The 2006 NBA Finals remain one of the league’s most controversial series, and Mark Cuban is still standing firm on his belief that Dallas should have won the title. Nearly twenty years later, he continues to point to one reason why the Mavericks fell short, and it had nothing to do with the players on the floor.
“We should have won,” Cuban said during an appearance on Run Your Race. “Someone brought it up to me yesterday. And they are like, ‘Yeah, you think Dwyane Wade beat you?’ I am like, ‘No, Bennett Salvatore beat us. For those who do not know, he is a ref. And I stand by that.’”
The 2006 NBA Finals were a star-studded matchup between the Mavericks and Heat that featured signature names like Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, and Shaquille O’Neal. Miami went on to win the series in five games, but Cuban has always argued the result. His latest comments are another attempt at setting the record straight, shifting the blame away from Dwyane Wade and toward referee Bennett Salvatore.
His remarks bring back the long-running debate surrounding the officiating in that series, where Wade attempted an unusually high number of free throws and several late-game whistles swung momentum toward Miami.
Game 5 is often the centerpiece of that criticism. One of the most cited plays is the late foul call on Dirk Nowitzki that sent Wade to the line to seal the victory. Wade attempted 97 free throws in the series, an average of more than sixteen per game, including twenty-five attempts in Game 5 alone.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks struggled to get calls, and it limited what they were able to generate offensively. Some critics blame the Dallas game plan, while others point directly to the officiating crew. Cuban has never been shy about his belief that the calls were unbalanced, and his latest remark only reinforces that viewpoint.
For him, it is clear that Bennett Salvatore cost the Mavericks a championship, and it is something he will never forget. Whether driven by personal motives or pressure from the league, the theory is that Salvatore used his whistle to give Miami a major advantage that altered the course of NBA history.
What Cuban tends to overlook is how dominant Wade was in that series. With averages of 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists across six games, the free-throw gap may have been a reflection of his level of play more than anything else.
Ultimately, the debate is never going away. Some insist the Miami Heat won that series fair and square, while others believe it was rigged from the start. Mark Cuban is clearly in the latter group, and he is not backing down from that belief.
Looking back now, the debate is never truly going to die, and Cuban knows that better than anyone. His latest comments only add another layer to a conversation fans have argued about for years, and it is clear he still feels that series slipping away. Whether people agree with him or not, the passion behind his stance shows how much that moment meant, and why it will always be one of the defining chapters in Mavericks history.
