Dallas celebrates Mavericks' first NBA championship (Photos)

Cheered on by thousands of happy fans, Dirk Nowitzki, Mark Cuban and the NBA champion Mavericks rolled through the streets of downtown Dallas on Thursday in a parade celebrating the club's first NBA championship. "It's unbelievable," Nowitzki said before boarding his float. "If it hasn't sunk in yet, it will now. ... We're on the top of the world now so it feels amazing. For 13 years I've waited for this moment." After the parade, the celebration moved inside American Airlines Arena for a ceremony with

10,000 season-ticket holders. (AP) UNC players racked up $13,000 in parking tickets • North Carolina has released documents showing a group of Tar Heel football players accumulated 395 parking citations worth more than $13,000 between March 2007 and August 2010. The school released the documents Thursday, a day after the state Court of Appeals denied the school's request to delay the release of those records pending an appeal. A Wake County Superior Court judge had ruled in April that the school withheld documents it should have provided to requesting media outlets covering the NCAA investigation into the football program. (AP) Wild name new coach • The Minnesota Wild will announce today that they have made Mike Yeo their new head coach, a source said. Yeo, who coached the Wild's top farm club in Houston to the AHL finals this season, replaces the fired Todd Richards. (AP) Charges against Britt downgraded • A New Jersey judge downgraded three charges against Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kenny Britt for offenses stemming from his second recent arrest in the state. Britt was charged June 8 with resisting arrest and related offenses after being confronted by Hoboken detectives who suspected he was carrying a marijuana cigar. But the charges were downgraded to disorderly persons offenses. (AP) Animal Kingdom has minor injury • Animal Kingdom has a small fracture to the cannon bone in his left hind leg that will keep the Kentucky Derby winner out of action for several weeks, the colt's owners said. (AP) UMSL student wins golf tourney • University of Missouri-St. Louis standout Shweta Galande fired a 1-under par 71 to come from behind and finish at 145 to capture the Metropolitan Women's Amateur Championship at Winghaven Country Club. Missouri State University's Catherine Dolan (Parkway West) finished second, 5 shots off the pace. (Dan O'Neill)

NBA NOTES -Title gives Dallas a reason to cheer

The Dallas Mavericks returned home in triumph Monday, cheered by hundreds of fans celebrating the franchise's first NBA title and the first professional championship of any type in the area in more than a decade. Owner Mark Cuban walked off the plane at Love Field carrying the championship trophy he was handed after Sunday's Game 6 win over the Miami Heat. Next came forward Dirk Nowitzki with hardware of his own: the NBA Finals MVP trophy that was awarded after he overcame a finger injury,

illness and smothering defense from the Heat to power fourth-quarter comeback wins. Cuban, the Dallas billionaire who bought the team in 2000, had the championship trophy in a seat next to him on the plane, and he apparently kept it close throughout the Sunday night celebration. "This will sound weird," he wrote on Twitter. "I'm laying in bed. With the trophy next (to) me." Cuban will keep the party going at least through Thursday morning, the date set for the team's victory parade through the streets of downtown Dallas. Cuban has said that he will pick up the tab for the city's parade costs. The championship is the first in the 31-year history of the Mavericks and the city's first since the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999. And it comes four months after the Super Bowl in suburban Arlington included not the hometown Cowboys but Green Bay and Pittsburgh along with a spate of bad weather. The Texas Rangers advanced to the last World Series, but lost to the Giants. Cho to Charlotte: The Bobcats have hired former Portland general manager Rich Cho for the same job and are promoting Rod Higgins to president of basketball operations. Cho, who was fired by the Trail Blazers three weeks ago, will assist Higgins and owner Michael Jordan in the operations of a franchise that has made the playoffs once in seven seasons. Cho became the NBA's first Asian American GM last year when he was hired away from Oklahoma City's front office. Newspaper's turnover: The Mavericks' win over the Heat is a huge upset for fans in Miami. Making matters worse, an ad in the local paper mistakenly congratulated the Heat on winning. A full-page ad that ran in Monday's Miami Herald reads "Congratulations Miami" next to photos of Heat championship T-shirts and hats from Macy's. The newspaper issued a correction and an apology, and a Macy's spokeswoman called it an unfortunate error.