Jason Kidd had a memorable second stint with the Dallas Mavericks. Apart from winning the championship with the team that drafted him, J-Kidd also became one of the most notable players in acheiving the upset of beating the Miami Heat led by LeBron James, Dywane Wade and Chris Bosh in the 2011 Finals.
It has been 14 years since Kidd and the Mavs beat the odds and defeated the vaunted Heat in a hard-fought six-game series. Admittedly, he could no longer remember how fulfilling the victory was.
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However, Kidd would never forget what ignited the Mavs’ competitive fire at the time.
According to him, it was when he and his teammates felt disrespected after James and Wade began celebrating in Game 2 because they had a big lead. The thing was, the game wasn’t over yet and from that point forward, it was as if Kidd and the Mavs felt a switch was turned on.
“Great year,” Kidd told DeChambeau about the Mavs’ 2011 run.
“When we won, we didn’t know how to celebrate, but we didn’t want to stop playing. Game 1, we thought we felt we should have won. Game 2, we’re down 15, D-Wade (Dwyane Wade) and LeBron (James) do their shadow boxing against each other and it kind of pissed us off… And we go out of that timeout saying we ain’t gonna lose.”
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“And then that’s when everybody started to believe that we can win the championship,” he further reflected.
Wade said one Mavs player turned the switch on
Taking a quick trip down memory lane, the Mavs indeed stole Game 2 and prevented the Heat from getting a commanding lead in the series. However, the Heat still managed to secure a win in Game 3 despite the Mavs’ momentum.
D-Wade believes only one player made the difference in that series. Contrary to what Kidd said, Wade once admitted that the turning point of that series was when the Mavs began playing backup point guard J.J. Barea.
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For Wade, they already knew what Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of the Mavs players’ tendencies were. What they weren’t really prepared for was Barea’s sudden outburst.
“We got outcoached by Rick Carlisle and his staff,” said Wade. “And we got outplayed by Dirk, Jason Terry, J Kidd but that little J.J. Barea. Nobody gives him credit, but J.J. Barea was the one who changed the series. We didn’t have no answer for him.”
“We knew all these things. But no one planned for little J.J. to come off the bench and do what he did,” he continued.
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A special championship win
Things really did not go in favor of the Heat after Game 2.
They barely won Game 3 and the Mavs dominated them in the next three games to finally close the series out and secure their first NBA championship in franchise history.
In retrospect, whatever got the Mavs’ competitive juices flowing in the 2011 Finals, what’s important was that they won the title against the most talented and dominant team in the league.
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For some fans, it may just be another road to a championship story. But for Kidd and the Mavs, it was a testament to their unity and competitive spirit.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 4, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.