Germany's football-mad newspapers were celebrating rare basketball success after Dirk Nowitzki became the first German to win an NBA title when his Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat to claim the championship.
The front page of the best-selling Bild newspaper, which usually reserves a front page sports story almost exclusively for the country's football exploits, had a picture of Dirk under the headline "This is the title that we were missing."
Among those congratulating the player were the country's Chancellor Angela Merkel and sports leaders.
The paper placed his victory on a par with Germany's first football World Cup win in 1954, boxer Max Schmeling's world title, tennis player Boris Becker's first Wimbledon title in 1985 and German cyclist Jan Ullrich's Tour de France victory in 1997.
The Mavericks power forward Nowitzki, who averaged 26 points per game in the finals, was named the Most Valuable Player of the series after his team clinched their first championship with a four games to two win over the Heat in the best-of-seven NBA finals.
