The stadium is at a roar, with a new sort of excitement and anticipation never before felt by anyone there. I watch the screen, wishing more than anything our players were on the court in front of us and not in Miami Beach. The clock is slowly winding down, bringing us closer and closer to a championship. Our first championship. The championship that had eluded us just five years before, given to the very same team we were fighting again. With ten seconds left, the stadium-wide countdown began. As the clock hit zero I was in disbelief, we had finally won. Fans hugged other fans, strangers and friends alike. The Dallas Mavericks were finally the NBA Champions, a title they had never before held in franchise history.

I guess I’m getting a little ahead of myself, I should start at the beginning of my story. I began watching the Dallas Mavericks in third grade, and have religiously watched them ever since. Basketball was the first sport I ever watched, and Dirk Nowitzki my first love. When I first started watching basketball we were a mediocre team at best. Mark Cuban had only owned the team for a few years and was still in the process of revamping it. Over the next four years I watched multiple players come and go as the Mavericks looked for the perfect combination. In 2006, it looked as though we had it. Jason Terry, Josh Howard, and Dirk Nowitzki seemed to be a more beastly combination than when Nowitzki played with Steve Nash and Michael Finley. I watched in awe as the three of them fought through the season and made their way into the playoffs. Round after round we defeated our opponents, and by the time we got to the championship we seemed invincible.

Finally, only four games away from a coveted title we had never had before. We won the first two games, which was expected. There was not an analyst in the league who could have predicted our downfall. Miami, the underdogs, went on to win the next four games and break our hearts in the process. It took five more years for us to return to the NBA Championship. With only two remaining players from the 2006 team, we fought again with a renewed kind of passion. Underdogs in almost every series we played, we fought with an unrelenting will. After sweeping the two-time defending champions, the LA Lakers, we were again four wins away from being champions. We waited as the Heat and the Bulls finished their series, with the Heat emerging victorious. Maverick fans went wild. It was fate. It was our year for redemption. We went into this series humbled by our place as the underdog. The Heat was predicted to win with their “unstoppable” trio that had been completed during the summer by Lebron James.

Six games later we won a hard fight, and were finally named the NBA Champions. Summer went by as all Mavericks fans basked in the glory of a win, waiting for the new season so we could defend our title. That is until we heard the news: an NBA lockout. The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement had expired, and a new agreement would not happen until owners and players could agree on the percentage players would be payed, whether a hard salary cap should be implemented, and how long the new agreement should last. Until a new agreement could be reached, there would be no season. As players, owners, and the league fought over money, loyal fans suffered. For months we waited, unsure as to whether there would be a season at all. I followed ESPN, waiting for an update that told of anything other than something else prolonging the lockout. It wasn’t until the last week of November that fans were finally able to celebrate, the lockout was over and the dates have been set for the first games. On Christmas day, there will be a triple header with one of the first games taking place between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat. I have never been more excited for the start of a season, a chance to make a statements from the very first game. From the moment the banner drops, and we hear for the very first time “Here are your defending champions, the Dallas Mavericks,” we will be fighting with that same unrelenting will to win again. The lockout’s over, let the games begin.