Latest / Bleacher Report / How 2011 Mavs Beat Kobe's Lakers, LeBron's Heat in Historic NBA Title Run (with Jason Terry)

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How 2011 Mavs Beat Kobe's Lakers, LeBron's Heat in Historic NBA Title Run (with Jason Terry) · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is Jason Terry got spoken into existence.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Twenty eleven NBA champion with the Dallas Mavericks.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: We just had the head jew He's.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Going to take you through their entire championship.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: There was nothing you could do to stop dishcool.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Job presented by a state farm.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: They still like to this moment brings goosebumps back. I'm
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Jason Terry, Welcome to the run.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: The twenty ten to eleven Mavericks were defined by experience,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: but despite ten straight playoff appearances, the franchise was still
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: searching for its first title. Dirk Nowitsky had come closest
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and six. Now five years later, Dirk
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: was still chasing that first ring. The regular season was
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: filled with ups and downs, a league high twelve game
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: win streak, another all NBA season from Dirk, but also injuries,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: including losing starting forward Karan Butler to a season ending
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: knee injury. The MAVs finished the season with a fifty
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: seven and twenty five record, is the third seed in
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the West. Going into the twenty eleven playoffs, Dallas prepared
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: for a new nine questions about the Dallas Mavericks. Are
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: they too old?
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Are they tough enough, will they have another early season
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: bow out in the playoffs. Well, we never bought into
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: the two old narrative because three or four of us, myself, Sean,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Mary and he had been an All Star Dirt obviously
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: MVP All Stars.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So we're experienced. We're not old.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Our quing guard Jason Kidd was older, but he was
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: so wise and beyond his years. A veteran experienced team
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: will always think they they're the favorite.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: We never thought about being the underdog. Now. Our first
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: year in six we were the dark worst underdog.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: We didn't even think about the finals. We were happy
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: to make it to the playoffs. This time we expected
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: to be there, and so we felt like the time
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: is now, and that was actually our mantra throughout our
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: playoff run, the time is now.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: First off for the Mavericks were the Portland Trailblazers, led
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: if by star power forward the Marcus Aldrich Dallas both
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: games one and two at home, but dominant performances from Kurt,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: But when the series moved to Portland for Game three,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the Blazers thought hard with physicality, causing the Maps to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: drop their first game of the series. In Game four,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the Mavericks seemed to be taking back control of twenty
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: three points with a minute left in the third enter
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Brandon Roy.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, buddy, the greatest player to come out of Washington State,
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Brandon Roy in that finals run, This was our toughest
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: matchup and it was in the first round, and I
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: just hated it was against us. He had one of
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: his greatest moments. But this was a battle. We could
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: not stop him. Literally, we were up twenty three or
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: something in the first half and then I was cooking,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: like I was having a great game. It was like, Okay,
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: we're about to finish these boys off. The series is over.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: And then b Roy just turned.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Back the clock. Like you see, we had multiple defenders.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Everybody got some of it.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: I gart him, Sean garded him, Tyson switched out on him,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: and we could.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Not stop him. So like, I don't know what was
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: going through.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: His mind, but our mind's like, bro, we got a
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: double we gotta change the strategy to do something. And
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Coach Carlt just kept saying, no, guard him, guard him.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: It's like we're trying that. He's you can't guard him
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: He's cooking and uh, and we still had a chance,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: like I still had a chance to win, so.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I was disappointed in that. I'ma oh see that hurt too.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: This was the longest film session in the history of basketball,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Like after this game, Carlisle literally we watched like an
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: hour and a half of film.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: We watched the whole second half. First of all, you've
