LeBron James may lead the league in scrutiny but Dirk Nowitzki has something "King" James doesn't -- a championship ring.
Dallas' longtime star Nowitzki was named Most Valuable Player of the 2011 NBA Finals, clinching his first title by avenging a 2006 loss to the Miami Heat five years ago.
The German tore a tendon in his finger, battled a fever and delivered clutch performances in early games before sputtering early in game six on Sunday.
Once again, however, he finished strong to lead the Mavericks to a 105-95 win over the Heat that gave the Mavericks a 4-2 series triumph.
The 10-time NBA All-Star has spent the past five years answering for his playoff failures, but Sunday's title secures his place among the NBA's greats.
"There is no doubt that after this series that Dirk has earned the clout of being one of the all-time great players," said Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle. "He goes one-for-12 in the first half and then in the second half he was just absolute money."
Nowitzki did it the hard way battling the injuries, the sickness and also having to endure the mocking of Heat stars James and Dwyane Wade who made light of his illness after a game-day practice on Thursday in Dallas.
"All these All-Star games and all those things are nice, but when you get to a certain age, you have seen it all and all you play for is that ring," said Nowitzki, who turns 33 next Sunday.
The German had to wear a protective splint on his left hand after tearing a tendon on his middle finger in game one.
He played game four with a fever of 38.5 Celsius (101F) and still managed to spark his team to victory.
"In a lot of games we kept fighting back," Nowitzki said. "All the wins we got in the fourth quarter, at some point we were down and we kept plugging.
"Even in game five we were up like seven or eight. They made a run and they go up by a couple of points. We had to battle back and fight through it."
Nowitzki finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds on nine-of-27 shooting in game six after staggering out of the blocks.
He struggled mightily in the first half, scoring just three points on one-of-12 shooting from the field.
"In the first half I had so many good looks," he said. "I had some one-leg fadeaways that I normally make. My team stayed with me.
"(Jason Terry) got going early. That one timeout he said to me 'Keep pushing. Remember 2006'. I kept plugging and kept fighting.
"In the third I made a three (pointer) and then in the fourth I was able to make a couple of pull-ups."
Earlier in the series, Mavericks coach Carlisle compared former league MVP Nowitzki to former Boston Celtic hall of famer Larry Bird.
"I played with Bird for three years when he was the best player in the world," Carlisle said. "Guys like that don't feel pain."
Carlisle said the bad blood between the teams was real, and the longer the series went the more personal it became for his players.
"A series like this gets very personal," Carlisle said. "It gets personal because we have guys that say things, and they do it to get themselves going.
"Then they have the incident with the camera and the coughing and all that stuff.
"You get to game five, game six, and it becomes personal. Our guys took it personally tonight. They were not going to be denied.
"Dirk and Jet (Terry) have had to live for five years with what happened in 2006, and as of tonight, those demons are officially destroyed."
source:yahoo.com
