The 2011 Mavericks have come to represent something much larger than merely a champion from a random season. In today’s era of superteams, fresh off a run of three straight 67-plus-win seasons in Golden State and four straight Warriors-Cavs Finals matchups, fans are beginning to pine for the good ol’ days when one star carried his teammates to the title. This has never been the case, of course — without contributions from players up and down a roster, no team is ever good enough to win a championship — but as is with everything else in life, the passage of time has clouded our memory to the point where, today, if you ask a Mavericks fan to describe that glorious spring of 2011, they’ll tell you it was Dirk against Kobe and Gasol, Dirk against Durant, Harden, and Westbrook, and Dirk against Wade, Bosh, and LeBron James.
Dirk Nowitzki is amazing, but he didn’t win it by himself in 2011
