There have been clear indications in recent months that Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban is still bitter about the outcome of the 2006 NBA Finals between his team and the Miami Heat. This past summer, he claimed that the championship series was “stolen” from his Mavericks, which prompted a response from Heat legend Dwyane Wade.
Cuban is only continuing to prove that he remains salty over the outcome of the 2006 NBA Finals with more recent comments he made on a podcast appearance with former NBA player and Maverick Theo Pinson. The 67-year-old told Pinson that the Mavericks “should have won” that series and blamed former NBA referee Bennett Salvatore for the fact that Dallas came up short.
“We had made it to the Finals and lost to the Heat in 2006 when we should have won,” he said. “… Someone brought it up to me yesterday, yesterday, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, you think Dwyane Wade beat you?’ I’m like, ‘No, Bennett Salvatore beat us.’ For those who don’t know, he’s a ref.”
By bringing Salvatore’s name up, Cuban is likely referring partly to the large number of free-throw attempts Wade had in the series. It is true that Wade lived at the charity stripe over the course of the best-of-seven affair, as he attempted a whopping 97 free throws in total, leveling out to about 16.2 per contest since the series went six.
Of those 97 tries, Wade buried 75 of them, which equals the second-most free throws made by a player in a Finals series in NBA history. Los Angeles Lakers great Elgin Baylor has the record, as he buried an unbelievable 82 freebies in the 1962 NBA Finals against iconic big man Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics.
It’s also understandable if Cuban has sour grapes about the 2006 NBA Finals all these years later in part because of the way his Mavericks blew a significant series lead. Dallas was ahead 2-0 in the series at one point, yet the team proceeded to drop the final four games, allowing Miami to clinch.
Considering it’s been many years since the Mavericks lost the title series to Miami and it’s still on Cuban’s mind, he might never fully get over the defeat. Dallas could maybe help him move on by winning another championship, but that doesn’t seem to be a possibility for the team in the immediate future. The Mavs will always have their 2011 title, however.