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: probably seen.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Every b roy bucket that he gave us, so he
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: made it like stick, Like, no, y'all gonna watch this,
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: It's gonna hurt. That's when the media started talking locally like, Okay,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: these are the same old Mavericks. They're about to get
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: back door swept. Portland's gonna come back and beat him.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: He's just like, nah, the time is now, We're not
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: that's not happening.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: The Mavericks would not let the Blazers win another game,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: and a thirty three point showing from Dirk led the
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Maps to finish.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Off the series in six.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Now they advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals to face
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: the back to back champion Los Angeles Lakers. And who
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: did Jason Terry get to defend reigning Finals MVP Kobe Bryant.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: The way he's looking at me, though, it's crazy, Like
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: if this little boy don't kid off me, like this
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: is a cold picture.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I need a copy of this please. You knew what
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Kobe like for.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Whatever defensive tactic you had, he had a counter some
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: of the games I had against him, or just blackoutse
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: like because you.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Knew you had to bring it. If you didn't, you
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: you're gonna literally die on the court.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Also in this game, he made it a point to
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: tell me Jid like, you're too close, Like why you're
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: so close to me? I said, Bro, I gotta stay
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: on you, he said, But it's nothing you could do.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Like he will say little stuff like that to you, Like, Bro,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: we just a game going on, like you having the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: whole conversation.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about? First of all, I just
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: saying nothing to you. Second of all, like, bro, just
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: play the game. But he always would have little stuff
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: like that, and then he wouldn't say nothing else for
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: like two quarters, just a killer man. There was a
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: saying that we always lose the lockwowm the road to
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: a championship always goes through the champion, and so we
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: knew to be champions, we had to defeat the Lakers.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Game one in Los Angeles looked like it was slipping
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: away when the Lakers built a sixteen point lead in
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: the third quarter, but the mass clawed back into the
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: game with their defensive intensity, securing two key steals in
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: the final thirty seconds, Kobe missed a potential game winner,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: and the Mavericks escaped with a ninety six to ninety
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: four victory. Game two made one thing clear. The Lakers
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: could not stop her. His twenty four points led all scorers,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: but the Mass strength went deeper than their superstar. Their
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: death continued to come up big. JJ beurrey Is playmaking
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: and Brendan Haywood's defense providing a spark that helps lift
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Dallas to a ninety three to eighty one win in Dallas.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: For Game three, it was more of the same. Derek's
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: thirty two points and nine rebounds, plus an offensive boost
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: from Jason Terry and Paejasto Yakovic off the bench, brought
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: the Mavericks to in ninety eight to ninety two victory.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: After three straight wins, Dallas was at home with a
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: chance to complete to.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: The sweep Mark Cooker. How you going, JT.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: The Mother's Day, Masacer was insane, Like I can literally
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: remember the meal I had.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I took my mother to eat.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: I took her to the International House of Pancake, like
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: I had the banana pancakes, extra syrup, side of bacon.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: And then you get to the game.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: You're into your locker, You're listening to your headphones, like
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: it was the.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Ultimate moment where you're in the zone.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: People talk about being in the zone, like I was
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: literally in the zone. My first shot was wide open.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: I was wide open, like there was nobody with ten
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: feet from me and it was all net the wide open.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Dang. The hoop was an ocean after that, like I
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: literally could talk up by the Los Angeles Laker. How
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: about carry you again?
