I never made my prediction for the NBA Finals, but if I had, I would have picked Dallas in 7. On paper, Dallas looks like the better team. They can play big or small, they have a unique MVP-caliber player in Nowitzki, and they have solid role players. Plus they have 3 7-foot centers to harass Shaq with. In beating the Spurs, I thought they had gotten over the hump and were ready to win it all.
But Dwayne Wade came up huge for the Heat, showing that a single great player (Wade) + a good player (Shaq) can beat a better team, as long as they have the right pieces around them. Call this the Jordan Theory. Time and time again in this series, Wade came up big when he had to, and Nowitzki did not. Better yet, Wade played well on both sides of the ball, coming up with big defensive plays (deflecting the inbounds pass to Josh Howard at the end of Game 3, a nasty block from behind when Howard had a breakaway, …) as well as clutch shots. Yes, he missed the two free throws that could have iced Game 6. But he’s only, what, 24? Give him time.
On the other hand, Wade’s performance has stirred up the “next MJ” talk again. Wade was spectacular in his first Finals appearance, but MJ was spectacular 6 times over a period of nearly 10 years. I wouldn’t even take Wade at this point over Shaq in his prime (3 Finals MVPs, whole teams constructed to deal with him in the playoffs — and failing). But Wade is young and definitely has a chance to become one of the great players. We’ll have to wait and see. I’m definitely excited to see him and Lebron carry the NBA into the next decade.
