The NBA Finals finally (no pun intended) get under way tonight (May 31st) in Miami. In a rematch of the 2006 championship Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks look to avenge a disheartening loss to Dwyane Wade and the Heat five years ago where they blew a 2-0 series lead and a 13-point 4th quarter lead in Game 3.

Besides Nowitzki and super sixth man Jason Terry for Dallas and Wade and Udonis Haslem for Miami, all the players are different, many new to the NBA Finals stage. 38 year-old Jason Kidd has been to the Finals twice as a member of the New Jersey Nets and LeBron James put his former team on his back en route to the 2007 Finals before getting swept by San Antonio.

I will admit I was the main person saying the Heat would not win a title this year. Since that statement in late October, the Boston Celtics traded away one of the key pieces of their defense in Kendrick Perkins (a major factor in how easily Miami handled the Celtics) the Atlanta Hawks beat Orlando and the only real center in the Eastern Conference in Dwight Howard, the Memphis Grizzlies upset the San Antonio Spurs in the first round and the Lakers got swept out of the postseason by the Dallas Mavericks without a fight  in the Western Conference Semifinals.

I can easily say that the road to the Finals was laid out without any major obstacles for Miami, but that would be a major disservice to how dominant they have been. None of Miami’s playoff series have gone more than five games, something I expected in the first round, but not after that. The way the Heat are playing is something I expected in year two. They have been surprisingly cohesive in dismantling the best defense in the NBA in the Eastern Conference Finals. It seems all the criticism and inability to close games during the regular season has been their training ground. They have gone through the playoff level adversity of Jordan versus the Pistons, and Isiah versus the Celtics in the course of one regular season and are ready to reach their goal way ahead of schedule.

That being said, I am through picking against the Heat. Chris Bosh has found his superstar swagger and Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller have finally arrived after injuries robbed them of precious game time.

Prediction: The Heat will roll out the Derrick Rose defensive strategy on Dirk. They will live with Nowitzki making those unguardable one-legged fadeaway jumpers and run Terry, Kidd and Peja Stojakovich off the three point line. While they have not faced a center like Tyson Chandler so far, Chris Bosh and Joel Anthony should be able to neutralize him. The Mavs will miss Caron Butler, though Butler is not ruling himself out for the series attempting to come back from a snapped patella tendon in his knee that sidelined him since January 1st. Shawn Marion has turned back the clock to his “Matrix” heyday which will help. However, like the Bulls series it will be 3 superstars on 1 which equals too much for Dallas. Heat win one for LeBron in six games, 4-2.

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VIA ESPN:

Jason Kidd has given the Dallas Mavericks a verbal commitment that he will re-sign with the team Wednesday, according to NBA front-office sources.

Sources told ESPN.com that Kidd, 36, will receive a 3-year, fully-guaranteed contract worth in excess of $25 million.

Kidd elected to stay in Dallas in the face of a hard push from the New York Knicks, who last week offered Kidd the most they could ($19 million over three years).

Signing Kidd for more than one season would have impacted the Knicks’ efforts to amass substantial salary cap space for the summer of 2010, and they’re expected to woo Cleveland’s LeBron James and at least one other top free agent.

In that scenario, pressure on Knicks president Donnie Walsh to trade either Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries — or both — would have increased significantly, but sources say that Walsh and Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni felt that acquiring Kidd would have been worth such hassles because of their confidence in Kidd’s ability to change the Knicks’ culture.

Kidd’s interest in returning to the Atlantic Division was mutual, but the Mavericks were always considered favorites to re-sign him because they could comfortably exceed the Knicks’ max offer of three years at the projected mid-level exception of $5.8 million per year.

Although Kidd initially sent signals that he planned to take the full holiday weekend before making a decision, Dallas began inching closer to a deal on Friday when Kidd and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban met at Cuban’s house.

Wednesday is the first day teams can formally sign free agents to new contracts after the NBA announces the salary cap and luxury tax figures for the 2009-10 season.

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VIA ESPN:

The Mavericks might not be ready to give up on the Jason Kidd experiment in Dallas.

Team owner Mark Cuban announced via his Twitter feed Tuesday afternoon that he was “getting ready to fly up to NYC for [a] Free Agent meeting at 12:01 [a.m.].” Sources with knowledge of Cuban’s plans confirmed to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein that the meeting is scheduled with Kidd at the first allowable minute of 2009 NBA free agency Wednesday morning.

Cuban’s pitch will precede a Kidd meeting with the Knicks in New York, according to the New York Daily News. Although the unrestricted free agent has indicated in the past that he would give Dallas the first chance to re-sign him, the 35-year-old Kidd likely has other suitors.

The Knicks face the challenge of going after Kidd and trying to sign their own restricted free agents, guard Nate Robinson and forward David Lee.

Kidd averaged 9.0 points and 8.7 assists for a Mavericks team that won 50 games last season. After steamrolling the Spurs in five games in the first round of the playoffs, the Mavs were taken out in five by the Nuggets.

Kidd was acquired by Dallas the year before, but that Mavs team lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Mavericks lost in the Finals in 2005-06 and then won 67 games the following season before bowing out in the first round of the playoffs. Kidd was expected to be the veteran piece to team with Dirk Nowitzki and get them over the hump when the Mavs gave up young point guard Devin Harris in a multiplayer deal with the Nets.

Kidd made more than $21 million last season. At 36, he knows to expect a dip — but how much could be the big difference. Another likely factor will be the length of the contract.

The Lakers and Cavaliers might only offer a one-year deal, dangling their hopes of a title as incentive. Kidd would then be a free agent again in 2010, meaning he’d still have a chance for one last big payday.

This Chris Brown/Rihanna stuff is everywhere. On Twitter, on Myspace, on the news, your phone and here – exclusively – at TheUrbanDaily.com. But what’s alarming is how this has brought little conversation about the plight of abuse within the black entertainment community.

Some have been rewarded for their brutality, others have gained infamy from their actions, but they have not come under fire to the degree of this Chris Brown/Rihanna situation. With nanosecond updates provide by everyone in the know (and who wishes to know), the problem is laid out in plain sight.

The question is – where do we go from here?

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