Three reasons the 2011 Dallas Mavericks should be ranked higher

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Dirk Nowitzki (C) of the Dallas Mavericks celebrates with teammates after winning the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat on June 12, 2011 at the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami, Florida. Jason Terry scored 27 points and Nowitzki finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds as the Mavericks won 105-95 to take the best-of-seven championship series four-games-to-two to claim their first NBA championship in franchise history. AFP PHOTO / Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images) /

The FanSided NBA network ranked all of the NBA Championship teams in history and the Dallas Mavericks were ranked 38th. This is far too low for one of the best playoff runs the NBA has ever seen.

The FanSided NBA network has many great writers who put in hard work every day to churn out interesting news and, my favorite part, unique rankings. Recently, they published a ranking of all NBA Champions throughout NBA history. There have been 72 championship teams up to this point with 2011 team being the only representative for the Dallas Mavericks.

These kinds of rankings are always tough, because any team outside of the top five is probably not going to agree with their rankings. The problem is that every champion beat every team in their path for that given year, so it is hard to discount what they did and rank it against other teams that did the same thing.

Some of them are easier than others. Championship teams in the early years of the NBA certainly did not have the widespread talent that we see today. George Mikan was a man amongst boys in the early years, towering over the competition at 6’10”. Every ounce of the offense was run through him and it worked great.

Once you get into the great Celtics and Lakers years and everything past that, however, the ranking gets a lot more difficult. This is made very clear with the low ranking of 38th for the Dallas Mavericks that went on one of the greatest playoff runs in history. Although their dominance did not get to extend past that year, it is clear just what the Mavs did to the league.

The Mavs deserve to be ranked higher on this list and I have reasons to back this notion up. That 2011 team was historic and they will forever be overlooked just because they weren’t the favorites.

Next: The Road

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