Heat Bring NBA Title To Miami

After an 18-year pursuit, the Miami Heat have finally brought the NBA championship trophy to South Florida.

The newly crowned world champions arrived home Wednesday morning. The first of two planes carrying the team landed shortly before 7 a.m., with fans giving huge cheers and pressing up against a chain link fence as the aircraft taxied along the runway. Fire trucks shot streams of water over the plane.

Only hours earlier, the Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks 95-92 in Game 6 of the NBA finals. The Heat won the series 4-2, claiming the first title in franchise history.

Dwyane Wade had 36 points in the title-clinching victory, one that made Shaquille O'Neal a four-time world champion and gave Pat Riley his fifth ring as a head coach. Afterward, they celebrated in their locker room, spraying champagne in every direction, then moved the festivities to a Dallas hotel before flying home.

And now, the real parties begin: A victory parade is tentatively scheduled for Friday afternoon.

"Thank you for your support, your patience," champagne-soaked Heat center Alonzo Mourning shouted when asked if he had a message to fans as he stood in the middle of the locker room party in Dallas. "We love you all, and without you, we wouldn't have gotten it done, baby."

The Heat became the third team in NBA history to win the championship after losing the first two games of the final series. And they could not wait to get home afterward.

"Get ready, Miami," Heat guard Gary Payton said before the team left Dallas, a broad smile on his face.

Francisco Sarazia, a 34-year-old Miami biology teacher, started his celebration at AmericanAirlines Arena, where he watched a live broadcast of the game with more than 10,000 other fans. He ran outside the arena after the game to exchange high-fives with people in passing cars, then made his way to the airport to await the team.

"It gives you a sense of pride, a sense of belonging to a community that embraces the team," Sarazia said.

The Heat won their first championship with teamwork that went beyond the floor. While the Dallas Mavericks struggled to stay together during tough times in the NBA finals, the Heat stuck to each other through the trophy presentation — when 15 hands went up together to touch a piece of history.

Wade led Miami's sizzling comeback from a two-game deficit in the finals, and he had 36 points and 10 rebounds in the Heat's clinching 95-92 victory on Tuesday night. But the unanimous finals MVP said Miami's fourth straight win was a wonder of tenacity and teamwork for a roster that seized one big opportunity to make history.

"This team was built for the playoffs, and we understood that," Wade said. "That's what makes it sweet, because not at one moment did one of us not believe in each other. No matter what, in the locker room, it was always 15 strong."

Wade's brilliance and just enough help from his teammates allowed O'Neal and coach Pat Riley to make good on their promises of a championship for South Florida. The parade should go down Biscayne Boulevard, just as Riley promised 11 years ago.

Wade cemented his superstardom with a dominant four-game performance capped by four pressure-packed, final-minute free throws in the same building where Miami went down two games to none.

Yet he missed a pair of foul shots in the waning seconds with Miami up by three points, giving Dallas a final shot to tie. Jason Terry missed an open 3-pointer, and Wade grabbed the rebound and flung it joyously into the stands as time expired.

Where there's a Wade, there's a will. His grace added a fifth ring to Riley's finger — third-most among NBA coaches — and the first jewelry in Shaq's collection with no connection to Kobe Bryant.

"I know to be on a championship-caliber team, you've got to have a great one-two punch," said O'Neal, who had nine points and 12 rebounds while finishing a 14-for-48 performance on free throws in the finals.

"D-Wade is a fabulous player. I felt we could have got it done last year ... but we had to suffer a little bit. People doubted us all year, but we're a tight-knit group."

And the Heat's roster is studded with stars who never won a title. Point guard Gary Payton reached the finals with three teams over 16 seasons before finally grabbing the ring, while Mourning played through 13 seasons, two retirements and a serious kidney ailment for a championship.

Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, James Posey, Udonis Haslem — all endured serious career troubles, and now they're all champions, too.

The Heat became the first team to rally from an 0-2 deficit to win the finals since the NBA went to its 2-3-2 format. Only two other teams ever did it: The Boston Celtics in 1969, and the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977.

While that group hug went on, Dallas owner Mark Cuban stood on the court and applauded. After a contentious series in which his Mavericks went from a favorite to a flop, the biggest maverick of them all praised his players' opponents and held out hope for another trip to the finals.

"It's a huge learning experience," said Cuban, fined $250,000 by the NBA earlier in the day for his antics after Dallas' Game 5 loss. "These guys are going to continue to get better. They've tasted it now ... and I think they're going to appreciate it all the more."

Dirk Nowitzki had 29 points and 15 rebounds for the Mavs, but he managed just two free throws in the fourth quarter while Wade took over. With their crowd booing every call and seething with every missed opportunity, the Mavs missed their own chance for their first title.

A day after the Carolina Hurricanes became first-time champions in the NHL by winning the Stanley Cup, Miami also made history.

"We made a lot of progress this year," said Dallas' Avery Johnson, the NBA's coach of the year who endured his first four-game losing streak at a terrible time.

"We aimed high this year, and I told them that a lot of teams have to go through this. This will really hurt this summer. I hope they work out hard, make me a better coach. I'm ready to try it again."

Riley, who won his first ring since 1988, claimed he never considered the possibility Miami wouldn't finish with four straight wins.

"I packed one suit, one shirt and one tie," he said before the game. "That's it."