Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it's been.

The NBA Finals begin tonight, but the first step on the road to basketball's most coveted prize was taken long before the first ball was rolled out in training camp. As recently as last July, Pat Riley was still the president of the Miami Heat, the Mavericks' Avery Johnson was only 31 games into his coaching career, and Antoine Walker had yet to bring his shimmy to South Beach. It almost goes without saying, but much has changed in the past 12 months.

After nearly 200 games and countless hours of practice, the year-long journey of two teams making their first-ever NBA Finals appearances is a story unto itself. Two stories, to be exact.

Don't believe the hype. This is not about vindication. And it is definitely not about cementing his already storied legacy as an NBA coach.

At the age of 60, Pat Riley merely got the itch to coach basketball again. The allure of leading a team that boasts both Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade was too much for Riley to pass up. Even now, the competitive fire still burns inside a man who has already won more NBA titles than all but two men who have ever picked up a whistle.

Believe the stories about Stan Van Gundy stepping down to spend more time with his family all you want. If that were the case, then why has the Heat front office imposed a gag order on its deposed coach?

Why would Riley - three months before the season - remake the team in his own image? In August, the Heat were the focal point of a three-team, 13-player deal that netted it two playoff-tested guards (Gary Payton and Jason Williams), a complementary scorer (Antoine Walker) and a talented swingman (James Posey). History will also show that this was not the first time Riles took over the reins of a team primed for a run at the Finals.

Make no mistake: Riley's return to the sidelines was a calculated maneuver, and nearly flawless in its execution. To take it a step further, if the Heat had not made a coaching change in December, a different team would probably be representing the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. All due respect to Van Gundy, but there is a certain unalienable truth that governs today's NBA landscape.

Players respect success. Or, to borrow a streetball phrase, "game recognize game."

If the players don't believe that their coach knows what it takes to reach the mountaintop, then how much will they buy in to his philosophy? That alone explains why the Kobe/Shaq marriage didn't flourish until Phil Jackson brought his six rings to Hollywood. It is the reason that the Pistons endured Larry Brown's "play the right way" coachspeak for two seasons, and the same reason Flip Saunders' words fell on deaf ears in this year's playoffs.

Simply put, Stan Van Gundy was the grad assistant whose class you didn't feel guilty skipping. Pat Riley is the tenure-track professor who also happens to be your faculty advisor. And when your faculty advisor talks, you don't just listen, you take notes.

The numbers tell the story. With Shaq out of the lineup for 18 of the Heat's first 21 games, Van Gundy guided the Heat to an 11-10 mark. Pat Riley took over at that point, and the team would win 41 of their final 61 contests.

The upgrade has been so dramatic that it led O'Neal to state recently that Riley is the best coach he has ever played for. Four games short of the NBA championship, Shaq is giving Riles more respect than a coach who personally led him to three NBA titles.

Game recognize game.

15 months ago, Avery Johnson was handed the keys to an offense-driven, defense-optional Mavericks' unit that had consistently wound up on the doorstep of the NBA Finals. At the time, departing head coach Don Nelson merely stated that the team responded better to Johnson, who had previously filled in for Nelson on several occasions. That may have been the case, but the barely existent coaching resume of Johnson gave skeptics plenty of fodder for their argument that the Mavericks' assistant wasn't quite ready for prime time.

In the weeks and months that have followed, Johnson - an energetic soul with an unmistakeable Louisiana twang - has proven to be more than capable of leading his recently adopted charges to the promised land.

Since taking over at the end of the 2004-05 season, Johnson has compiled a 94-36 record (including the playoffs), while at the same time imposing his will upon the team. Johnson was a fiery, scrappy point guard for 16 seasons in the NBA, and he has infected the Dallas roster with that same attitude.

Under Nelson, offense was the order of the day. The 2003-04 iteration of the Mavericks - a group that included Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley, Antwan Jamison and Antoine Walker - averaged more than 112 points per game. The Mavs' frenetic pace excited the team's fans, including "everyman" owner Mark Cuban. But while scoring 112 points per game is sexy, giving up nearly that many on the defensive end is going to catch up to you. And each year, it caught up to the Mavericks well short of the NBA Finals.

Enter Avery Johnson.

Contest shots. Rebound. Deny the basketball. These are just some of the tenets of Johnson's philosophy. In one year, he took a team that had previously seemed allergic to playing defense and molded them into a solid unit.

Under Johnson, who received the 2005-06 NBA Coach of the Year award, the Mavericks have kicked their intensity up a few notches on the defensive end. Last season, Dallas allowed nearly 107 points per game in the playoffs - this year, they have reduced that to slightly less than 97 points per contest. While the Mavs will never be mistaken for the Pistons of the Bad Boy era, the team has made a noticeable improvement on defense.

The offense has not missed a beat, either. Dallas led the league in scoring with 112 points per game. This, despite the fact that four of the top eight players in the rotation missed significant time this year because of injuries (Jerry Stackhouse, Josh Howard, Devin Harris and Marquis Daniels).

Typically, it takes time for a team to buy into a coach's vision. But the Mavericks players not only bought into Johnson's concepts, they asked for a second helping. It was clear to anyone paying attention - the one thing the Dallas Mavericks were lacking was toughness. Avery Johnson has provided that in ####s.

Tonight, the Mavericks sit four wins away from an NBA title. Four wins away from Johnson erasing all of the doubts that he was not ready to be a head coach. If that happens, a celebration is sure to follow. Even the non-believers are invited.

While the Mavericks are actually favored, it seems as though they are the forgotten team in this series. That's the price you pay when the other team boasts two larger-than-life figures in Riley and O'Neal. Honestly, Dallas is pretty much an afterthought in its own city due to the recent arrival of a tempermental wide receiver who has a penchant for destroying football teams. Yet, when looking at it objectively, the Heat and the Mavericks are not all that different.

Even with a handful of rings from his days of coaching the Lakers, Pat Riley isn't markedly better than Avery Johnson. The Mavericks are not going to shut down Wade and O'Neal, just like the Heat are not going to hold Nowitzki in check for an entire series. The great players will get theirs - they always do.

As with most NBA Finals, the superstars will receive all of the accolades, while the role players will actually define who wins and who loses. Yet regardless of what team hoists the Larry O'Brien trophy at the conclusion of the series, you can't help but realize what a long, strange trip it has been.