Over a decade ago, Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks defeated Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.
Former NBA big man Brendan Haywood was a member of that Mavericks team that won it all. He recently shared that there were two things that happened that angered his squad during the series. The first one happened when James and Wade showboated right in front of the Dallas bench in Game 2 while leading in the fourth quarter in a game the Mavs ultimately came back and won.
According to Haywood, the second instance came when the Heat disrespected Nowitzki during the series.
“And the second thing that we really didn’t like in that series was Dirk was really sick, and they thought it was playtime,” Haywood said. “And remember Bron, D-Wade (coughing noises). ‘Oh, I’m sick, dawg.’ Everyone on our team, we dialed in. We are so dialed in ’cause at that point it’s like, ‘Yo, dude (Dirk) don’t even say nothin’ to nobody.’
“And we still takin’ on the fact that at that point, Dirk really didn’t like D-Wade based on what happened in the last finals and what D-Wade said after those finals. So we already were ridin’ for Dirk because we understood that him and D-Wade had a little quiet, simmering beef. And then it’s like, ‘Oh, now he really disrespectful. This our leader. This our guy.’ And so, yeah, we — everybody was dialed in after that. Everybody was definitely dialed in.”
Haywood then delved into exactly how Wade got on Nowitzki’s nerves following the 2006 NBA Finals. It’s of note that Dallas held a 2-0 lead in that championship series before it dropped the final four games and lost the title to the Heat.
“He didn’t like that D-Wade questioned his leadership after they lost in, what, I think it was ’06?” Haywood said. “That really bothered him. That bothered him a lot. … He got his lick back. … But that’s the type of person he is. It bothered him, but you’ll never know.”
Wade called Nowitzki’s leadership into question after the latter underperformed when the lights were at their brightest in 2006.
With a championship at stake, Nowitzki averaged 22.8 points per game in the 2006 NBA Finals but shot just 39.0 percent from the floor and 25.0 percent from deep.
The leadership comments from Wade came the following season as he looked back on the 2006 series.
But as Haywood implied, Nowitzki got his revenge against Wade and the Heat when the two teams met in the NBA Finals once again in 2011.
The Mavericks came out on top in the best-of-seven series in six games, and Nowitzki was an unstoppable force on the offensive side of the ball for Dallas. He averaged 26.0 points per game while knocking down 41.6 percent of his shots from the field, 36.8 percent of his shots from deep and 97.8 percent of his looks from the charity stripe.
Unsurprisingly, Nowitzki earned the Finals MVP award for his contributions against James, Wade and company.
He was able to lead Dallas to its first championship in franchise history. The Mavericks came close to winning another ring just one season ago, as the team reached the 2024 NBA Finals with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving leading the way.
Nowitzki retired following the 2018-19 campaign after he spent every one of his 21 seasons in the NBA as a member of the Mavericks. He is now universally considered to be one of the better scorers in NBA history as well as one of the best players ever to don a Dallas jersey.
For what it’s worth, he and Wade seem to be on better terms these days.
