How is Jason Kidd "washed up" when he made the All Star roster that year, in the "superior" Western Conference too?
And you didn't even mention Jason Terry, who was a 20ppg scorer just one year earlier.
The 1998 Utah Jazz were so thin that they started Adam Keefe and Greg Foster TOGETHER for most of the regular season.
No way in hell that Adam Keefe or Greg Foster would even make the 2011 Mavs roster, and they were both STARTING for the 1998 Jazz.
In the Finals the Jazz had Bryon Russell and either Keefe, Foster, or Ostertag STARTING every game.
And yes, Jason Kidd was old, but at least he was 6'4" and only being asked to be the #6 scorer. 1998 Stockton was old too, only 6'1", less athletic and inferior to 2011 Kidd in every way....and he was Utah's #3 scorer.
And you had 34yo Jeff Hornacek averaging 10.7ppg in the Finals as the #2 scorer and primary defender on Jordan.
Prime Jason Terry >> old Hornacek
Tyson Chandler >>>>> Greg Ostertag or Greg Foster
Shawn Marion >> Byron Russell
Old Kidd > old Stockton
J.J. Barea > Shandon Anderson or Howard Eisley
Deshawn Stevenson >> Adam Keefe or old Chris Morris
Rick Carlisle > Jerry Sloan
The 2011 Mavs were superior to the 1998 Jazz at literally every position except power forward. And 32yo Dirk was just as good on the offensive end as 34yo Malone, Malone only has him beat because of his superior defense (which didn't matter to the Mavs because Dirk had Tyson Chandler behind him, not Greg Foster

).
So Jason Terry, Caron Butler, Corey Brewer, Ian Mahimi, Brian Cardinal, Deshawn Stevenson, Brendan Haywood werent journeymen?
FIVE of those guys you named played less than 5 minutes a game in the Finals.
The only journeyman in the actual Finals rotation was Stevenson. Jason Terry was damn near a 20,000 point career scorer who had only played for the Hawks and Mavs, and put up 15+ppg seasons eleven times for those teams. He wasn't no journeyman, he was a solid #2 scorer.
We just going to forget that Terry had just averaged 20-4-4 on 58% shooting against Kobe (who only had 23-3-3 on 46% shooting), and burned him for 32 in the deciding Game 4 blowout while 32yo Kobe limped to 17-3-1 on 7-18 shooting?
Dirk didn't have to add any additional effort defensively playing on that Mavs team. That's why Kareem called him one dimensional.
Yup. It was a perfectly balanced team, where everyone had just 1-2 roles to do and did them perfectly.
Dirk was the primary scorer, a go-to guy with a reliable shot that was extraordinarily difficult to defend.
Jason Terry was the microwave secondary scorer, the go-to bailout guy to keep the pressure off Dirk.
Jason Kidd was the ballhandler, distributor and team leader.
Tyson Chandler was the rim protector and primary rebounder.
Shawn Marion was the primary perimeter defender, secondary rebounder, and provided a third scoring option.
J.J. Barea was the change-of-pace backup ballhandler and driver.
DeShawn Stevenson was the secondary perimeter defender and spread the floor on offence.
And Rick Carlisle was a vet coach who ran the most innovative zone defense in the NBA that year.
The Mavs had three guys who could create their own shot, three guys who could create shots for others, five guys who could hit the three, four guys who were elite rebounders at their position, three strong perimeter defenders, and one of the best rim protectors in the entire NBA. They destroyed the defending champ Lakers in a sweep, only lost one game against the Durant/Westbrook/Harden/Ibaka Thunder, and came up with the perfect scheme for dealing with Lebron and the Heat. They are probably the most underrated champs in our era.
Any haters who want to doubt that, prove me wrong. Ya'all don't have any arguments other than lies, so you got to deflect from this all the time. If the Mavs weren't great, then how did they beat the Lakers and the Thunder so easily?