Shaq fulfills promise: an NBA title for Miami
DALLAS — Standing in a quiet corner of the champagne-drenched visiting locker room, Gary Payton spoke in hushed tones with Alonzo Mourning and Antoine Walker as mayhem ensued around them.
The expression on their faces was priceless, as if the weight of the world had been lifted from their shoulders.
Redemption looks like this.
"It was worth it," Payton said before Shaquille O'Neal engulfed him in a bear hug and carried him away.
Nothing else needed to be said. Not after Miami stunned Dallas in a NBA Finals series-clinching 95-92 victory Tuesday night that gave the Heat the first championship in franchise history, while the Mavericks slowly filed out of American Airlines Center wondering how they let the title slip away.
Payton's meaning was clear. He spent 16 years in the NBA and might have retired last summer if O'Neal hadn't talked him into coming to Miami on the guarantee that they would win a championship.
Promise fulfilled.
"I told them I'd give them a chance to win again if they came here," O'Neal said. "I'm just so thankful they listened."
O'Neal's first day as a Heat, so perfect and pristine, was one of those angelic Miami afternoons like the kind you see in postcards. Palm trees swayed in the wind, clear blue waters sparkled and the glistening white beaches framed the backdrop.
Then a white, diesel-powered 18-wheeler crawled along Biscayne Bay Boulevard carrying O'Neal. The 7-foot-1 center walked on the red carpet, surveyed his new surroundings and guaranteed that he would deliver the city its first NBA championship.
O'Neal figures to be the grand marshal in a parade in South Beach on Friday.
He wasn't the most dynamic player in the series — that distinction goes to Dwyane Wade — but he was the one who made it all happen.
O'Neal, who measures his soon-to-be Hall of Fame career in championships, told the Heat to think like champions and they believed him.
It took a dramatic roster overhaul last summer, the abrupt retirement of coach Stan Van Gundy, Pat Riley's opportunistic return to coaching and an MVP playoff performance from Wade that lifted him to a level of greatness for O'Neal to be prophetic.
Of course, he couldn't have envisioned this.
He couldn't have scripted a storyline in which Miami overcame history — only two other teams had ever lost the first two games and won a championship series — as well as a 14-point deficit with 2:54 remaining in the first quarter.
This was supposed to be Dallas' day.
The Mavericks promised an angry response after a miserable week in Miami, and they delivered just that early. The Heat, however, weathered the early storm and the sea of emotion that rippled around American Airlines Center. Miami seized control late in the third quarter, when Wade again took over.
Not only did he score 36 points, but he collected 10 rebounds, dished out five assists, had four steals and blocked three shots.
While Wade put on a show for the ages, a desperate and tired Dirk Nowitzki managed just two of his team-high 29 points in the fourth quarter. He settled for too many long-range jumpers as did Jason Terry, who scored 16 points and was 2 for 11 on three-pointers.
The Mavericks looked dazed and confused, obviously never fully recovering from the fatal meltdown in Game 3.
As the final seconds ticked away, Erick Dampier couldn't catch a pass from Nowitzki that fittingly landed in Wade's hands. And on Dallas' final possession, Terry misfired on a three-pointer that Wade collected.
"This is going to really hurt this summer," Dallas coach Avery Johnson said.
While the Mavericks folded like a house of cards, the Heat capped a pressure-filled season in which nothing but a championship would do.
In his eighth Finals appearance, Riley drifted between dolt and genius. The last time he was here, he was unable to ride Patrick Ewing to a title 12 years ago in New York. This time, however, he milked O'Neal for 12 rebounds and nine points in the final game and put the outcome in Wade's hands.
"It's not my team, it's D-Wade's team," O'Neal said. "He's the future. He's the best teammate I've ever had. ... This isn't about me, it's him. It's about this team and so many guys sacrificing and coming here for me."
If not for O'Neal, Payton, Mourning and Walker might have ended their careers like so many great players that have never won a championship.
At times, each of them made key contributions. Payton, who vowed to return for a 17th season in Miami, hit clutch shots in the waning moments of Games 3 and 5. Walker was consistent as the third scorer and a rejuvenated Mourning swatted away nearly every shot that came close to the rim last night.
If not for O'Neal, who captured his fourth title and his first without Kobe Bryant, we might not have discovered Wade's greatness.
O'Neal promised a championship, and Tuesday he cradled the Larry O'Brien trophy against his chest as if it were a baby.
"I made that promise because of D-Wade," he said. "I knew he was a special player."
Now everybody knows.
Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com
| Two down? So what | |
| NBA teams that have won a best-of-seven playoff series after trailing 2-0 (* — NBA Finals): | |
| Year | Outcome |
| 2006* | Miami def. Dallas, 4-2 |
| 2005 | Washington def. Chicago, 4-2 |
| 2005 | Dallas def. Houston, 4-3 |
| 2004 | L.A. Lakers def. San Antonio, 4-2 |
| 1995 | Houston def. Phoenix, 4-3 |
| 1994 | Houston def. Phoenix, 4-3 |
| 1993 | Chicago def. New York, 4-2 |
| 1977* | Portland def. Philadelphia, 4-2 |
| 1971 | Baltimore def. New York, 4-3 |
| 1969* | Boston def. L.A. Lakers, 4-3 |
| 1969 | L.A. Lakers def. S. Francisco, 4-2 |
| Heat vs. Mavericks | |
| Miami wins best-of-7 series 4-2. | |
| Date | Result |
| June 8 | At Dallas 90, Miami 80 |
| June 11 | At Dallas 99, Miami 85 |
| June 13 | At Miami 98, Dallas 96 |
| June 15 | At Miami 98, Dallas 74 |
| Sunday | At Miami 101, Dallas 100, OT |
| Tuesday | Miami 95, at Dallas 92 |
