Which coach led the Dallas Mavericks to their only NBA championship in 2011?
Answer
Rick Carlisle
Rick Carlisle led the Dallas Mavericks to their only NBA championship in 2011.
Carlisle became Dallas’s head coach in 2008 after earlier leading the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers. In the 2010–11 season, his Mavericks finished 57–25 and navigated a difficult Western Conference playoff path, defeating Portland, the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, and Oklahoma City.
Dallas then beat the Miami Heat 4–2 in the NBA Finals. Dirk Nowitzki was the Finals MVP, while Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Shawn Marion, and Tyson Chandler supplied crucial veteran support. The title was the franchise’s first, correcting a common mix-up with Dallas’s 2006 Finals appearance, which ended in defeat to Miami.
Carlisle also has a rare distinction: he won an NBA championship as a player with Boston in 1986 and later as a head coach with Dallas in 2011.