It has been nine seasons since the Dallas Mavericks last won an NBA Championship against Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and the rest of the Miami Heat in 2011. Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks would get their revenge after losing to Wade and company five years earlier.
Nowitzki would be named the 2011 Finals MVP and would cement his legacy in NBA history forever as well as giving Dallas its first professional Championship since the 1999 Dallas Stars.
According to First Take’s Stephen A Smith, Dallas might have to wait too much longer to capture their next one. Earlier tonight, Smith went live on Periscope and revealed that he could see Luka Doncic and the rest of the Mavericks hoisting the Larry O’Bryant Trophy in 2023.
“I can see Dallas winning it in about three years,” said Smith.
A part of that can go to Mavericks All-Star Luka Doncic and the resurgence of former All-Star Kristaps Porzingis.
Luka Doncic is averaging 28.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 8.7 assists per game through 54 games for the Mavericks this season, while Porzingis is averaging 19.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game through 51 games. Back in January, The Jump’s Rachel Nichols her thoughts on Doncic progression from year one to year two.
“Obviously phenomenal and it’s funny, I just did an interview with him and he was saying he was even surprised the leap he has been able to make. But, one thing he noted was this past summer was the first summer he was able to put in a substantive amount of work,” Nichols told me.
“If you think about the summer before played in the NBA and the Europe League Championship came over got drafted it was all a whirlwind went back to Slovenia and came back here. Don’t have as much time with the Mavericks staff or just, in general, to work on his game. Once the NBA season was over, he was just able to focus on working on basketball and we are all seeing the results.”
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Mark Cuban Think James Went Hollywood Since Losing to the Mavericks in 2011
Earlier this season, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who came upon the Winning side of things in 2011 shared that Dallas beat LeBron in the Finals, he has “Gone Hollywood.’
“He has gone Hollywood,” Cuban told me. “I think LeBron’s greatest growth has come off the court. He was a confident but unsure kid when he came into the league, and now he is a social icon. There have been a lot of great players who haven’t chosen to take that route or were unable to take that route.”
“LeBron has done it by having good people around him, but also picking his spots,” said Cuban. “I think what sets LeBron James apart from a lot of socially conscious athletes is he knows when to wait for his pitch, and he knows when to swing. ”
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Mavericks Win A Championship in Three Years, Says Stephen A. Smith