Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban asserted during a recent podcast appearance that back when big man Shaquille O’Neal was in the league, the four-time champion used to be guilty of stepping over the line while shooting free throws. Cuban said that he sent tapes of O’Neal’s infractions to the league, which led to referees calling it, forcing O’Neal to fix the issue.
O’Neal responded to Cuban by leaving an Instagram comment on a post made by the podcast page, as he pointed out the Miami Heat still beat Cuban’s Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals despite the crackdown on his free throws. Cuban then replied to O’Neal’s clapback with an Instagram post.
Amusingly, O’Neal’s claim that Cuban’s efforts “didn’t work” in the 2006 NBA Finals might not be the strongest argument, as he still shot a baffling 29.2 percent from the line in that series. But in the end, the Heat still got the job done. The back-and-forth between O’Neal and Cuban seems to be lighthearted given their relationship these days.
Still, nearly 20 years after the 2006 championship series took place, it seems as if Cuban continues to have a bitter taste in his mouth over his team’s defeat. Dallas lost to Miami in six games despite getting off to a strong start in the series, but it’s clear Cuban thinks the Mavericks should have come out on top. He claimed not long ago that the championship series was “stolen” from Dallas and said that’s a view he will take to his grave.
Cuban has even been on record as saying that he thought the Mavericks had a chance to sweep the Heat at one point. However, what ended up happening is that the wheels fell off for Dallas following its Game 2 win, as the Heat took every one of the final four contests of the best-of-seven series to clinch it in six.
Heat legend Dwyane Wade — who was crowned Finals MVP at the series’ conclusion — was easily Miami’s best player with the first title in franchise history on the line, but O’Neal was still a great Robin to the guard’s Batman. He averaged a double-double of 13.7 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in the championship series.
While Cuban’s Mavericks were on the losing end of the 2006 NBA Finals, Heat fans are surely happy with how the series panned out from the team’s standpoint and look back on the series fondly.