	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: MAVERICKS v HEAT

June 12, 2011

Jason Terry

MIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Six

Dallas Mavericks 105
Miami Heat 95

Q. Jet, the zone that you were in tonight, did it feel like the Lakers game earlier in the playoffs? Describe going through that with the shooting.
JASON TERRY: No, it was nothing like the Lakers game. But to be able to get hot in the game to this magnitude, obviously, all the credit goes to my teammates. Greatest point guard in the world, he's sitting right next to me. Hall of Famer. Understands where to get his teammates the ball in the right situations, in situations to be successful. And I was able to do that early in the game.

Q. Jason, Terry, like when you guys are struggling in the series and you still maintained that demeanor of -- I mean, it was almost defiant to the point of cartoonish, where you're saying the same things over again. "We're going to get it turned around," was that at all difficult for you to maintain that? And secondly, most series you're probably the MVP. Clearly Dirk is. But I want you to comment on his greatness and in turn. What you were able to do to turn around the series?
JASON TERRY: My faith, first of all, is in God. And with that comes the confidence, knowing that you can be successful when you play with guys like we have on this team. You look at what Dirk was able to accomplish this postseason. He played like none other. The year he won MVP doesn't even compare to what he did this year in the postseason. All the critics talked about what he couldn't do, where he fell short. But to carry this team the way he's done is just phenomenal. I'm just happy to be a part of it.

Q. Jay, you lived with The Finals failure five years ago, for those last five years. What does this mean for you personally to finally finish the job and what does your individual performance mean considering how much you thought of that Game 6 from five years ago over these years?
JASON TERRY: Going in we never used '05-'06 as a motivating factor. Two totally different teams. You look at what we did along the way, along our journey, getting past Portland. Nobody said we could. Doing what we did to the Lakers. We continued to grind it out, believing in each other, and showed huge resiliency every time we stepped on the court.
I thought in this series there was a time and situation where there was a turning point. That was in Game 2. Down 15, we all looked at each other, and we continued to believe. And we win that game and the rest is history.

Q. Mr. Kidd, you've been on a few teams for a few years in this league. What set this one apart and enabled it to win a championship?
JASON KIDD: I think adversity. We got off to a great start at the beginning of the season. Dirk was playing, if not at an MVP-type season, and then we lose Caron and Dirk. And so everybody wrote us off but ourselves. I think going through that period where we lost six in a row and looked at each other and said we got to find a way, because those two aren't coming back anytime soon. Guys stepped up, and we turned it around.
I think just going through the journey of those injuries made us a better team, because we had to do a lineup change, and then we did the lineup change during The Finals. And we didn't skip a beat. We just kept playing. That just shows the character of this team. No matter how old you are, we understood how to play the game, by passing the ball and making sure that we didn't take shots where three or four guys are on you. We just made the extra pass. We didn't care who put the ball in the basket.

Q. From the end of Game 4 through tonight, it seemed as if you guys offensively figured something out to get quality shots and got in a rhythm you didn't have earlier in the series. Can you tell us what that was. Either one of you or both.
JASON KIDD: I think the big thing is understanding the Heat and the way they play defense. They're a big help team. And they over-help a lot of times. And we just felt early in the series we were getting great looks. We just couldn't make a shot. And as the series went on, we felt if we kept moving the ball, we're going to get those same shots, and those shots were going to start to go in for us. And I thought at the end of Game 4 and then in Game 5, the dam in a sense broke. We felt, we're a confident group, that this is the way we're going to play and we're going to continue to play until we find a way to win.

Q. Was that the turning point for you guys in the series? Where did you think the turning point was?
JASON KIDD: Shoot, the turning point was in that Game 2, when we looked at each other and we found a way to win, being down 15. We were in that same boat in the Oklahoma series. We were in the same boat in the Portland series, where -- actually, we were in that same situation in every series we were in. Portland we give up the 23-point lead and lose, and we looked at each other and said that can't happen again. And so L.A. Game 1 we're down 16 or 15 and we find a way to win that.
So I think we were a little bit comfortable playing from behind. As much as we wanted to get the lead, it just didn't happen.

Q. Jason, you've joked for years about your age.
JASON KIDD: You guys have talked about it for a long time.

Q. Well, how does it feel now to have accomplished what you've done at this age, an age when most players can't even stay in the league, and here you are winning a championship?
JASON KIDD: It's all about my teammates. When you surround yourself with positive guys, young guys that keep you young. And when you look at Jet, you look at Dirk, these guys can shoot the ball with the best of them. So that was my challenge, that I wanted to compete and to help my team, I had to be able to knock down the three to make it easier for these guys. So I worked on it every day. And no matter what age, as long as you feel you can do something to help your team win, it's a positive thing.
I think for me my whole thing was I didn't have to score, but my calmness of telling guys to relax and what I saw out there that maybe helped guys defensively or on the offensive end. So being 38, you guys talked about it a lot. I don't feel 38 mentally or physically. I feel great.

