It has been a long and bumpy road for the Dallas Mavericks, and their captain Dirk Nowitzki.

Nowitzki has been in the NBA for 12 years straight, since coming from Germany, and it seemed as if time was running out on his career.

If he did not win a ring soon, he was probably going to be added to the list of star caliber players to never win a championship, among other NBA greats like Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley to name a few.

Nowitzki had the chance to explore his options during the off-season last year and find a team that could lead him to his first NBA title.

But Nowitzki did not really even bother to look and explore those options because he knew he wanted to stay in Dallas where his career begun 12 years ago.

He quietly re-signed with the Mavericks, so he can continue to follow his dream of leading the Mavericks franchise to their very first NBA championship.

Many people probably did not even know that Dirk had to make a decision such as this since he quietly went about his business and was over shadowed by the likes of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, who all ended up teaming up on the Miami Heat.

Dirk did not want to team up with anyone to help him achieve his dream on a different team.

He wanted to stay true to his team and help the other veterans like Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, and Jason Terry win their very first title as well.

Both Nowitzki and Terry had a chip on their shoulder as they still had the bitter taste in their mouth after being defeated over five years ago in the NBA Finals to Wade and the Heat.

Terry and Nowitzki are the only two current Mavericks that were on the 2006 roster that lost in the Finals.

They proved by their performance against the Heat this season, that they did not want a repeat of 2006, and did not even let the superstar loaded roster that the Heat had, get in their way.

Terry led the Mavericks in Game 6 of the series when he put up 27 points, three rebounds, two assist and two steals.

Nowitzki led the Mavericks through most of the playoffs, especially when it counted during the 4^th quarter of games, where Dirk had no trouble scoring when needed.

Dirk also showed how much he wanted to win the title, when he led the Mavericks to victory in Game 4 with a 103 degree fever.

Many NBA players and fans alike are happy to see verterans, like Nowitzki and Kidd, finally becoming champions and help secure their places in the Basketball Hall of Fame some day.

There was not a single player on the Mavericks roster that had won a NBA championship before this season, but now everyone on the roster has their first NBA title that they won together.

The question now is, will the Mavericks get their second NBA title, by winning next season?

The Mavericks will need to try and re-sign upcoming free agents like Tyson Chandler, DeShawn Stevenson, and JJ Barea, who all had key roles in the Finals series, or Caron Butler, who was a starter on the team before getting injured during the season, if they want to attempt a second straight NBA title.

Whether it is Nowitzki, Terry, and Kidd getting their first title, the hype behind the Heat getting together in the off-season, the Heat’s first season disappointment, or LeBron still searching for his first title.

I think this NBA Finals will go down as one of the most memorable series in NBA Finals history.

(SportsMinded’s (James Williams) article published in the Downey Patriot)