The 2006 Miami Heat championship will mark its 20th anniversary next year but some people are still not over it. Mark Cuban, former owner of the Dallas Mavericks that were on the wrong end that NBA run, claimed that they were robbed in that finals encounter where a young Dwyane Wade came out as the Finals MVP.
“We hurt in 2006 after it was stolen from us, right?” Cuban said during an appearance at the DLLS Mavs podcast.
“And I’ll take that to my grave that it was stolen from us.”
The Mavs were the favorites entering that series. They had a better regular season record and got a tougher test in the Western Conference. They lived up to the billing in the first two games after they win both.
However, Wade and Shaquille O’Neal did not give up. They won the next three games at the American Airlines Arena and then wrapped it up in Texas to finish the series in six games.
Cuban is not speaking out of nowhere here. Disgraced former NBA official referee Tim Donaghy once discussed how the league allegedly tried to manipulate the series.
“I think basically Dallas got screwed out of a championship in that situation because the NBA started to manipulate the series to make sure it was extended and Dallas could never recover from it,” he said in a 2017 article.
Dwyane Wade responds to Mar Cuban
Dallas fans were offended by the result of the 2006 title just like Cuban. Wade is offended by claims made by the billionaire businessman.
The now-retired shooting guard thought such comment is invalidating the work he put in.
“You’re not about to tarnish the work I put in as a young guy, to do something not a lot of young guys have done in this game and say it’s rigged,” the three-time champion said in a video he posted on his own show Wy Network by Dwyane Wade.
“Mark, stop that. Yall got us, we got y’all, stop that BS, Mark.”
D Wade fires back at Mark Cuban for saying 2006 finals was rigged
“You’re not about to tarnish the work I put in as a young guy, to do something not a lot of young guys have done in this game and say it’s rigged. Mark stop that. Yall got us, we got yall, stop that BS Mark”
(Via… pic.twitter.com/yxTaOsYpK8
— Heat Culture (@HeatCulture13) September 3, 2025
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