Nearly 10 years after his Dallas Mavericks dethroned the Los Angeles Lakers and then defeated LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals to deliver his first and only championship as a NBA player, Jason Kidd is a champion as a coach, thanks to the Los Angeles Lakers, and LeBron James.
The Lakers finished off an often times dominant run through the NBA’s bubble playoffs by defeating the Miami Heat in six-game NBA Finals to win the franchise’s 17th NBA Championship, tying Los Angeles with the Boston Celtics for most all-time. After winning just three of their eight seeding games, LA won each Western Conference postseason series in just five games, piling up 12 wins in 15 games to get to The Finals. Miami became the first team to push them beyond five games with a Game 5 win, but it simply delayed the inevitable as the Lakers closed out their championship season on Sunday with a double-digit victory.