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: This is like shooting that at the playground in the park.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: You just catching shoot wide open like I do this
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: in my sleeps. And then Paige came in. He's hitting
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: JJ's hit like it just kept going. We look up,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: We're up thirty. Phil's just sitting over there. He wasn't whistling,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: he was just sitting there.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Just taking it. And Kobe was quiet.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: That's the first time you ever seen Kobe like just
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: he had no response offensively. We figured out a way
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: that we could attack them. We can spread them out
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: and put our shooters in certain spots like either both
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: corners or the high quad and allowed JJ to break
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: the defense down and pick and roll. Their defense was
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: always over rotating, helping. All he had to do was
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: break the paint and spread outside and he could really
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: pick his poison on which one.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: He wanted to pass too.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: I just happened to be the recipient on a lot
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: of them, and for us, it gave us the ultimate confidence.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: If there was any doubt that crept in, there wasn't
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: within the group, but from the outside, you know, maybe
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: some of the fan base now they're starting to believe too, like, oh,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: this is our year, this is it.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: The Mavericks were about to get the perfect chance to
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: squash the narrative that they were too old is they
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: prepared to face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Conference Finals. This was an ultimate clash of the eras
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: the veteran Mavericks versus an up and coming OKAC team
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: led by Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden, all
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: under twenty three years old. Game one belonged to Dirk.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: He had his greatest playoff performance yet, scoring forty eight
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: points on twelve or fifteen shooting in a historic twenty
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: four of twenty four from the line to lead the
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Mavericks to victory.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Game one was huge, But this one I realized, like
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: Dirk's on a whole other level and he was serving
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: them up where he's hitting his shots from the night before.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Every game we would go to those same spots. I'll
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: be on this end, he's on that end. The moves
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: he's doing.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Like I'm watching this play out and he's practicing like
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: a performance.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: It's a theatrical performance, and I get to see it
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: before it happens.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: You can't get caught up, but you do get.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Caught up and kind of sitting back watching and forgetting
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: because it's greatness and it's looking.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: So good and so smooth.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: But then you got to snap back out of it,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: like I have moments where you sitting on the weak side,
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: like watching, Oh my god, he's about to cook them,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: and he's just like surgically getting to his where he
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: wants to get to on the floor, and it reminds
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: you of Jordan Kobe heard, like all the great players
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: do it.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: They get to their spot. There's nothing you can.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Do well the thunder. We're not going to go down
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: without the fight. Okay, se shot fifty six percent from
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: the field and the Big three combined for sixty five is.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: They won Game two, stealing home court. In Game three,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: the story was defense. The MAVs held a Thunder to
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: thirty six percent shooting from the field, stealing one on
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: the road to go up to one. But in Game four,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: the Thunder got their mojo back and found themselves up
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: fifteen with under five minutes to go. But the Mavericks
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: had one key thing that the Thunder didn't experience.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Now we all know who these guys have come to
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: me like all Hall of famers, Westbrook, Kad James Hall
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: of famers, no doubt. But in that timeframe, in that moment,
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: they weren't quite there.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Yet on that level. I think they were excited, they
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: was happy to be there, and.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: They were still trying to figure out kind of who
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: they were individually, So they weren't quite together as a
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: unit mentally where they were.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: We just had to edge up. An inexperienced team will
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: fold in those situations. Us We thrived it. It's like,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: oh thirteen, that's nothing.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Three Mark College in the rebound factor, durand.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: You see what I'm saying, like the youth is showing.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: They celebrated. It's five minutes left, but you're celebrating. I
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: get it, you're up ten, you're excited, But dear dirt,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: go right there. I mean there he is, getting right
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: to a spot. Look, bang, how do you you're up ten?
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: How you give up a walk up three to Turk Novisky?
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I mean we just walked them down and deflected by
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Ibaka and we go to overtime.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Once they let us get to overtime that we knew
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: we had them, Like, you just gave up a ten
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: point league, A young team is not gonna respond well
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: to that. I don't care if they're at home or
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: on the road, Like, they're not gonna respond well because
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: literally you've seen the celebration. They thought the game was over.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: We're like, nah, the game just started, Like we're down ten. Okay, cool,
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: We've been here before. But I'll give a lot of
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: credit to Jake Kidd because me, I'm temperamental. I get
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: emotional in a time out we're down ten. I'm probably
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: hitting guys in the chest like man, come on, man,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: just getting it.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: He's like, relax, we got this.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: And he was always the common voice that would settle
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: everybody in and have us engaged and locked into the moment.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: With their backs against the wall, the Thunder put up
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: a fight until the very end of Game five, the
