"Saturday's guest of honor came off the practice floor, the very large object of even larger civic affection.

Suddenly, Dirk Nowitzki -- 7 feet tall, of German heritage, the 2011 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, a man in the employ of the opposing Dallas Mavericks for 14 years now -- was besieged for autographs. Fans at the Cavaliers-Dallas game thrust programs and photos and Dallas jerseys at Nowitzki, who signed a couple dozen in all, each with a scrawled "Dirk."

"Dirk! Dirk!" they cried. Fans want autographs everywhere, but the dynamic was different here. More fans, more warmth.

"When you're caught up in the Finals, you really don't know about these things," said Nowitzki afterward.

The cries were fading as he walked through the tunnel to the locker room. "But we heard how people were pulling for us here. We heard about Dan Gilbert's tweet," said Nowitzki.

"Mavs NEVER stopped & now entire franchise gets rings. Old lesson for all: There are NO SHORTCUTS. NONE," Gilbert, the Cavaliers' owner, tweeted after Dallas beat Miami.

Nowitzki said it wasn't simply that he stayed in Dallas, even though he was a free agent before last season. It wasn't even that LeBron James left here because, as a free agent, he had that right.

"I think this whole city and this whole region were hurt by the way LeBron left," said Nowitzki.

Just before Nowitzki ducked into the cramped visiting locker room, Brian Cardinal, an Illinois native who played at Purdue, walked past. This was his kind of town, too, and for more reasons than his Midwestern background.

"The Cavericks are here," he said. "