BasketballMavericks cool off Big 3

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Dirk Nowitzki, left, and Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks hold the MVP and Larry O'Brien Trophies after defeating the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals on Sunday. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

Dallas Mavericks. Lockouts. Possible apocalypses.

Dan Gilbert, prophet?

To pour cold water all over the afterglow of a phenomenal NBA Finals - one where the world's will seemingly won out over two-and-a-half superstars and their renegade alliance - the sad possibility emerges that this may be the last NBA basketball we see for a long time.

But aside from all that off-court business, you can't help but thinking back to the Comic Sans MS diatribe of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Gilbert in the wake of LeBron James' departure to Miami almost one year ago. Was the loan kingpin right when he said James wouldn't win an NBA championship before the Cavs?

Of course not. Whenever pro basketball resumes (apocalypse notwithstanding), the Heat will be the odds-on favourites to win it all.

But good God, does LeBron really have the DNA of a champion? 

When you add up his awful Game 4 and his overall fourth-quarter disappearing acts in Games 5 and 6, it almost raises alarm bells. What he did in the Chicago series disappeared when it counted against Dallas. The first instinct of spectators was to rest on the reality that Miami is still Dwyane Wade's team - except Wade didn't manage to get it done either.

But that brings up the bigger question, a more disturbing truth about LeBron James. With the possible exception of baseball, no sport holds up current superstars against those who walked before them. A lot of that is marketing hyperbole, but it's there, like it or not. When it took Michael Jordan seven years to win an NBA title, much of the reaction was "well, it took you long enough."

But MJ did it himself - sure, he had LeBron's biggest fan Scottie Pippen, and great players like Horace Grant and Bill Cartwright, but it was MJ's team and MJ's championship. Same as the five that followed. James, eight years into his pro career, is now 0-2 in the NBA Finals (granted, his Cavs had no chance the first time against the Spurs), and this time he wilted when the Larry O'Brien Trophy was on his horizon.

I'm not a facial expression expert, but I swear something looked different about him Sunday night. The killer determination you see in his eyes sometimes had seemingly been replaced by this almost innocent, confused look. I was shocked. He was out of sync, losing the handle on balls LeBron James just doesn't lose the handle on.

While the elves who control the Internet begin working on the next sexually salacious rumour to blame on LeBron's inability to win, so sets in the reality - that Miami, the better team at least on paper, allowed Dallas to take the series away from them.

The Mavericks shot 40 per cent and under for three of the first four games, constantly living under the spectre of the Heat turning it on late, the way a person in the Cold War feared ICBMs raining down on them at any moment. But in Game 5 - one of the greatest Finals games ever - they were finally able to play their game. Jason Kidd attributed it to figuring out the Heat defence. "They overhelp," the 38-year-old first-time NBA champion said after winning the series. "At the end of Game 4, the dam broke (in terms of Dallas making shots)."

You can credit Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki for getting the monkey off his back and for challenging Jason Terry to play better - a shrewd move that could have easily blown up in another's team's face. You can even credit Mark Cuban for keeping his mouth shut throughout the playoffs. "The quieter I got the more games we won," he said after Game 6 (although he did rob fans of one of the great awkward moments in sports history by classily insisting original Mavs owner Donald Carter accept the trophy from David Stern).

The win also gives me the opportunity to show off this fantastic jacket I got as a 14-year-old in 1990.

This Mavs team will go down as one of the all-time great one-off champions, given their comebacks against Miami in Game 2, and against Oklahoma City, the Lakers and Portland. But unfortunately, many will remember this awesome series for what James and the Heat didn't do. And for Chris Bosh breaking down in tears.

And that's the thing about legacies in this star-driven league. If it wasn't official when he decided he needed friends to win, it needs to be official now that LeBron will never approach MJ.

I like to imagine Jordan as sitting somewhere with a cigar Sunday night, laughing diabolically about Pippen's remarks. But in all seriousness, when James does win a title - alongside Wade - it probably will not be enough to completely immediately rub the stink off this one.

At casual glance, the great Miami Heat sociological experiment of 2010-11 shouldn't be considered a total failure - they won 58 games and lost a great NBA Finals. But the only reason this spectacle was even conceived was to win a championship. And they failed to win that championship because they choked in the clutch, despite unprecedented star power. So whatever adjustments come next - whether that's firing Erik Spoelstra or trading Bosh - logical or not as they would be, they will be borne out of failure. And millions are happy about it.

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Usually I tan up good for a fair-skinned individual. I attribute it to spending my childhood in the tropics or the trace of Italian blood in my heritage. Either way, last week I was trying to colour the underside of my arms when I looked up from the patio at my building and saw this "Draft Kemba" sign hanging from a balcony across the street.

The many residents of the self-appointed "centre of the hockey universe" who still doubt the passion of Toronto Raptors fans may be surprised by this, but most of those doubters live in fairly one-dimensional vacuums. The fact the sign sits visible to anybody managing road rage while they wait to get the on the Gardiner Expressway surprises me not an ounce.

The more important discussion is whether or not Kemba Walker will make a good pro.

The upside is clear: He can score from seemingly anywhere and he's lightning-quick. Doubts about his size are somewhat overstated - at 6-1, he's not exactly Earl Boykins out there. The questions come from his ability to play the point at the next level. The risk for the Raptors lies in drafting a point guard who isn't really a point guard - in a league where point guard play is at an all-time premium. In his own worst-development scenario, does drafting a streaky combo guard make sense for a franchise that is more than one piece away from playoff contention?

The skill is undeniably there, but will his style cross the line of recklessness in the pros? His sometimes questionable shooting during this year's NCAA tourney following the display he put on in the Big East tournament shows, quite simply, that he must, a) make better decisions, and b), go hot and cold like anybody else. But scouting reports describe him as a gym rat, and one intangible with him is heart. Winning five games in five days at MSG and carrying his team to the NCAA championship proves he has it.

And simply put, with drafts, there's always logic in taking the best player available. In a class that's not deep, taking Walker at five is not presently a bad option. I'm prepared to drink the Kool-Aid on Kemba, although players like Kawhi Leonard still intrigue me. And unless Bryan Colangelo has a move up his high-collared shirtsleeve, I wouldn't be surprised if my neighbour gets his or her wish next Thursday.

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