"Ya'll Just Won Us The Championship" - Caron Butler Confirms That LeBron And Wade Mocking Dirk In 2011 Was The Kiss Of Death
If you had the opportunity to ask LeBron/Wade if they regret that "joke" in the tunnel after practice ahead of Game 5, do you think they say yes? They thought they were so funny with that troll job too, you can see in on their faces. Acting like they were up 3-1 or something and not 2-2. That series had been close as hell up until that point too, with DAL winning Game 2 by just 2 points, MIA winning Game 3 by just 2 points and the Mavs winning Game 4 by only 3 points. Not exactly a situation where anyone should feel comfortable mocking an opposing player.
What happened next? Well LeBron put up a triple double of 17/10/10 but shot just 8-19 from the floor and 0-4 from deep with 4 TOs. Wade was much better with 23/8 on 50% shooting but had 4 TOs as well. Dirk? Well he was fantastic to the tune of 29/6/3 on 9-18 shooting
Dirk was asked about the troll job after the fact and had this to say
What a dogshit excuse by Wade there. Trying to spin it like it wasn't about Dirk? Man no wonder everyone hated that team. It was just a prank guys, we knew what the media would do the entire time. That's some piss poor spinzoning if I've ever seen it.
Like Caron said, once that happened the entire Mavs team knew Dirk was locked in and the rest was gravy. He followed up that massive Game 5 performance with 21/11 in Game 6 (Wade went 6-16 and LeBron 9-15 while combining for 11 TOs) and snagged the championship he had been chasing his entire career. He got his revenge for 2006 and the screw job that the Mavs had to deal with in that series, and a Mavs team that was a pretty big underdog in that Finals came out on top.
Would that have still happened if LeBron and Wade didn't troll Dirk? I think so. The Mavs were on a missing during that Finals, in fact I'd say Dirk was on a mission that entire 2011 run. Completely changed how the public views him now in my opinion. Monster run like you read about
