LeBron James joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami with one sole purpose on his mind: winning an NBA Championship. And it didn’t take them long before they had their first shot at taking a Larry O’Brien trophy to South Beach.
The Heat faced an apparently inferior Dallas Mavericks team in the 2011 NBA Finals and were the clear favorite to win it all. However, it was Dirk Nowitzki the one to end up celebrating after upsetting them in six games.
Miami jumped to a 2-1 lead and it seemed like the Heat was going to easily get past the Mavericks, as Dirk Nowitzki was struggling with a triple-digit fever that clearly took a toll on his game. Wade and LeBron then mocked the German star by fake coughing, and that’s when Caron Butler knew that the Mavericks would end up winning the Championship, as he recently told Fox Sports:
“When Dirk got sick and I mean he was sick. Me personally I did not for the life of me, for the life I did not think that Dirk was going to be able to play. And I’ll never forget him being mocked by a good friend of mine, the godfather to one of my kids, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James. We saw the video like we saw the visual, of like them coughing and making fun of the whole situation,” Butler stated.
“And when he had got wind of people thinking that he wasn’t built for the moment like he was just dialed into a whole other level. And it immediately just shifted, where I’m telling you I say this with the utmost confidence, I knew that we was going to have a parade in Dallas. That moment right there when that happened and I just seen his focus, he was already dialed in but he just took it there. I was like it’s a wrap. Y’all just won us the championship. I was like thank you, thank you for doubting him and mocking him in this moment because like he’s just dialed in on a whole nother level now,” the forward concluded.
Nowitzki ended up getting back at Wade for that 2006 Finals, winning his first (and only) NBA Championship, the Finals MVP honors and averaging 26.0 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game, while the Heat’s Big 3 had to wait another year before their first taste of glory. That’s why you should never poke a sleeping bear.
"Oh, it's a wrap…y'all just won us the championship."
When @realtuffjuice saw @KingJames & @DwyaneWade mocking @swish41 in the halls of the AAC before Game 5 of the 2011 NBA Finals…he knew the @dallasmavs could start planning a parade through the streets of Dallas. #MFFL pic.twitter.com/kYiyEKwb4W
— FanDuel Sports Network Southwest (@FanDuelSN_SW) May 11, 2020
