So much to talk about from the NBA Finals, so little space ... wait a minute, this is cyberspace.

* Never, at any point this season, postseason or even preseason, did I think the Miami Heat were the best team in the NBA. This really is one of the most shocking NBA championships I've ever seen, as a professional or as a fan. I don't think I was this stunned when the Bullets won in '78. Going into the playoffs, a lot of people were claiming that the Nets had the Heat's number and were going to take them out. The Heat were no better than the fourth choice going in, behind San Antonio, Detroit and Dallas, and there was reason to believe Phoenix had a better chance, too. And does anyone want to admit now to propping up the Lakers as a championship sleeper? Anybody? C'mon, you know some of you did.

* Speaking of which, the networks missed a golden opportunity by not setting up the Kobe-cam for the night Shaq won. Of course, Shaq spent most of the post-game celebration sticking the knife a little deeper into Kobe and the Lakers, saying that Pat Riley is the best coach he's ever played for, and that Dwyane Wade is the best teammate he's ever had. But you know what? Shaq was entitled. That whole lovefest for Kobe in L.A. after Shaq left was sickening. So much for "Shaq has never won without Kobe.'' With some tweaking here and there, Shaq might have four more years of complementing Wade and winning titles, like Kareem did when he officially turned things over to Magic after the first three titles. No more 40-and-20s, a lot more 9-and-13s, but that should be good enough. At least until LeBron gets a team around him.

* On the subject of teammates: Antoine Walker and Jason Williams have championship rings, and Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley don't. Wha-? Nice on-the-floor shimmy by Walker during that game last night. Lovely, classy touch.

* I guess I should mention the team Miami beat, the Dallas Mavericks, at this point, five paragraphs in. But if I do, I'd have to mention Phil Mickelson, too, because they're in a heated battle for biggest chokers of 2006. Only three teams have ever blown a 2-0 Finals lead. One was Wilt's first Lakers team in 1969, the series in which the old Forum in L.A. had balloons in the rafters and the team had printed up victory celebration plans for Game 7 against the Celtics. One was the 76ers, one of the most talented yet looniest teams ever to get to the Finals - Dr. J, George McGinnis and Bobby Jones, but also Lloyd (soon to be World B.) Free, Darryl Dawkins and Joe (Jelly Bean) (Kobe's father) Bryant. They lost to Portland in 1977, in Bill Walton's last moment of near-perfect health. Now Dallas, which just flat-out gagged, no matter what Mark Cuban would like you to believe.

(Brief digression: With this U.S.Open, maybe we will now recognize the difference between who is the best - Tiger - and who we deeply, passionately want to be the best - Anybody But Tiger. Once upon a time, everyone wanted Karl Malone to be the NBA MVP, even though it clearly was Michael. They finally gave him one, but when they did, he proceeded to blow those free throws in the Finals to set up Jordan's game-winner, then a year later get his pocket picked by Jordan to set up that game-winner. Maybe that makes Phil the Mailman. The Tiger-Phil rivalry actually is looking a lot like the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, which since 1920 is 26-1. Tiger vs. Phil is 10-3 - and, it seems to have been forgotten, the last two for Tiger were just a year ago. It also seems to have been forgotten that Tiger has never flat-out blown a major, period, much less the way Phil did. A little perspective, please. Thank you. End of digression.)

* No team in recent memory had looked as good from the start of the playoffs right up until they were one game and six minutes away from the title - and then looked so bad from then on. Worse, the Mavs not only choked, they whined. And the fans showed no class, booing throughout the trophy presentation. Yup, those cheatin' refs made the Mavs score seven points in the fourth quarter of Game 4, made them blow a double-digit lead in the last six minutes of Game 3 when a 3-0 series lead was in the bag, and made Dirk score two points, with no baskets, in the fourth quarter of the biggest game of the Mavs' season, at home. Everything I said about Dirk after that 50-point game against Phoenix in the West finals, I take back. That might have been the most fraudulent 29 points ever scored in a series-clinching game, and I have no doubt that some people will say, "Hey, Dirk did his job, look at the numbers, you can't pin this on him.'' Legends don't run away from the ball and force passes to teammates in the clutch, especially not passes to the likes of Erick Dampier running down the lane. Yet, to take a little of the blame off of Dirk, we must take note of Jason Terry missing his last 11 shots last night. The moral: never trust accomplishments against the Phoenix Suns ever again.

* Of course, not a mumblin'  word about the officiating came from the mouths of anyone in Dallas while they were up 2-0, being unofficially crowned champions by everybody watching, and reportedly making parade plans. But all of a sudden, Avery Johnson got loose. Jerry Stackhouse got loose. Cuban got loose. You'd think they were traded midseason from the Seattle Seahawks, they were doing so much finger-pointing at the guys with the whistles. Never once did anybody say, "You know, considering how games are being called and how the NBA is punishing players for cheap shots, Stackhouse really screwed up by even committing an act that might get scrutinized by the league office.'' Nor did anybody say, "There are better ways to make a point about officiating than the owner running onto the court, cursing out the commissioner and saying he's fixing the games.''

* That being said, the officiating stunk in these playoffs from start to finish; Cuban's and the Mavs' mistake was in claiming that it was all directed at them. Please. It was by far the biggest blight on a great postseason, and it's highlighting the fact that it's accepted as gospel that games are not on the level, that David Stern is some big puppeteer working strings to get the winners and ratings he wants. Across the board, the NBA has to get the officiating repaired, and that's the only way that perception will go away. Not even hitting players, coaches and owners with massive fines or suspensions for public criticism of the refs is going to get it done, although Stern needs to start digging into pockets more often, because the worst of the conspiracy theories are coming from within his own league. He's about a decade too late in seriously cracking down. This is the only league that has to deal with this. Baseball players apparently are ingesting every substance short of wild antelope blood to improve performance and tilt the playing field, yet the NBA is the one viewed as crooked.

* I knew it would hurt. But I have to endure it. Pat Riley was right. Ouch! Ouch! Stop it! He made the right moves. Ow! He was the right coach to get it done. YEOW! Uncle, uncle! I give up! By the way, I was relieved to find out that the famous covered bowl in the Heat locker room was filled with cards and photos. I was terrified of what it might have been. The Master Motivator knows no real limits in his tactics. It could have been fingers, for all anybody knew. Or something more disgusting, yet team-oriented.

* Last but not least ... Dwyane Wade isn't Michael. But he doesn't have to be. What he is, is good enough. And if he keeps being that good, maybe the two-decade-long obsession with The Next Michael will end, and players can go back to being players.