It's official.

We have a series -  but before I go on, let me get this off my chest.

Dallas got ####.                                                     

Stu Jackson in his infinite wisdom, couldn't resist fouling up a good call. Jerry Stackhouse's takedown of Shaq was "upgraded" to a Flagrant Two, and a Game Five vacation. A suspension was unwarranted. While the Stackhouse foul was indeed excessive, he was clearly preventing not only a breakaway slam, but a little Showtime by Shaq and Jason Williams I did not see any intent in injure, nor did several ex-NBA players and analysts who commented on the call.

Of course, such a consistent view towards common sense has never slowed down Stu Jackson before. I suppose I must give him some credit - he has been a consistent pansy. Expecting Stackhouse to wrap up a 350 pound man running at full speed is as unrealistic as expecting Shaq to not occasionally give a player a bloody nose, as Jerry received from him in Game One.

Looking at the replay, it's clear HOW Stackhouse could have avoided a flagrant two - by going through the motions of holding O'Neal upright after the foul. Yeah right...

Somebody PLEASE get Stu Jackson a Dairy Queen to manage.

Now back to our regularly scheduled flow...

After looking like an old and tired team the first two games, Miami is on a roll. The Mavs are currently in danger of being the first team to lose all three middle games since the 2-3-2 format was enacted. Who takes a truly pivotal Game Five? And it all comes back to The Stars.

The Good

It's entirely understandable that Dwayne Wade has battled back spasms and a sore knee. To paraphrase Kareem's immortal line from "Airplane!” YOU try carrying Shaq on your back and see if your spine doesn't protest. Flash Wade has entered the lane with as much ease as Barry Allen (the original Flash) vibrated through walls. Air Jordan never penetrated as relentlessly - and as successfully - as Wade has is this series. When you factor in drives with a deadly midrange jumper in the last three games, and we have our Mid-Series MVP.

Wade has been too much for Adrian Griffin, Devin Harris (although Harris had his moments staying in front and drawing charges in Game 4), and pretty much anyone else Avery Johnson trots out. Short of firing up the Wayback Machine and signing the 1994 Dennis Rodman or 1985 Dennis Johnson, I'm not sure Dallas can contain Wade with one man.

At this point it may be time for Dallas to consider the unthinkable.

Give Shaq Daddy single coverage much more and run everyone at Wade. For all of the talk about the O'Neal Bounceback, he's not scored 20 points since Game 1. He's overdue a 25 point-15 ballboard explosion. So what? I don't know if a box-and-one defense can work in the NBA, but now is a really, really, really good time to find out.

The Big

Shaquille O'Neal rebounded from a horrific Game 2. But let's slow our roll please. The Return Of The Diesel is somewhat exaggerated at this point, as O'Neal has been more hybrid than Diesel the last three games - you know, efficient but not really high performance.. Erick Dampier has played so well that Shaq huffed to a reporter, "It's not fair to compare us, I get double-teamed." While true, it speaks volumes that the man that Shaq has publically disparaged on multiple occasions has played O'Neal on fairly even terms.

Where Shaq has truly stepped up has been on defense. It's been...hmm...oh, around 2001 since I've seen O'Neal attack the pick and roll this consistently. Dallas guards have had to work harder to get into the lane with O'Neal challenging the screens. The ripple effect has extended to his teammates on defense. The downside to this the amount of energy that Shaq has to expend extending his defense. And expend it he will, since the Heat have no man to man lockdown defenders.

How long can even a newly slimmed-down O'Neal maintain his defensive intensity? As I wrote in an earlier piece, if Shaq is truly conscious of his legacy, he will respond on the Finals stage. How much offense does he have left? Will Dallas change their defense to slow down Wade, and in doing so, will that increase the shot opportunities for Shaq? Can he then convert? And will his newfound improvement to mediocrity at the foul line continue?

The Ugly

As we say in a street game, Dirk Nowitzki has got to Man Up.

Right now.

"Man Up", for the hip-impaired among you, is the 21st-century Gut Check. Dirk has literally been knocked to the floor. Now, Dirk, take a page from your teammate Jerry Stackhouse and get up and take it to the rack again. Harder.

 After an ugly 2-14 performance in Game 4, Dirk is shooting 36% in the Finals. Dirk has to understand and accept that nothing short of a decapitation will get Shaq a Flagrant Two. For all of the strategies that will be employed to get Dirk better shots, the most important move will take place between the ears of Number 41. In Game 4 Udonis Haslem was a non-factor due to foul trouble and Dirk still couldn't get off. While Miami's defense was improved, Dirk had many good looks at the basket and couldn't knock down the shots.

