Mark Cuban recalls why losing to the Heat in 2006 was so brutal for him: "It wasn't a good series for us when it comes to officiating"

The Dallas Mavericks may have won the NBA championship in 2011, but many believed a ring should have arrived much sooner. We have to look at the NBA finals in 2006, where Dallas went tooth and nail against budding superstar Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. Call it hard luck or fate, but the Mavs ended up empty-handed.

Officiating problems

The Mavericks were probably the architects of their own downfall, starting with Game 3 of the finals, when they allowed a 24-point lead to slip away. However, there were side talks that the officiating didn’t do much to help.

In a crucial Game 5, with the series tied at two apiece, Dallas fumbled the game away by racking up 38 fouls, 12 more than Miami. This mess led to the Heat getting 49 free-throw attempts. Wade had 25 attempts, as many as the entire Mavs combined.

The Mavs had a 100-99 lead with 10 seconds left in Game 5. Wade drove past half court and missed a layup. The refs called a foul and handed Wade two free throws, which he calmly sank to snatch the win. If not for that call, Dallas likely would’ve taken Game 5 and maybe even closed out the series back home.

Mark Cuban, the Mavericks minority owner, watched all this unfold on Miami’s home court; it’s no surprise that he was fuming. The free throw imbalance was wild, and it looked like the officiating went one way.

On a recent episode of the “Roommates Show,” the executive reminisced about how the 2006 Finals still sting, especially with how the officiating went down.

“It was painful,” Cuban said of the 2006 finals series. I never got fined for it, but they did officiate in terms of picking the finals ref. They did it a lot differently back then . It was more of who had the most seniority, and that didn’t mean they were the best refs. It was not a good series for us officiating-wise, but it is what it is.”

So close yet so far

The Mavericks entered the 2006 finals on the back of one of their best postseason runs. They swept Memphis in round one and went toe-to-toe with the No. 1 seed San Antonio Spurs , winning in seven games. Five of those games went down to the wire, being decided in the final minute.

They defeated the Phoenix Suns in the conference finals. They also looked to be heading to the championship after claiming a 2-0 series lead and were up by double digits in the fourth quarter of Game 3.

“In 2006, we got to the finals,” Cuban added. “It was interesting because we beat the Spurs and then Steve Nash and the Suns. Then we got to the finals and won two at home convincingly. We went down to Miami and were up 14 [points] in the third quarter... I remember standing up and thinking to myself, [expletive], ‘We got a chance to sweep these dudes.”

Unfortunately, the Mavs slowly self-destructed, and it all fell apart as they dropped four straight games. Thanks mainly to Wade, who took over the series from that third game.

Dallas would eventually endure sweet revenge in the 2011 finals, winning their first title. However, the aching memories of those ‘06 finals still linger.

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