NBA: Ranking the 10 most important games from the last 10 years

6. 2011 NBA Finals – Game 6: Mavericks vs. Heat

Dirk Nowitzki will always be remembered as the big guy with the unstoppable shot and arguably the best European player to ever play. He’s one of the best players in NBA history – but that wasn’t always his legacy.

The Dallas Mavericks lost the 2006 NBA Finals to the Miami Heat. No ring, but still a great accomplishment. The next season they returned to the playoffs as the No. 1 seed, but inexplicably lost in the first round to the Warriors. And in 2010, the second-seeded Mavericks were stunned in the first round once again, this time by the San Antonio Spurs.

All of that was forgiven after Dirk led the Mavericks to a championship in 2011, going through one of the toughest paths to a title that any team has ever had to navigate. They beat the Aldridge/Brandon Roy Portland Trail Blazers in six, swept Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, cruised past the Oklahoma City Thunder in five, and ultimately defeated the NBA’s super-villains in six games – the Heat.

Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals isn’t the most memorable game ever. But if you re-refer to the very subjective criteria from before – this game scores off the charts in the legacy factor.

Game 6 was the game that clinched the series that solidified Dirk as an all-time great. From 2012 and on, Dirk could have heaved up half-courters and shot his free throws left-handed. No one would have cared. Once you win a ring, everyone loves you. It’s not fair, but it’s reality, and Dirk saw it first hand.

But with every huge victory comes huge defeat. The Heat didn’t just lose to the Mavericks, they looked bad in the process. They were supposed to cruise to championships, not lose to Goofy Dirk and Jason Terry. I mean, this was the same team that held an event to celebrate their future championships. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

This series is also, to this day, the biggest stain on LeBron James’ legacy. Watching LeBron in the 2011 Finals was the first time I ever actually considered if it was possible that the Monstars were real aliens and they took his talent away.