One line of thinking holds that Miami has the edge in the series because they have the edge in superstars, two to one. At this point, Miami leads 1-0. That bodes ill for Dallas. Two or three strong Nowitzki-esque performances and Dallas brings home the O’Brian.

Dirk, it’s time to Man Up.

For the first time since 1993, when Sir Charles Barkley tipped the scale roughly a biscuit less than 300 pounds, I’m looking forward to a truly entertaining NBA Finals. Sure, last year’s Finals were competitive, but as a defense-oriented series utterly devoid of charisma, it was painful enough to make a grown man demand an epidural.

For the next 10 days, die-hard fans of the hardwood can kick back and enjoy watching the two best teams in the NBA, teams with starkly contrasting styles and charismatic personalities struggle to earn the honor of being called the world’s best basketball team.  To their respective credit, each team is led by an outstanding coach – one coach, Pat Riley, already has four rings to his credit and a guaranteed pass to the Hall Of Fame, while the other, Avery Johnson is the wunderkind coach in only his first full season at the helm.

Most of all, NBA fans casual and hardcore alike are ecstatic to finally have what is sure to be one of the most compelling series in a very long time.  Replete with storylines, could this mark the beginning of the Next Great Era in NBA basketball -- a confluence of events, born of accidents and design, as well as the new and old,  all culminating on the grandest of stages?  Albeit only rarely, it has happened before:

1957. The Celtics begin their dynasty with a thrilling 7-game win over the St. Louis Hawks in what was arguably the greatest championship series ever played. It not only marked the beginning of the Russell Era (11 titles in 13 seasons) based on team defense and a devastating fast break, but the beginning of the end of the NBA racial quota system. The Celtics often played as many as four black players together in an era when most teams were only carrying two or three on the entire roster.

1977. The Sixers versus the Trailblazers. This was the supreme object lesson of the superior team beating the more talented team. As the NBA absorbed the best of the ABA prior to the season (and 10 former ABA players wound up in the 1977 All-Star game), Julius Erving and George McGinnis were swept up by the Sixers, as well an assorted array of lesser known stars who introduced a more wide open style to the NBA.  Although Philly took the first two games against a Blazers’ team that featured Hall of Famer Bill Walton at his best, the Blazers ultimately swept the next four games to take the title.

1984. Magic Meets Larry. The league gives us Celtics-Lakers (Version 2.0) and catapults the league to even greater heights.  Bird and Magic finally meet in an epic East vs. West showdown. Hollywood versus Beantown. It was the Lakers “Showtime” versus the Celtics so-called "blue collar" power game. And, somewhat like the Larry Holmes/Gerry Cooney fight, the series also featured a slight tinge of racial undertones (yes, it played a role). Add in eight Hall Of Famers between the two teams, and Jerry Bruckheimer and Brett Ratner combined couldn’t have scripted it any better. These two powerhouses would meet in 1984, ‘85, and ‘87, giving us the basketball equivalent of the Ali-Frazier Trilogy. Each series set ratings records and featured transcendent basketball, yet as jazz artist Sade would croon that year, it was never as good as the first time.

1991. The Bulls begin their decade of dominance with a decisive thrashing of the aging Lakers.  Air Jordan receives the torch from Magic, and then ushers in an era where the NBA took professional basketball to The Next Level, and truly became a global giant.

2006. Welcome to the present, and the future -- an era surely to be defined by its balance between the great all-around game of the 1980s and the urban mystique of the New Millennium Baller.  Even more remarkable, for the first time in league history, a Finals team is being led by a European-schooled baller.

While Hakeem Olajuwon hailed from Lagos, ####ia, he learned his game in Houston. Tim Duncan may have started off backstroking in the Virgin Islands, but his game was honed at Wake Forest.  In contrast, Dirk’s game was based and developed entirely in Europe.  For all the justified hype surrounding Dirk’s enhanced low-post game as well as his willingness to take it to the rack, his status as “Un-guardable Force” owes its roots to his Euro-honed game.  

To be sure, like many of his H1-B colleagues, Pau Gasol, Andres Nocioni, and Boris Diaw, Dirk is a big player with small player skills.  At 7-0, Dirk is too tall for smaller players to guard, and he has too much perimeter game for the game’s bigs a la Shaq.

Of course Dirk wasn’t the first such player bringing this package, but Dirk’s enhanced game is the embodiment of the best of the New Era. It is hardly an accident that the NBA is getting the same infusion and impact from global talent in the 21^st century that black players provided in the 60s and 70s.  Players like Wilt, Russell, Elgin Baylor, “The Big O”, et al, took a grounded one-dimensional game and expanded it to the three-dimensional spectacle it is today.  Of equal impact, the improvisational skills of an Earl Monroe, Connie Hawkins and Julius Erving should be credited for bringing the urban flow of the Rucker Park game to the mainstream and redefining the NBA game as the ultimate creative sport.

