Choke

The following is the first few paragraphs of an article on espn.com by Marc Stein, an NBA writer. It's unfortunate that the 2006 Dallas Mavericks, who had the best season in franchise history, will go down as the biggest Finals chokers ever. But that's the nature of sports. Second place means first loser. Nothing in sports hurts like the heartbreak of losing the big game or series when you should have won it. I'm posting a portion of this article because I wanted to give you a national perspective on the Finals.

DALLAS -- It was official on this scorecard even before these Finals went final.
Yet it has to be a slam dunk now for any hoops historian.
The NBA Finals have never produced a more stunning turnaround/collapse than what we just saw. Never. The Miami Heat's 95-92 triumph over the Dallas Mavericks in Tuesday night's Game 6 cements it.
It's just the third time ever that a 2-0 lead in the Finals failed to result in a championship. The Mavericks, though, didn't just win the first two games. They also blew a 13-point lead in the final six-plus minutes of Game 3 to squander a likely 4-0 sweep.
Miami followed up its Game 3 escape by winning the next three games, too, vindicating Pat Riley after all the heat he got for his roster choices . . . and saddling Dallas with the most epic meltdown in Finals annals.

Ouch. That's my team he's talking about.