The Spurs and Rockets will have to push past Luka Dončić and the Mavericks for claim as Texas’ best in NBA. Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer

The championship is about the champions. That’s how it works, and the Celtics were entirely deserving. They were the NBA’s best from the start of the season to the blowout to clinch the Finals. They went 80-21 in the regular season and postseason, becoming the team to beat that wasn’t.

There is also a sense that this is just the start for the Mavericks, that they will become something greater from the experience now that Kyrie Irving has seemed to grow out of his tendency to self-destruct.

As the Rockets look at the postseason that went on without them, that’s what sticks out.

It is not Texas’ time yet. But that’s coming.

Before the Victor Wembanyama Era rises to bring postseasons back to San Antonio, the Mavericks appear poised to remain a force in the Western Conference, perhaps even to be what the Celtics became when there were doubts that they could surpass the Bucks and hold off the 76ers in the East.

With that, the story of the next years of the NBA could be told in Texas, with the Rockets now in between the Mavericks and Spurs, but with an even clearer sense of the challenge to continue their climb.

There is something exciting about the possibility of Texas becoming hoops heaven.

The Rockets, Mavericks and Spurs have never been elite simultaneously. When the Rockets won their first title 30 years ago, the Mavericks were last in the Western Conference. A year later, when the Rockets repeated and the Spurs had the NBA’s best record, the Mavericks were 10th in the West.

When the Spurs won their first title, in 1999 when they again had the NBA’s best record, the Mavericks were 11th. When the Mavericks won their championship in 2011, the Spurs had the best record in the Western Conference. The Rockets were ninth.

Since the Mavericks joined the league in 1980-81, all three Texas teams have reached the playoffs in the same season 12 times, most recently in 2016.

They have never all won a playoff series in the same season.

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) and San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) reach for a rebound during the second half of an NBA basketball game in San Antonio, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)Eric Gay/Associated Press

With the Mavericks making the Finals this season, the Rockets were 41-41 and unable to reach a play-in game; the Spurs were 22-60 in Wembanyama’s rookie season.

Wembanyama is such a sure thing that the Spurs’ rise is close to certain. The Rockets’ improvement and solid foundation point to the potential to make it three Texas teams rising at once.

The Mavericks’ place as a championship contender and Wembanyama’s as the next big thing point to the headwinds the Rockets face as they move into the next of their rebuilding phases.

This is not new. Even if the Spurs continue to opt for slow growth and at least another season in the lottery, the Western Conference already was certain to be overstuffed with playoff teams, with none of this season’s postseason teams forced to take a step back and with the Grizzlies to get much of their ascending team back from injuries.

Things can change so quickly, as the paths of the Texas teams demonstrate. There has been only one season since the Mavericks joined the NBA that all three Texas teams missed the playoffs. That was just a year ago, in 2022-23, a season before the Mavericks rose to the top of the Western Conference.

If the others can eventually join them, it would be nice to have the playoffs last in the Texas triangle into June, and not just because of that wonderful stretch of weather in that week to 10 days between the May storms and June summer heat.

The Texas triangle should at some point chew up pretenders and launch a contender. It also should create Texas rivalries that don’t feel as anachronistic as the Southwest Conference.

Rivalries are good for the game, as the ratings for the weekend’s game between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky, two losing WNBA teams with headline stars, demonstrated again. If the rebuilding of the Rockets and Spurs gets them to the Mavericks’ level, reinvigorating Texas rivalries would be wonderfully rewarding.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JUNE 17: Derrick White #9 of the Boston Celtics celebrates after Boston’s 106-88 win against the Dallas Mavericks in Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

For now, the Mavericks are where the others aspire to be.

Putting aside the recency biases that filled this postseason — wasn’t it just about two weeks ago that there were discussions going on about whether Luka Dončić and Irving were the best offensive backcourt ever? — the Mavericks are on the rise. P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford just got there. Dereck Lively II was just a rookie showing all sorts of promise.

Dončić could fit in that familiar, now almost cliché archetype of the superstar that has to lose on the biggest stage to be ready to win. Jayson Tatum became the latest to fit that mold, not only falling short in his first Finals, but becoming a lightning rod for criticism.

With a different champion in each of the past six seasons, they have not all followed that path, forced to knock on the locked door before finally breaking through. Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard did not need to lose before they could win. But it is certain that if Dončić does hold up the Larry O’Brien Trophy, his success will be thought to have been built in part by this season’s Finals experiences, including watching another team celebrate.

No one would be surprised if he gets there, though the recent absence of repeat champions shows nothing can be assumed.

The Nuggets and Timberwolves remain formidable. After salary cap rules led the Nuggets to break up some of the championship team, they face none of those issues this offseason and can expect their young talent to grow into roles. Oklahoma City was the top seed, has an incredibly young nucleus, and has stockpiled ridiculous amounts of draft assets to keep building.

Still, the Mavericks accomplished enough for other teams’ planning to include considerations about how to match up with their strengths. As much as the Rockets and other Western Conference teams might make sure to have physical centers to deal with Jokić or the Timberwolves’ old-school jumbo lineup, teams might need to be able to keep a pair of star perimeter defenders on the floor at all times to take on Dončić and Irving.

Then again, a lot could change before the Rockets have to worry about a showdown with any particular team in a series both teams could consider themselves championship worthy.

For now, one Texas team reached the Finals and can be considered a viable contender to get there, two are on the rise, and if things go right, it is not difficult to imagine all three battling for a place at top even if after the Mavericks’ run, it is even clearer how difficult that will be.