Quick blurb this afternoon on last night's title win by the Dallas Mavericks. From an NBA fan perspective, great series that capped off a great playoffs filled with memorable moments, combebacks and storylines. As Howland and I discussed last night while watching the game, to us the Dallas win was a big step back in the right direction for the NBA. A win by the Heat would have completely justified the idea of superstars holding teams hostage. Now? There's no questioning the power of combining superstars, but this series showed that it takes more than just that. Dallas' win was a true team effort with everyone from Dirk to Brian Cardinal playing a role in the Mavs' first ever title. Finally, and relating things back to the Raptors as we always do, the win again re-emphasized for me, just how far the Dinos need to go before returning to the playoffs, let alone contending for a title. Dallas may have had some aging stars on the downside of their careers, but think about the difference between the group of Kidd, Terry, Dirk, Marion and Chandler, and the Raptors' quintet of Calderon, DeRozan, Johnson, Johnson and Bargnani. In fact Bodog.com just posted their odds for winning next year's NBA title, assuming there's a season, and the Raptors finished dead last, 150/1. The Heat, despite their loss, are favoured to avenge this year's defeat while the Mavs repeat hopes fall behind the Heat, Lakers, Bulls and Thunder.