2006 NBA Finals vs Miami Heat

Lore & Background

The Mavericks were heavy favorites to win the championship over the Heat. Despite these odds, the Heat pulled off the upset, becoming the third team—after the 1969 Celtics, the 1977 Trail Blazers and later the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2021 Milwaukee Bucks—to win a championship after trailing 0–2 in the series. Dwyane Wade of the Heat was named Most Valuable Player of the series. For the first time since , the series featured two teams that had never previously appeared in the Finals; and it was the first Finals since where neither team had previously won an NBA title.

As of , this is the last NBA Finals between teams that have never previously won a championship before. This was the second NBA Finals match-up of teams from Florida and Texas, after the Houston Rockets and Orlando Magic contested the 1995 NBA Finals. Until the Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 NBA Finals, it was the last Finals loss by a team from Texas (Houston lost in 1981 and 1986) versus eight Finals victories (five by San Antonio, two by Houston, and one by Dallas) including the Spurs in 2007 and the Mavericks in 2011.

This was the only Finals of the 2000s not to involve the Los Angeles Lakers or the San Antonio Spurs, and the first since 1995 not to feature either Phil Jackson or Gregg Popovich as head coach. It was also the first Finals where the same company (American Airlines) owned the naming rights to both home arenas, namely American Airlines Center in Dallas and American Airlines Arena in Miami; Miami's arena name has since changed to Kaseya Center.

Reader's Guide

The Miami Heat joined the league in the 1988–89 season, but they did not rise to prominence until they hired Pat Riley to be their head coach and president before the 1995–96 season. In Riley's first stint, the Heat were playoff regulars between 1996 and 2001, however, the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks always thwarted Miami's dreams of a championship or even a Finals berth. However, when the team drafted Dwyane Wade fifth overall in 2003, things started to look up for the Heat.

They went 42-40 under interim coach Stan Van Gundy, making the playoffs after a 2-year hiatus. They defeated the New Orleans Hornets in the first round, but they ultimately fell to the Pacers in 6 games. The 2004 offseason saw the addition of Shaquille O'Neal, and with Wade and O'Neal performing well, the Heat won 59 games in the 2004–05 season, as they took the defending champions Detroit Pistons to seven games in the conference finals. The following season, after an early 11–10 start, Van Gundy resigned and Riley returned to coaching.

Though injuries and lack of chemistry hobbled the Heat initially, they still managed to win 52 games that season. After a culmination of harmony and momentum came together just before the playoffs, they started their postseason run by defeating the Bulls in six games, then eliminated the New Jersey Nets in five games, and then ousted the 64-win 4 all-star Pistons in six games to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.

Did You Know?

• Shaquille O'Neal and Gary Payton became the 6th and 7th players to play in the NBA Finals for three different teams.
• O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning achieved the rare feat of being former first-round picks from the same year (1992) to win a championship with the same team.
• The Heat became the second team since 1985 to sweep the middle three games at home, the 2004 Detroit Pistons being the first.
• Dwyane Wade shot 25 free throws in Game 5—as many as all the Mavericks combined.
• Jerry Stackhouse was the final NBA player to be suspended in the NBA Finals until Draymond Green in the 2016 NBA Finals.