Dwyane Wade Miami Heat
Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban seemingly is still bitter over his team’s loss to the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals. He claimed while on a podcast not all that long ago that the championship series was “stolen” from his Mavericks.
Heat legend Dwyane Wade then had a subtle reaction to Cuban’s assertion by liking an Instagram post containing the latter’s bold claim, and Wade has since issued a more direct response to the 67-year-old as well, telling Cuban to “stop that bulls—.”
D Wade fires back at Mark Cuban for saying 2006 finals was rigged
“You’re not about to tarnish the work I put in as a young guy, to do something not a lot of young guys have done in this game and say it’s rigged. Mark stop that. Yall got us, we got yall, stop that BS Mark”
— Heat Culture (@HeatCulture13) September 3, 2025
Wade is in rarified air for his title run in 2006 in the sense that he was the best player on a championship team in just his third NBA season. He was also just 24 years old when he captured the Finals MVP award for the Heat after averaging 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.0 blocked shot per game in the championship series.
The 13-time All-Star was particularly great in the Heat’s four wins in the best-of-seven series, as he didn’t score fewer than 36 points in any one contest from Games 3 through 6.
It’s true that Wade drew plenty of foul calls against Dallas and averaged 16-plus free-throw attempts per game in the NBA Finals, but that fact alone isn’t enough evidence to definitively claim that the series was stolen from the Mavericks.
Plus, like Wade said, the Mavericks eventually got their revenge against the Heat. Dallas beat Miami in six games in the 2011 NBA Finals behind some huge performances from legendary big man Dirk Nowitzki. That title run gave Dallas its first championship in franchise history.
Hopefully, in light of Wade’s response to Cuban, the latter will stop trying to discredit Miami’s run to a championship in 2006. Cuban should be looking ahead to the 2025-26 campaign, as the Mavericks might just be in a position to contend in the West if the chips fall in their favor. The Heat will get two chances to play the Mavs in the regular season.