Nearly Two Decades Later, Mark Cuban Is STILL Not Over The Officiating In The 2006 NBA Finals
There aren't many things in the world that any of us have in common with a guy like Mark Cuban. He's insanely wealthy, cool as shit, used to own (or maybe still owns a part? Who knows) the Mavs, is a TV star, the list goes on and on. But you know what we can relate to? His distaste for NBA officiating. Cuban has been banging that drum since he first took over the Mavs and it's largely why he's accumulated millions in fines.
Take for example his stance nearly two decades later about the whistles in the 2006 Finals
Now while some may drag Cuban for still complaining about this, you won't get that from me here. Why? Because I've lived exactly what he's talking about. It's been 14 years and I'm still not willing to get over what happened in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals (a game that took place in LA). You know, the game the Lakers won 83-79 with a FTA difference of 37-17. Kobe Bryant (RIPIP), in a game he shot 6-24 from the field took 15 FTA, nearly more than the entire Celtics roster all by himself. It was complete bullshit and everyone knows it. In the 4th quarter alone it was a 21-6 FTA difference in a quarter the Lakers won by 8! So yeah, it robbed KG/Pierce/Allen of their 2nd ring together, and as a result, I'll never get over it.
In that way, I get how Cuban feels and his inability to just move on all these years later. That shit sticks with you when an NBA title is on the line.
He's also not wrong. Usually, when we have these types of stories, the facts can get blurred a little bit to make things seem worse than they actually were. But then I went back and looked it up and it was a nice reminder of how insane Wade's whistle was during those 2006 Finals
He took nearly 2x the FTA of any Mav during that series!
97 vs 55 FTA is not exactly something you see every day, and it's not totally out of the question to think there were some shenanigans at play. Things didn't really start to get out of hand until MIA tied things up 2-2 (after trailing 0-2), with Wade taking the same amount of FTA (25) as the Mavs team in Game 5, which the Heat won by 1 point. Then in Game 6, another game the Heat won by 1 point, Wade took 21 FTA to the Mavs 23. So, it's not quite as Cuban described, but overall there's no denying that Wade's whistle played a huge role in how that 2006 series played out.
At the same time, with a 2-0 lead the Mavs did have their chances. They did score just 19 points in the 4th quarter of Game 3 (30-19) which had they closed out that game (lost 98-96) then Wade's 18 FTA won't really matter and that series is over. But as we see all the time, once you give a team life in a playoff series, shit can go south quickly. You leave the officials more opportunity to screw you over with their incompetence, and unfortunately, the Mavs never won another game in that series following their 2-0 lead.
I just find it comforting to know there are other psychos out there like myself who let this stuff bother them decades after it happensed. For Cuban it was the 2006 Finals. For me, it was Game 7 of the 2010 Finals. Here I thought I had nothing to relate to Mark Cuban about, and as it turns out our distaste for bozo NBA officiating has us like two peas in a pod. Fortunately for him, his Mavs won in 2011 and fortunately for me, my Celts won in 2024. That doesn't make those prior series any less bullshit though. David Stern is fucked up for those.