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: two point drop the.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Dust Durant catching shooting three Kevin Durant.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: But It's twenty six point performance from Seawan, Mary and
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Dave jerked the support he needed to close out the
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: brightest young team in the league in a one hundred
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: ninety six Before the Dallas Mavericks were heading to the
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: NBA Finals, their opponent the Miami Heat, the same team
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: the crush their finals dreams in two thousand and six,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: except now they also had Lebron James.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: These guys were, like, I guess they call them the
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Heatles or something like.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: They were doing.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Victory tours before they even played one game and parades
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: and you've never seen that type of energy from a
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: team that hadn't accomplished anything. So as we watched that
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: play out that summer when they were putting it together,
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: that was all the motivation we all needed.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: We're like, okay, okay, let them talk about them.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: If we having to show up and place against them
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: in the finals, we gonna see who come out on top.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Alright, the Heat take game on of the NBA Finals,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: not winning the first one. We're like, okay, it's a series.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: They have home court advantage. Our job is to win
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: one of the first two. Because all we were looking
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: for was intel and information to justify what we already
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: knew is that, Okay, you got to keep them out
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: of transition, got to take care of the basketball. You
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: gotta slow them down, make him play half court. But
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: then you get out there and you're like, oh shit, no,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: you can't turn the ball over. Shit, they won dribble.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: They're on the rim like it's going out in uphag.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Jump these boys, and shit, I don't know.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: What Lebron's vertical was at that time in d way,
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: but athletically, there was nothing you could do to stop
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: this group if you turn the ball over, if you
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: allowed them to get out in transition. We knew it,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: but now we had to like go through it to
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: see it. So now game two comes and we start
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: off the same way.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: We're like, god, damn it. We knew we can't turn
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: the ball over, Like we're giving them easy opportunities.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: And it took three quarters for us in Game two
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: to like settle in, and again we get to the
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: point where we're down again. So I don't know what
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: it is about being down with our group, but we
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: had to like look death in the face.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, now hold on, no, no, no, no no, we're
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: down ten relax, let's do what we came to do.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: And then we locked in in that moment, I think
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: it was like five minutes left.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: You then go again. They're celebrating.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: I'm watching d Wade throw us punches at bron They
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: celebrating all in front of their bench, and I'm looking like,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: look man, First of all, nobody likes to show off.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: Second of all, they're not taking this from us in
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: this moment. So let's lock in and do what we
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: gotta do and get out of here with a victory.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: The next five minutes was raised, steal, rebound, outlet, lay up, bucket,
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Dirk fade away, and it just kept happening. They're missing,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: we're coming down scoring, and that past we come back
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: and knock them off.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Series tied one one a familiar enemy of Rose in Dallas.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: In Game three, Dwayne Wade led the way for the
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Heat with twenty nine points and eleven rebounds, but It
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: was a Chris Bosh go ahead bucket with thirty nine
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: seconds remaining that sealed the victory. Dirk missed a jump
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: shot is time expired that would have tied the game
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: and forced overtime, giving the Heat the eighty eight eighty
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: sixth victory. Then down two to one, the MAVs get
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: news that could change everything.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: Our routine is the night before each game, he and
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: I are gonna come in late, We're gonna shoot.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I'm on this end, he's on that end. We're gonna
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: get our routine in. He didn't do his routine, so
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I'm like, man, what's going on? So then must be tired.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: He'll figure it out.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: So the next morning we get there, he's already back
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: with the trainer and he just ain't looking good, Like,
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: got the towel over his head, he's like, got the
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: coach sagans, and they're like, well, he's gonna sit out
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: of shooting around see if he can get.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Ready for the game. Like, oh shit, he might not
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: even play. He's that sick.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: And I'm already in my mind going through it because
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: Game three I didn't have a good game, and the
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: media started poking at me and they had brought a
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: quote to me that they said Dirk said. Whether he
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: said or not, who knows, But like, Jed ain't been
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: showing up, and that's all I.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Needed to hear. What I ain't showing up? Are you crazy? Okay,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I got something for you.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: So I wasn't really talking to nobody, but then to
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: know that he was sick and all that, Okay, he
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: needs I gotta show up. But you could tell like
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: he didn't want to disappoint us, he didn't want to
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: disappoint the city.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And he's like, in this moment, like I gotta get sick.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: He never gets sick.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: I mean he literally walks around with the salute to
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: what is that saline and he's fucking He's got all
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: the tricks to stay healthy, like he never gets sick,
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: and he's thinking in this moment.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I'm looking in his eyes, He's like, in this moment,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I can't be sick. I'm about to fight through this.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Once we got to the game and it was tip
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: off and he was in uniform.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: We were good. We're like, sick or not, he's coming
