Special Edition: Heart over Talent

I rarely do this but this is a special edition posting. Will be on in Spanish as well. So you receiving by mail got two articles in one week. Enjoy.

The Dallas Mavericks celebrating their first ever Championship

Last night, the USA and the world witnessed something hard to believe and a big lesson to those who think everything is done and said. The Dallas Mavericks Who many could expect they would lose to the Heat the highly favored team to win the championship. This is a permanent page but these players are not, they might switch teams within the next 3 years. So here I'm bringing you the complete lineup for both teams.

Heat
Dwayne Wade   Age 29  7 times all star and one of the Best defensive guards in the NBA since Gary Payton (played with Wade with the 2006 Champions)
C Anthony Joel Age 28   3 years pro not the most talented in this lineup but he can do some damage
PG Mike Bibby Age 33 with 9 playoff appearances discarded by the wizards (where he got traded by Hawks) 3pt marksman
PF Chris Bosh Age 27 6 allstar teams, 2 playoff appearances once the face of Toronto Raptors
PG Mario Chalmers  Age 25 Still developing have some potential 3 years pro
C Erick Dampier Age 35 hasn't make any all star team thank in part to Howard, Horford, and Oneal
F/C Haslem  Age 31 super talented in fact Dirk nemesis during the playoff. member of the 2006 champs
See the rest here this team also feature 26 years old Lebron James who previously took the Cavaliers to the finals in 2007 when they lost to the Spurs.

Mavericks
Oh the royal blue. This team have been around and this year this was their roster
PG JJ Barea Age 26 4 playoff seasons still developing player appear to grow at the heat of the moment
SF Buttler 31 yo ruttless player 2 all star team didn't even play in the playoff he only played 29 games all year
PG Kidd  Age 38 with 15 playoff appearances including 2 NBA finals 10 all star teams (since 1994) co-Rookie of the year but with age his skills are declining however is a dangerous 3pt shooter and an amazing passer.
PF Dirk Age 32 this was the plan all along the sharp shooter has been in 10 all star (since 1998) NBA finals MVP including playing through fever on game 5. Jordan has the flu game, Dirk has the Fever game member of the rare 50-40-90 club 11 playoff seasons including NBA finals 2006 vs Heat
G Jet  Age 33 haven't miss a playoff since 2005 including the finals. Ridiculous shooting machine
F The Matrix Age 33 once known as one of the most dinamic dunkers in the league 4 all star teams 7 playoff including the finals in 2005
See the rest of the lineup here

I don't know but I look at both teams and to be honest I rooted for the Mavs just to follow my year long tradition of rooting against the heat.  But honestly the heat looked like the team to beat they looked like they would take it all. The Mavs? these guys featured a 38 years old point guard. The heat had a lot of talent and youth in hands, the Mavs had expiring talent.
You know what was the difference? the Heat entered the season believing they could skip the whole season and take the championship they were good they were super talented. Lebron James left his team which had the best record in the NBA in the year before to see that team come with the worst record, Dwayne Wade blocked many 7 foot tall men including Tyson Chandler of the Mavs. They were good they saw though they could just walk to through the whole season and winning it all. They walked too confident.
The Mavericks were the least favorite to win the 2010-11 championship and they just wanted to see how far they get, how much they can do. They lost game one by the largest margin in the entire 6 games (8 point deficit). They came back and played their heart out on game 2 they won by a narrow margin, lost game 3 by a narrow margin in their home court, won game 4 and 5 and then on game 6 put a show in Miami taking the tittle with a 10 point margin. If you don't understand basketball but yes Tennis let me tell you that out of 4 quarters to be played, the Mavericks won 3 quarters out of 4 in game 6 dominating everybody nobody in the Heat scored over 21 points, well the Mavericks had a 27 point man. They played with heart and determination, they didn't catch too much media attention, they just focused on their game. Lebron James a 27 PPG guy was limited to 8 points in game 5. That's how focused these Mavericks were.
When you trust your talents too much guess what? you are setting up for defeat. Dallas remained humble about their talents and let their game in the court make the talking.

I come from a hometown where if you have a big mouth you better have a good fist to back it up

                                                                                                                  A L Williams
In other words don't talk unless you can back it up. Talk if you can back it up but show you can rather than just talk. I can say I can get all my friends with some basketball experience and beat the Mavericks. That's nearly impossible but let suppose I have a friend with skills similar to Derrick Rose and I'm a 3pt machine. Well I don't have a Derrick Rose and I can make a few treys here and there. I can beat the Mavericks by saying but if my friends and I don't play like if we really want to beat this team, the Mavericks could as well take an easy walk in the park with us in fact the Cavaliers' Developmental team would have no problem beating us.
If your heart is there and you have some talent you can be unbeatable, is what happened to the Mavericks they basically took the championship away from the champions by taking 3 straight games while their stars focused on mocking the opposite team. Instead of focusing on winning, instead of giving their all they walked around like if they own the tittle they were cocky and disrespectful. Well they forgot one law is the law of karma. They got beat up in their own house in front of their own fans.
When you have talent you can't sleep on it you might get a hard fall, there's nothing worse than having talent and not using them fully, but here's is the thing, when you combine talent and heart you are a winning machine. Dont take anything for granted. Why would you sit on your laurels because you have talents? The San Antonio spurs captured the second best record in the NBA (behind Chicago Bulls) thank in part to injuries to their star players. They lost to Memphis Grizzles in six games a team that barely made it to the playoff, a team lacking of Rudy Gay their top scorer. Memphis Grizzles actually troubled Oklahoma City (team that Dallas eventually defeated in the Western finals) took them 7 games to say good bye to the team that barely made it. These guys were in the brink of making it nowhere but they played hard.

Play hard like if your life depend on it which was the way the Mavericks played this series. If your life depend on what you doing, you better mean business and go full throttle even if you are the most talented in your organization. Talent win you games, heart and dedication win you championship and when you combine both, you are unstoppable. You better be unstoppable rather than just good or a big fail. I believe failures are bigger when you have the talent when you are good enough and you don't get it right.
Go serious even if the opposition is not that strong. Chances are the opposition might surprise you and put you against the walls and to cry, to make you wish you had another chance and take it more serious. But guess what? life only give you one opportunity to do it right you better do.

Now seriously, talk to you in two weeks