Surely, us Dallas-Fort Worth sports fans must be living in a dream world.
Approximately six months after the Texas Rangers played in the World Series, the Dallas Mavericks clinched a berth in the NBA Finals with a 100-96 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night in Dallas.
This kind of sports karma does not come along that often. Fans are lucky to witness their favorite team reach the finals once every few years. Two in the span of six months is absurd.
OK, yes, the Rangers lost in the World Series, and the Mavericks still haven't won it all, so we haven't witnessed the purest gold, shiny form of championship nirvana. The possibility remains for two runner-up showings. But so be it.
It's still been the most enjoyable six months in my history of being a sports fan. What a joy ride.
The Rangers, who had previously never won a postseason game in franchise history, knocked out two teams from the American League East, including the New York Yankees, on their way to the AL pennant. Before the 2010 baseball season, Texas wasn't supposed to win the AL West, much less the AL.
Now the Mavs, who overcame obstacles presented by the Trail Blazers, Lakers and Thunder, are the class of the Western Conference in the NBA. The same Mavs team who was entirely too old and past their collective prime to make a serious run. The same Mavs team who lost Caron Butler for the season with a knee injury. And, of course, the same Mavs team who had no chance, before the series started, of dethroning the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. Not with Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson, the latter of whom was looking to ride into the sunset in his last year of coaching. So much for that.
The Mavs proved they're as deep or deeper than anyone in the league.
Dirk Nowitzki established himself as the MVP of the postseason, so far, hitting impossible shots that seemed to have no angle from which to release the basketball.
Dallas' experience paid off in so many ways this postseason, from Jason Kidd's savvy presence handling the ball and defending Kobe Bryant, to Shawn Marion's numerous turn-back-the-clock moments when he looked like a combination of Shawn Marion from 2005 and Keanu Reeves spinning, ducking and bending backwards in The Matrix.
Jason Terry buried the Lakers, tying an NBA record for most three-pointers in an NBA playoff game with nine.
Peja Stojakovic found the bottom of the net several times from long-distance.
Tyson Chandler played exceptional defense on LaMarcus Aldridge, Andrew Bynum and Kendrick Perkins, and already should be considered the best Mavericks center of all-time (by the way, he deserves a contract extension, and at 28 years old, it'd be a wise investment).
J.J. Barea frustrated the hell out of the Lakers (and Ron Artest, in particular), with cat-like maneuvers from the perimeter into the lane, where he mastered the options of shooting the floater, crafting a layup or finding an open jump shooter.
The Mavericks await the winner of Miami vs. Chicago. The Heat currently hold a 3-1 edge in the series. Sweet retribution would surely be on the minds of Mavs players and fans if the Heat emerge from the East. In 2006, the only other time Dallas has played in the NBA finals in team history, the Mavs squandered a 2-0 series lead that should have been 3-0. The Heat's power trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, operating with the same totalitarian mentality as the Yankees, would be an easy team to root against.
What a last six months. Let's hope the Mavs take it one step further than the Rangers did and take home that championship hardware.
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