This incredibly successful playoff season has displayed all of the diversity of the new NBA, and the teams in the finals embody this. Besides Dirk, the flexible style that Dallas employs on offense is the perfect platform for the diverse talents of Jason Terry, Devin Harris, Keith Van Horn, Jerry Stackhouse, and the emerging game of Josh Howard. For their part, the Heat features the total floor game of Dewayne Wade, the third year guard already on the fast track to NBA immortality. His game complements the old-school power of Shaquille O’Neal, who is quite possibly the last great back-to-the basket, low-post center we will see for a long time. For all of D-Wade’s nascent greatness, Miami will go as far as the classic skills of their centers O’Neal and Alonzo Mourning take them.

Even with the Three-peat Lakers of Shaq and Kobe, and the success of the Duncan-led Spurs, we can classify more recent times as a barren era for NBA fans since 1993. The league allowed lesser-talented teams to dictate pace by employing slowdown tactics and physical defense better suited for the NFL. The credo seemed to be; if you couldn’t beat ‘em, beat on them.  The league also suffered from the weakening effects of overexpansion and poorly schooled younger players.

That down period the league suffered from has ended. The wave of superb young players from the US and abroad that have emerged, combined with the rules changes designed to improve offensive flow, have helped to give us a fantastic playoff season and brings us to the precipice of the most anticipated NBA Finals in recent memory.

Perhaps best of all, these Finals mark the dawn of the NBA’s next great era at last.

We’ve waited long enough for the revolution.

Enjoy the New NBA.

Mike D’Antoni, I’ve come to praise you - before the Mavericks bury you.

Although I’m sure that if that does happen it will not come without one hell of a fight.

You sir, are the best coach in the NBA this year.

I know, Mike D. won it last year after improving his team from 29 wins to 62, and this year he has "only" 54 wins. Yes, Avery Johnson has done a fantastic job demanding – and getting – an enhanced defensive commitment from his team. Johnson has pushed Dirk Nowitzki to become a more complete player. These changes have the Mavs on the brink of their first trip to the NBA Finals. That and his rather colorful-sounding interviews could have made Avery the subject of this column.

But for me, Avery is The Man Sitting Next To The Man.

This season, Mike D’Antoni is The Man, no matter what happens to the Suns from this point on. You won’t read much here about the amazing Steve Nash, because first, much has already been written about him, and two, this is a true team led by an amazing coach. Read on, and understand why.

The Revolutionary and The Purists

It can’t be easy to stick to your guns in a league that has demanded conformity:

“Only physical teams win in the playoffs.”

“You can’t win running…”

(I guess those people missed the Showtime Lakers)

“Steve Nash makes this team”

(Those same people often say in the next breath, “Nash is a product of the system." And last year, Nash was only MVP because of Amare Stoudemire. Would someone make up their minds?)

Yet, every night, the Suns come out and run. They run off of made shots. They run off of misses. They run whenever they damn well please. And if the primary fast break isn’t there, no problem. Their secondary break (with the power forward and/or center flying down court after the initial break is stopped, generating a quick shot before the defense can fully get set) is by far the most lethal in basketball. If that thrust is blunted, then their half court sets begin, with a relentless stream of screen and rolls initiated by back-to-back MVP Steve Nash.

In 2004-05, this strategy was derided as a gimmick, at least until Nash and All-NBA forward Amare Stoudemire led the team to the Western Conference Finals before falling to eventual champion San Antonio. Amare averaged 37 points a game in the series, with a 45 point, 12 rebound exclamation point on Tim Duncan in Game 5.

This season, pundits and so-called purists assured us that the league would catch up to the Suns. Mix in the loss of Stoudemire to microfracture surgery and disaster loomed. Surely the Suns, Nash, and that harebrained “system” of theirs would be exposed.

The results? The Suns win 54 games, the Pacific Division title, and were first in the league in scoring at 108.36, field goal percentage (.479), 3-point percentage (.399), and assists.

Transition and Adjustment

All of this with eight new players. Three new starters. Quinton Richardson (traded for Kurt Thomas) gone. Joe Johnson? Gone. Amare gone for all but three games. Thomas, their best post defender, missing 28 games (and most of the playoffs) due to a broken foot. Tough sixth man Jim Jackson let go. And the Suns rolled on.

