Well, you can only choke against a team if you are the favourite. But the other way round? That is NOT a choke job. If the Mavs make the playoffs and get for instance the Lakers or the Spurs and lose, you want to say that they choked again? I think almost everybody here would predict a loss against LA and SA (not to mention the other teams, I just take these two as examples), so it is not a choke job. You choke if you lose while being the favourite. Point.
About 2006: Yes, we should have close it out. I completely agree. We didn't win it all and that's a fact. Nobody can change that. But I don't have a problem to write again that the officiating was nothing but bull . Within the last 2 games, Wade alone (not to count the other Heat-players) went to the line 46 times, the whole Mavs team 48 times. IMO, Stern didn't (and still does not) like Cubes as well as Salvatore didn't/doesn't (okay, who in the league likes Cuban outside Dallas? Probably nobody). In terms of marketing, it was an easy pick to choose the Heat. Of course, I DON'T and I WON'T put everything on the refs, we simply weren't able to finish the series. Sad but true and I have no problem to admit that. But the refs share their part.
About GSW: We played poorly, no doubt about that. But IMO it's the same thing about choking, even it sounds quite weird. But during 2006-07 we lost ALL regular season games against GSW, so a loss was not that unpredictable. Maybe for people without a common understanding of basketball, but not if you didn't lose some sense of reality. Moreover, we had it in hand to avoid GS. Avery rested his best players in the second last (?) game of the season against GSW. GSW needed to win, otherwise the Clips would have sealed their spot. I still don't get it why Avery took the risk to face GS, although we lost all games against them that season. 15 losses during the whole season and 3 of them only against GSW!!! I think 10 games before the season ended, the Clips had a 7 or 8 game advantage against GS. We had in our hands to close it out and face the Clips (which we swept I think), but no... GSW made a 10-0 or 9-1 run in the end and the rest is history...
Same with the Hornets last year. If someone wants to tell me the Mavs choked against the Hornets, I would either think he or she is drunken or hasn't any knowledge about basketball. The Hornets were the favourite and simply the better team. Moroever, beside Nowitzki and maybe Bass the whole team sucked in the playoffs which made it even easier for NO to win the series. Nowitzki played very well against NO, it was definitely not his fault. 26,8 ppg/12,0 rpg/4,0 apg is simply an impressive line.
Well, some people (not all) around here bash Dallas and especially Dirk just for the sake of bashing. It doesn't has to do anything with logical arguments. Some people here like to act like trolls, some write really good stuff without bashing other fans and teams. Maybe it's a kind of a rivalry for some of them, thus they think they have to bash the others.... IMO simply stupid.
Of course, I can only write for myself, but I think since I'm here I have tried to be fair to any player and any team and to respect their feats regardless where they're from. Btw, I would never discredit for instance Duncan in any way. Recently there was a poll here naming Duncan a 1 and Dirk a 1.5 player. Based on their achieved milestones so far, I can deal with that. And I do not have a problem to name Duncan the best PF ever. But it is not fair only to attack Dirk's faults but not to mention his accomplishments during his career. Dirk is simply an amazing player.
To close my long post (I'm sorry for that, but some things needed to be clarified):
To cite one quote from
TrueHoop
-> "Nowitzki is the exception, not the rule. There has never been a player that combined Dirk's size and shooting touch, and it may not be so soon before we see another."