Dallas Mavericks vs Miami Heat9:00 PM ET, May 31, 2011
AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, FL
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade joked often, smiled easily, answered thoughtfully.
A few minutes later, Dirk Nowitzki bounded up to a podium and offered a big "How we doin!" to the assembled media.
You'd never know only one of them is a "good guy."
Less than a year after solidifying their place as the NBA's villains with their high-profile partnership last summer, James, Wade and the Miami Heat are in the NBA finals against the Dallas Mavericks and Nowitzki, being portrayed as a sort of anti-James for sticking with his home team instead of taking the easy way out and going elsewhere for a better shot at a title.
And if you hated the theatrics of last summer, the light shows, pep rally, and everything else Miami did to celebrate winning the championship of July, better look away. The Heat are just four wins from the first of several titles that many predicted when James bolted Cleveland for South Florida.
The way it happened bothered plenty, but James only cares about the result.
"You know, we've got a lot of flack this year, mostly because of myself. And we've tried to use that as motivation every day we get on the basketball court," James said Monday. "But just play the game of basketball. That's all we can do is play the game of basketball at a high level. Play Miami Heat basketball."
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