Q. Jason, congratulations on the championship.
JASON KIDD: Thank you.

Q. You've accomplished so much in your career. Talk about finally adding that championship to all of the great individual things that you've done.
JASON KIDD: Man, it's a dream come true. It's not real right now, because just the battles against the Heat and understanding the journey, it's been a long journey for 17 years. I thought I had an opportunity in '03 to win a championship, and I was on the other end; we lost to the Spurs.
My teammates, their character and their will to come every day and work to get better, they deserve all the credit. And so I'm just happy to be at the right place at the right time.

Q. Jet, Coach Carlisle was in here a while ago and he was talking about how one team played in the air and the other team played on the ground. And just how fascinated everyone seems to be with how LeBron and Dwyane fly up into the rafters, but people don't really understand how great Dirk Nowitzki is. What do you understand about Dirk?
JASON TERRY: Well, Dirk has huge resolve. Regardless of what people say about him, he's going to come to the gym every day and prepare the same way. He's been doing it for so long, and he still doesn't get the credit that he deserves. What he's able to do at his size, at his height, you haven't seen this before. The way he shoots the ball, the way he gets the shot off. What set him apart from all those other years, he made his teammates better. We look back on this whole entire year and what we've accomplished, you're going to look at Dirk Nowitzki's performance, you're going to look at the numbers, but what he meant to Shawn Marion, to Tyson Chandler, to myself, to Jason Kidd, to J.J. Barea, making us raise our level to another level. That's when you have a superstar. And that's when you have a Hall of Famer.

Q. Jet, over here, on your right, maybe my favorite moment of the whole night is you keep catching your reflection in the trophy and it's cracking you up. You mentioned the turning point was in Game 2. You guys both mentioned that. You got down 15. The celebration took place right in front of your bench. You followed LeBron out on the court. You stopped, you guys didn't get into it or anything, but you woke up from that point. You became a different player. I'm not saying that motivated the team or anything, but it seemed to motivate you. And now there's no bulletin board here, there's no reason to be PC, did that inspire you?
JASON TERRY: Deuce is funny. He said being from Oakland, he said it brought out the GP in me. Everybody know who GP is, Gary Payton. One of my idols. A good friend. We're playing for the NBA Championship. In no way, shape or form with seven minutes left on the clock the game was over. As long as there's time on that clock, this Maverick team is going to play to the end.

Q. Great as Dirk is and as great as he's elevated all of you guys' game, when he started out 1-for-12, what was going through your mind and how much did you know you had to carry the team at that point?
JASON TERRY: It wasn't about me carrying the team. It was doing my job. My job is to come in and provide a spark, make plays, make shots. I did my job, and I knew if Dirk continued to get the shots he was getting, those were good shots. He wasn't forcing anything. It was coming off great ball movement. I told Jason, I said, "You might want to talk to him, but I know what I'm going to tell him." After Deuce said something to him, I told him about halftime, "'05-'06." I don't know what it did, but after that he got hot.

Q. For both Jasons, there's a little kid inside of you right now that must be going crazy. Can you dig deep and tell me what that little kid is doing at this point for both?
JASON KIDD: Go ahead. I have a cramp.
JASON TERRY: Well for me, I just think about my journey. Where I come from in the city of Seattle, growing up many nights on the playground, emulating the greats, Isiah Thomas, even my hometown heroes like Slick Watts, Downtown Freddy Brown, Magic. Now I'm in the same breath as those guys. They're champions. Dr. J texted me before Game 6. He said, "Hey, son, it's your time." I responded to him, "I want to be a champion, just like you." Now I am.

Q. Jet, does it make it even sweeter that it was Miami and it was the team that beat you in 2006? And also, could you guys feel the rest of America was behind you and wanted you to beat the Heat because of the way they celebrated the way the season started?
JASON TERRY: Again, it was not our motivating factor going in. Now that we have done it, you can say it was sweet vindication. We've been on the other end. We've been the team most hated, the team that's not picked to do anything. So we really didn't care what the critics were saying or what America thought. We just knew that each individual man in that locker room had what it took to win a championship.

Q. Also, Jason Kidd, this one is for you: You got drafted by the Mavericks in '94 when Don Carter, the original owner, owned the team. Just your thoughts on what this means to Mr. Carter.
JASON KIDD: I think this is huge for the Carter family. For the down years that Dallas has had and then to still be a part of it once Cuban bought the team, and just to see this day come, I mean, I think they're on cloud nine. We're so happy for them because of what they've done for the franchise is big, because Dallas before only won 27 games or 30 games. And once Cuban took over, he set the bar high of winning 50 games.
So to finally finish across the line of the marathon in first place is huge.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297