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: to play. We're gonna show up. This is a pivotal
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: game in the series. Just two to one.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: I don't know what the analytics say, but I know
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: if you go down three to one, it's not looking
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: good for you. So we knew we had to show up,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: and I think the numbers will show. In twenty eleven,
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: we were the best owned team in basketball, and so
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: we knew we had that in our bag. This is
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: at a point in Lebron's career where he didn't quite
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: have the consistent jump shots yet, so he didn't really
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: trust it. So we knew he wanted to get to
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: certain spots on the floor. But if we can set
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: our zone defense where he can see a wall of
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: three guys and three bodies, he would be less likely
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: to attack. When we were in man, we wanted to
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: look like a zone. You can see this picture of here.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: It looks like a one two zone where you have
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: three guys in front of the isolated offensive player, so
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: he has to see three bodies. Again, great players, they
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: see one guy, they don't even see you. They see
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: the basket. But now if you put two extra defenders there,
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: there's something else for him to look at it.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: He doesn't know if we're going to trap it.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Definitely closed down the driving lanes and so it puts
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: a little indecision in his isolation game. D waves a
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: monster at that particular time in his career. There's no
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: defensive game plan you could do to stop him, like
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: we tried did not work.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: So we want to focus our energy more.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: On Lebron and kind of eliminate what Chris Bosh could do.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: It started with Bron, though, and.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: The adjustments worked. Dallas held Lebron to just eights in
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Game four, his lowest scoring playoff performance yet. Meanwhile, Derk
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: fought through his fever and dropped twenty one points so
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: lead the Mavericks to an eighty six to eighty three victory.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: The series was now tied heading into Game five. The
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Mavericks motto to find the moment perfect to me. The
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: time is now.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: So every game from Game four on we treated as
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: if it was Game seven. This was a winner, go
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: home type mentality. This was an extreme focus. This was
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: no distractions. This is cell phones are off, ticket requests
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: are down, Like if you didn't already have your ticket,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: don't call none of us.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: We're not answering.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: There's nose, we're not Sports Center, there's no USA to
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Day is in the locker room back in the day.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: You know they got the newspapers. There's no local newspapers.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: It's strictly game plan. Then it's rest. You're getting your rest.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: But it's a sheer focus and intent is game seven mentality,
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: winn er go home.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Oh did y'all have me called? They're gonna say he
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: got jokes. See I'm like that though.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: See I'm a little sarcastic with my joking, and I
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: totally understand what they're doing.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: It's a little joke between them two.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: But to catch it on cameras crazy because then they
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: showed they actually showed that to us. Now, we didn't
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: need the extra motivation, but seeing it didn't give us
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: a little extra little nuts one thousand percent. Game five,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: JJ goes insane the Puerto Rican Alan Iverson. That was
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: our nickname for him. He was going stupid, but that's
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: what he was like. He was just such an energy, tough,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: competitive it's just who he is as a person, Like
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: that's his DNA. It's like you talk about being an
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: underdog lookout like he's five eleven five teen, smallest dude
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: on the court, but just tough as nails. They used
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: to pick on JJ a lot, like they we can
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: go to the depths of saying bullying and stuff, but
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: like they would put like car seats in his in
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: his in his locker strollers, like just called him.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: A little baby, given baby food.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: He was easy to pick on because he was the
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: smallest dude, but he was tough, He was funny, just
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: a great teammate, like hard worker, super cerebral, understood the game,
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: but just a fierce competitor, like he fit right in
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: with the group. The only reason why you picked on
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: because it's like your little brother Forrea.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Seventeen points and five assists were huge for Dallas in
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Game five, but it was a defensive showcase from Tyson
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Chandler that pushed them over the edge. In addition to
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: his thirteen points and seven rebounds, his clutch block in
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: the final mans helped steer Dallas to in one hundred
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: and twelve to one hundred and three game five victory.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: The Mavericks were one win away from winning their first
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: NBA championship.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this was it.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: There would be no Game seven. I'll tell you that,
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: not from this group. And played in three or four
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: game sevens already myself to this point in my career
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: and understanding, like you do not want that ankle, A
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: bad call, a cold shooting night, like anything. So when
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: you have the opportunity to put the kill shine in,
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: you have to go for the dagger. And our mentality
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: was we're gonna all come dressed in black. It's gonna
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: be black suits, black shoes, black everything.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Our model was.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: We're gonna treat this like we're going to a funeral
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: and it ain't gonna be ours. You talk about it,
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: but then you don't really know how guy's gonna respond
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: because this is little stuff.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: I would do, just a little corky stuff.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: I said it, but I didn't know if the guy
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: was gonna buy into it. It's kind of like the tattoo,
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: Like didn't nobody else go get a tattooed?
