in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals after food poisoning. Well, Nowitzki played through a torn finger tendon suffered in Game 2—then a sinus infection in Game 4—while leading the Mavericks to the crown, averaging 26.0 points per game with his patented one-legged fadeaway jumper.
Nowitzki, on the cusp of his 33rd birthday, put up 21 points in Game 4, 10 of them in a decisive fourth quarter, despite running a 101-degree fever. That, coupled with what happened before Game 5, turned the series on its ear. While walking through the hallways of the American Airlines Center in Dallas following a morning shootaround, Miami Wade and James were caught on camera faking coughs into their shirts. Wade was recorded smiling and saying, “Whoa, did y’all hear me cough? I think I’m sick,” clearly poking fun at Nowitzki’s illness.
It went viral, and Nowitzki was shown the video before the game. The 7-foot German would call it “childish” and “ignorant,” pointing out that through his career he had never faked an illness or injury. Nowitzki wouldn’t give the video credit for a 29-point performance in the Mavs’ 112-103 Game 5 victory, but his teammates felt disrespected and were steely-focused on finishing off Miami because of it. That made Game 6 a mere formality, and when the buzzer sounded, an overwhelmed Nowitzki bolted to the locker room in tears (only to return for the trophy ceremony).
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
