Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry pumped up for the NBA Finals
Jason Terry was with the Dallas Mavericks the last time they reached the NBA Finals. Back in 2006, he was the starting point guard for the team. Dallas got off to a good start in the Finals, winning 2 in a row, before crashing
to 4 straight losses that saw the Miami Heat being crowned as champions.
The series was marred by controversy and Terry has not gotten over that experience yet. Being the only survivor from that series in the team, apart of course from star man Dirk Nowitzki, Terry has a score to settle once the NBA
Finals begin this Tuesday.
Although, not the starting point guard anymore, Terry is still a big part of the team. Over the last few years Terry has established himself as perhaps the best sixth man in the league. He regularly comes off the bench to make
big contributions to the Mavs cause and often tilts the balance in his side’s favour with big shots down the clutch.
His will to win hasn’t faded at all through these years. If anything, Terry has become even more determined to achieve the ultimate prize, a NBA World Championship ring. So focused was he, at the start of the season about going
the whole distance that Terry told his teammates he will get a tattoo of the Larry O’Brien trophy. No one seemed to take him seriously, until he got that tattoo and showed it to the Mavs roster in a team meeting.
He recalls the incident rather fondly, "Everybody laughed and thought it was a joke at the time, but then when they saw me actually get it they were like, 'This boy's serious,'" Terry said. "And our whole conversation was about
right now, about us getting to this point and winning it all.”
However, the expression soon changed from light hearted to that of determination when he spoke the next line, "It's been a great playoff run for us so far. But everybody knows what this next step means."
For this Dallas Mavericks team, and particularly for Jason Terry, it means everything. Terry knows only too well that people remember Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal, the guys who won it in 2006. Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki
are not featured in too many conversations about that year’s championship.
All the Mavs are talked about is their inability to perform in the playoffs since their solitary trip to the finals. Terry says you can’t shut people up, so he takes what’s said about him and his team, and turns it into motivation,
"It's tough to listen to all that (criticism), but it's what makes us, it's what drives us," Terry said. "If we didn't have the criticism and you guys just praised us every second of the way, then that's no fun.”
Now he has a chance to put the ghosts of 2006 to rest. This time, Terry says, Mavericks won’t let anyone in the city down. He couldn’t have been clearer when he said after winning the Western Conference Finals "(this win was) for
Nowitzki, for Mark Cuban, for this city. To have another shot at it after five years, we're ready this time."
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