From now on, whenever people talk about the greatest players in the history of the NBA, among the best of the best will be Dirk Nowitzki. Raising the NBA Championship trophy high over head after their 105 – 95 Game 6 victory over the Miami Heat in this year’s NBA Finals, all the doubts, questions, and asterisks were finally erased across the name of the 7-foot German. “We never stopped believing, and we never stopped working hard, and now we’ve got it,” Nowitzki jubilantly declared during the awarding right after the game that gave his Dallas Mavericks the 4-2 series win.

Nowitzki has always been known as a great player, a rare combination of size, talent and skill. No other 7-footer in the history of the league had his incredible shooting touch from as far away as 30 feet. He truly is among the best long shooters of all time. He can also handle the ball deftly, and keep it low to the ground almost like a guard, and he is a willing passer who could read and react quickly to any defense. Like all big men he also got a lot of rebounds and some blocks. Nowitzki will never be confused for the classic low post operator like Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson or Shaquille O’Neal, but he now has a championship ring to show that he belongs to that elite company. He also joins the elite club of NBA Finals MVP awardees, and truly it was his brilliance that shone through most in these Finals.

Going into this series it seemed like he and the rest of the Mavericks were about to repeat their unfortunate fate in the 2006 Finals which they lost to the Heat. Up 2-0 Dwayne Wade put on a show for the ages and led the Heat to four straight wins and their franchise’s first ever NBA title. Stunned, the Maverick just could not believe how it had all turned around so suddenly. “It was like we didn’t know what hit us. We were up then we were down,” said guard Jason Terry after that series. Terry is the only Maverick other than Nowitzki who was part of that 2006 team.

Rematch and redemption was thus the ongoing theme for these Finals. Whether or not they admitted it, everyone knew that Nowitzki and Terry had payback in mind when they found out it would be the Heat they would play in these Finals. “We would have prepared just as hard whoever we played, and the guys all know that,” said Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle after the Mavericks finally disposed of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. No one, of course, really took his word for it. For two guys getting long in the tooth and having lesser opportunities to win an NBA title, it was payback, redemption and now or never all rolled into one for Nowitzki and Terry.

Speaking of long in the tooth, how about 38-year old Jason Kidd finally winning an NBA championship? This is Kidd’s third time in the NBA Finals. In his first two trips his New Jersey Nets were dismantled first by the Los Angeles Lakers of O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, and then the San Antonio Spurs of Tim Duncan. “It is the dream of every NBA player to win the championship. I guess I just took a little longer to get mine,” Kidd said with a smile. Kidd may or may not be back next year. 38 is older than sin in NBA years, most especially for a pointguard. He’s certainly heard it all: slowing down, lost a step, jumpshot getting uglier and uglier every passing year. Yet when you break down the game video, Kidd remains one of the best at his position in the league, period. He controlled the tempo, set up the offense, called out the defense, and found teammates in their best spots constantly.

For Miami it is far from the end of the world, although detractors may say otherwise. When the “Decision” was finally announced in all its ESPN-clad bad taste, it was not just LeBron James who suddenly became the sports figure everyone loved to hate; the entire Miami Heat franchise became America’s most vilified sports entity almost overnight. “There are no shortcuts to championships” or something along those lines came a tweet from Cleveland Cavaliers team owner Dan Gilbert, James’s former boss, or employee however you saw the Cavaliers story when James was there. Gilbert tweeted that after Dallas won the title. “Cavs for Mavs” was another popular mantra / movement during the Finals, started by an innocuous Netizen.

“This could be the last time Miami doesn’t win the championship,” observed Ed Lim, a lawyer and long-time Chicago Bulls diehard. “They’ll win a championship sooner rather than later,” he added. And indeed that is a sentiment that even the most vociferous hater must grudgingly admit: the Heat are still young, and immensely talented, with a management team that has deep pockets. Some have jokingly said they will lure Dwight Howard from across the state and also reel in Chris Paul when both become free agents in 2012 to all but guarantee an 82-win season and a 16-0 postseason sweep all the way to the championship. It is but whimsy and yet it is not something to be put past the Heat.

For now however every basketball fan should rejoice. Two of the best players of all time finally have a title in what is still the world’s premier basketball league. It has been a long and arduous trek for them and the franchise as a whole. All the doubts are erased and gone. This is their first ever NBA Title, and no title in the last quarter-century has been more deserved.