Give a huge assist to departed GM Brian Colangelo, who in a sign and trade for Johnson, snagged draft picks and a seldom used “bust” named Boris Diaw, a 20 year old native of France who got the dreaded “soft” label. (Hmm, wouldn’t being described as French AND soft be just a tad bit of overkill?)

Imagine Dallas without Dirk AND Stackhouse or Josh Howard all season. (I know what you’re thinking; going without Eric Dampier may be an improvement. Avery Johnson agrees with you at times.) Try Miami without Shaq or Wade. We're talking a FEMA-style disaster. The Suns lost their best player and their fourth best player, work in three new starters, and are still part of the NBA Final Four. That's good talent and great coaching.

Play Your Best Five

Besides the revolutionary style, the D’Antoni showed a striking trait that really stands out amongst his coaching brethren: He plays his best five players.

Let me say that again, with a bit of elaboration: He plays his best five players without regard to height and convention.

Common wisdom says “You can’t teach height.” D’Antoni believes, “A great small(er) man will beat an average or mediocre bigger man.” In 2005, the 6-9 Stoudemire spent most of the year at center against his wishes with 6-8 small forward Shawn Marion at power forward. After losing Thomas to a stress fracture, the D’Antoni started the 6-8 220 pound Diaw as a point center next to Marion. And it has worked.

To be sure, every Suns opponent has tried to exploit this so-called weakness. Problem is, in a league where the NBA is forced to put power forwards at center for All-Star games anyway, the Suns simply decided to ignore the temptation of acquiring and playing a large stiff at center.

Instead of going big for its own sake, as many of his colleagues have, D’Antoni decided he rather have some talent out on the court, regardless of size. What a novel concept.

Something about The System

As was mentioned earlier, Boris Diaw couldn’t get run on a 16-win team last year. Recently acquired Tim Thomas has spent a good part of his career on the NBA All-Living Heart Donor team. Third year guard Leandro Barbosa was erratic.

So 3D goes out and wins Most Improved Player. Playing point-center unseen since Magic Johnson; he often initiates the half-court offense when Nash can’t. In the playoffs, Diaw has shown an inside game that features moves that so-called ‘legitimate’ big men do not possess, Exhibit A being his game-winning basket in Game 1 of the conference finals. D’Antoni has coaxed Barbosa to elevating his game, becoming more confident with his drives to the hoop and dishes to the open man. While standing just 6-3, his amazing 7-0 wingspan allows him to finish over taller players with regularity. Tim Thomas, signed late in the season after Chicago inexplicably found him useless, uses his 6-10 frame inside to provide some low post defense and scoring, while also stepping outside to nail clutch jumpers, as the Lakers can attest to in Game Six of their series.

And Raja Bell, the Suns big free agent signing? Bell was typecast as a solid perimeter defender with inconsistent offense. Phoenix signed him to a 25 million dollar free agent contract, and it proved to be a bargain. Besides his defense and toughness, Bell had a career season on offense, ranking third in the NBA in 3-pointers made (197), and fourth in 3-point percentage (.442). He came back from his Kobe takedown to average 19 points and shot 51% against the Clippers in the conference semi-finals.

A Throwback Team/Hip Hop Game

Despite appearances, true Old School fans should love the Suns. The same fans and experts who pine for the NBA Golden Age of the 80’s forget that teams routinely averaged 100 points per game, just like Phoenix. The Suns always make the extra pass just the way purists want it. Watch a Suns game and note how many times Nash will drive and kick to an open man for a three, with that player making yet another pass to an even more open teammate for the three?

Or try this scenario: Nash or Diaw pass to a three point shooter. Defender closes on the shooter, who calmly fakes the defender, steps inside the close-out to nail the midrange jumper. How many times have we heard that the midrange game was dead?

Diaw and Marion showing crazy textbook low post skills against bigger players. I think the word is called fundamentals. And the Suns led the NBA in free throw percentage at .806

In other words, they don’t miss open opportunities.

Finally, even the loudest detractor must acknowledge the grit of this team. This isn’t a team of pretty boys who fold under pressure. To get this far with the injuries they have endured. Run 48 minutes a night, every night, deep into the playoffs with a  seven man rotation, speaks to the immense heart of this team. To make adjustments and win two seven game series and fight Dallas every night while being at a distinct size disadvantage? Sheer grit. It starts at the top.

If this was Cleveland, San Antonio, or Miami doing this, the so-called experts would point to their blue-collar approach to the game. Phoenix is just as worthy.

It’s past time this TEAM gets the credit due them, and it starts with the man on the bench.

Here’s to the best coach in the NBA.

Mike D’Antoni you are The Man.

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