Mark Cuban's most painful Mavericks wound just ripped back open

The Dallas Mavericks' 2006 NBA Finals loss to the Miami Heat still stings among the organization and the fan base nearly two decades later. Even with it being old, Mark Cuban remains bitter about that Finals loss in 2025.

Recently, Cuban made a guest appearance on the Run Your Race Podcast, hosted by former Maverick Theo Pinson and AJ Richardson. While being a guest on the podcast, Cuban discussed the 2006 Finals loss to the Heat, and a comment was made on the podcast that revealed that Cuban is still bitter about the loss.

During the episode, Cuban mentioned that someone recently brought up the 2006 Finals loss to him. However, Cuban commented that Dwyane Wade didn't beat him and the Mavericks, but somebody else did.

Mark Cuban thinks officiating lost the Mavericks the 2006 NBA Finals

"Bennett Salvatore beat us," Cuban said. "For those who don't know, he's a ref. And, I stand by that."

Pinson replied back with "I already know."

The 2006 NBA Finals will remain controversial, whether or not some basketball fans claim that the series was rigged. The Mavericks had a commanding 2-0 series lead, then lost the next four games to lose the series in six games. What stings more for the Mavericks is that the team lost Game 6 at home and watched the Heat celebrate their first championship on the American Airlines Center court.

Bennett was one of the officials during the 2006 NBA Finals. However, Salvatore officiated two of the six games in that year's Finals. Salvatore officiated Game 1 of the series when the Mavericks won 90-80. It was Game 5 that Cuban remains bitter about toward Salvatore. Game 5 was the last game of the series that he officiated. The Heat won Game 5 by a final score of 101-100 to take a 3-2 series lead, but there was some controversy in the game.

In Game 5, the Mavericks had 38 fouls called against them to the Heat's 26 fouls. Wade shot a total of 25 free throws in Game 5. Shaquille O'Neal shot 12 free throws, but no other Heat player shot more than four free throws.

Wade was the main topic of the 2006 Finals. Throughout the whole series, Wade shot a total of 97 free throws. The Mavericks didn't have a single player on their roster who shot 50 free throws in the series. Even though many talk of the series will be about Wade getting foul calls, the Hall of Fame guard discussed that the 2006 Finals weren't rigged this past September.

The Mavericks got their revenge by beating Wade and the Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals. However, if you ask many basketball fans, particularly Mavericks fans, some will say that Dallas should have two Finals wins against the Heat rather than one.