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Only me?
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: I get off the bus for as we pull up
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: to the arena, every single guy had on black.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: And so I'm like, yeah, okay, we're locked in.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: The game starts we get going. I mean we're off
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: to a slow start. I think Dirt got off to
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: a cold shooting start. Weren't really bothered by that. I
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: check in, knowing the urgency that we needed a spark, needed.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: A boost, and I get hot quick. It's almost like
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the Laker game all over again.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: Like my first shot wide though second shot didn't even
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: see the hoop, just threw it up, goes in.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I'm rolling, so that gave us a little breathing room.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: The road was shaky, but I came in to Shaun
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: Stevenson hit some big shots to kind of stabilize us
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: and by Dirk some time to get over the emotions
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: of the game.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: And then second half he turned it on quick and
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: it was over.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: After that, I think there was a moment where it
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: was Mario Chalmers and DeShawn Stevenson might have got into
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: it a little bit, and then Haslim jumped in and
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: there was like a melee at half court, and then
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: we kind of walked off with my little sly smile,
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: and DT kind of looked at me and he's like,
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: we got.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Out the emotions what he's always dreamed of.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Dirk was out of there. He needed a moment like
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: I feel him on that. I didn't see him. I
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: was down the other end, but I've seen this footage
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: to know the work, the blood, to sweat, the tears
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: that he put in to get to this point.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I knew he needed a moment. He deserved that moment.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: It's still like to this moment brings goosebumps back.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I told you we were gonna do it.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: That's all I kept telling the guys like I told
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: you we was gonna do it. Like I literally from
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: the age five to current, like I've watched every NBA
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Finals game and I always would put myself in those
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: moments as if I was one of those guys. And
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: at the end, I will always do the celebration, like
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: how would it be to smoke the cigar, to get
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: the champagne, hold the trophy, to put the hat on.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Like I did it in college, did it in high school.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: But the NBA Finals.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: I look at the tattoo every morning when I wake
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: up because it's something that I manifest like I actually
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: spoke it into existence. I think the first thing I
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: did was went back to my room, got on my
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: knees and prayed, and then it was party time. I
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: think we carried the trophy through one of the famous
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: clubs in Miami on South Beacht called Club Live like
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: Cubans in there.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Lil Wayne was on the mic.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: It was you couldn't create a better scenario to win
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: a championship, to go to a club and then have
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: some of your famous artists in their performing and it's celebrating.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: The moment with you. We made sure Cube had his
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: wallet that night. There has been some occasions now where
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: we didn't been hanging.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: Now we're in the club, Cuban's in there and you
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: look up and the bill comes and he's gone, and
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: he's like forty thousand, who's paying for that? Like he
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: ordered all this and I think he set the record.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: He bought the biggest bottle of Ace of Spades I
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: ever seen. It came out Will Barrows like Will Barrow's
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: full of ice. The bottles had to be three feet tall.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Incredible cubes man, he deserved that though. You could tell,
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: like that moment and I'm looking at a smile and
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: space right there, He's like, yeah, we got it, we
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: got us once