Afternoon Head: Awesome

This is Zuleyka Rivera, who is making sure that JJ Barea would have been happy no matter what happened in the NBA Finals. Shit, I'm happy just knowing that she exists and there are photographs of her on the Internet.

So, yeah. Woo. The Mavericks did it. They beat the Miami Heat in Game 6 Sunday night, winning the NBA title and saving us from the celebration of an actual title in Miami. But before I get into the Heat bashing (and link to all of the amazing articles reveling in the schadenfreude), let me acknowledge the Mavericks. We looked at them through the lens of our last hope, more of a chance to save us from the Heat winning than appreciating all of the players on their roster who had never won a title. Dirk Nowitzki gets a lot of deserved praise for what he's done in this playoff year, elevating himself to closer status. I heard Colin Cowherd saying today that Dirk isn't any better than he was in 2006, that players don't get better in their 12th season. Colin Cowherd, not that I need to remind anyone, is an idiot. The Mavericks had pieces around Dirk this year that allowed the Mavericks to win a title. They had pieces in 2006, too. But Dirk is better than he was then, because he's gotten to the point where he's nearly unstoppable on offense, and he's a million times more aggressive. Anyone with a brain and a functioning set of eyes could see that the Dirk we saw through these playoffs had a different attitude than the one we had seen in recent playoff years. But how about Jason Kidd? He's been at it for about 40 years. I remember picking Cal to beat Duke in the NCAA Tournament in 1993 because of him and being ecstatic because I was right. I was 10. I'm now nearing 30, and Jason Kidd is still playing at a high level. Jason Terry, Shawn Marion, Tyson Chandler, Brian Fucking Cardinal. All of these guys have their own interesting story, and unfortunately we were all too caught up in the fact they were beating the Heat, so we didn't take the time to realize it. I suppose that's what the next week's for. (Dallas Morning News)

As for the Heat, oh baby was that awesome. LeBron James became the sports world's biggest villain last summer, and a lot of people were excited that he remains ringless. After the game, of course, he claimed the hate was based on jealousy, and that we all have to wake up to our lives and our problems. I'd love to have LeBron's money. I'd love to have his athleticism. If I had the latter, I'd have the former. I'd also not be the most hated man in sports, because I wouldn't be a pretentious prick. I wouldn't bask in the glory and praise heaped upon myself before I had accomplished anything, and then shrink from the moment and play the jealousy card when I failed to live up to my own hype. We don't hate LeBron because of his greatness, we hate him because of his himness. We love great players, always have. But we don't love people without heart. We don't love people who have had everything handed to them, and then can't accept it when we stop handing it to them. If that makes me a hater, so be it. (Yahoo!)

Oh, hey, Cleveland, go ahead and celebrate. If I could change the font of this blog to Comic Sans, I would. (Yahoo!)

And after all of this excitement, the NBA is almost assuredly about to go away for a while. Maybe a long while. And yes, I realize that linking to a three-day-old Simmons article is essentially like linking to Google, but it worked here. (Grantland)

The Tigers lost Sunday -- losing a pitching matchup between Felix Hernandez and Rick Porcello really doesn't bother me all that much -- but are still tied for first place in the AL Central. This is as winnable as the Central has been since the Tigers became a relevant team again in 2006. (DetNews)

I know I said last week that the Canucks were going to have to win the Stanley Cup in seven games because there was no possible way they were winning in Boston. I stick to that, but there is a very real possibility that the NHL Playoffs will be over with after tonight. That's sad. (Puck Daddy)

Today's Amazingness will remain amazing for at least another year: