Dirk Nowitzki’s game is unmatched in the NBA’s current era. In fact, as Jerod mentioned briefly yesterday, Dirk’s game has never been matched. No player in NBA history has ever brought what Dirk can bring to the table.
At 7-feet tall, not only can Nowitzki cause havoc in the paint, but Dirk has one of the sweetest jumpers from deep. Then there’s his ability to put the ball on the floor, and the cherry on top has to be his sweet, sweet turnaround-fade away jumper from the top of the key.
Add all of that to a consistent owner like Mark Cuban, a solid Mavericks team filled with a mixture of vets and young guns, and a solid fan base to support them through thick and thin, and you come up with an amazing result: eleven consecutive playoff appearances.
Yes, Dirk Nowitzki and his Mavericks are at it yet again, but do we really appreciate them? Do we really admire what Dirk has done for the NBA? Or are we so used to he and his Mavs being in the playoffs for eleven straight years that we take them for granted?
As unfair as it is to say, yes, we do take Dirk and his Mavs for granted.
But I’m here to remind you how this Mavs team should and will ultimately be remembered. I’m going to remind you of how dynamic, amazing, and incredible the Dirk Nowitzki’s game is, and how he has changed his game like Jordan, and how the Dirk Mavs’ might finally be ready to possess a Larry O’Brien trophy.
The Mavericks are currently in a dominant position over the Lakers in the NBA’s Western Conference Semifinals, as they stole not one but two games away from the yellow & purple in the Staples Center before winning Game 3 last night. While the Lakers are currently being called out for trust issues, old-age, and plenty of other negative attention, Dirk and his Mavs are calm, cool, and collected.
This is something we are not accustomed to.
What we as NBA fans are accustomed to is the Mavericks’ ability to ball during the NBA’s regular season. Racking up W’s seems like no tough task for this Dallas squad, and it hasn’t been much a problem during any of the past 11 years. It’s quite amazing when you think about it actually. For the past 10 seasons, the Mavs have finished within the West’s top three in seeding, and they have even finished with the overall best record in the Western Conference three times. Pretty crazy, right? I mean, if the ultimate goal was to consistently finish with a great record for the past eleven years, Dallas would be crowned champion right now. But that is not the case, and Dallas sure as hell knows it.
In those same past eleven seasons, Dallas has only made it to the rugged Western Conference’s Finals twice. They could possibly make it three if they find a way to close out Kobe and his Lakers in this series. How about an NBA Finals appearance? Only once, and that was against the Miami Heat team that contained two meg stars in Shaq and Dwyane Wade.
But even with that said, with all of those achievements, the Mavericks have been deemed a disappointment for the past 11 years as they have failed to bring a championship to Dallas.
While it is true that the Mavericks haven’t accomplished the NBA’s ultimate goal, there has to be something said for them. They’ve done nothing but given us great years of basketball and some memorable NBA Playoff series’. They’ve even had some of the game’s more memorable players, guys like Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, and Michael Finley, with much respect going to the game’s more colorful owner in Mark Cuban. Cuban, of course, is the same owner that brought in Europe’s greatest basketball player of all-time: Dirk Nowitzki.
Not only has Dirk given us the All-Star years, the MVP Year, and the numerous amazing performances, he is doing something for the NBA that no single player has ever done. He is opening the gates of NBA stardom to the rest of the world. Before Dirk, there were not too many basketball players who could lead a team to consecutive playoff appearances on their shoulders, but what Dirk is doing is giving hope to European, Asian, African, and every other nation on this planet. He is proving that you don’t need to be born on the street of New York, or the suburbs of Akron, Ohio, to become an NBA legend. Dirk is doing something no one has done before.
But are he and his Mavs about to do something that we haven’t seen before? Are the Mavericks really making a run to an NBA Finals berth? Or is this another repeat of 2006?
The Mavericks not only had to handle a scrappy Portland team in round one, but they had to deal with the adversity that history continues to throw in their face: the weight of continuous early playoff exits. But in 6 games, including dominating showings in the final two games, Dallas advanced past Portland to play the Los Angeles Lakers, the 3-time defending Western Conference Champions.
Not only are the Mavericks keeping up with LA at the moment, but they are making the Lakers look sluggish, off-balance, and simply not on the same page with one another. Who would have thought that the key to the Mavericks success would be their defense and toughness. The Mavs are currently holding Los Angeles to 89 ppg in this series. At the same time, it isn’t too surprising when you consider that the Mavs have guys like Shawn Marion on the perimeter and Tyson Chandler on the block to cause issues for the Lakers big man tag team.
Another key element of Dallas’ success in this series has been the weapons from beyond the three-point line. Dirk, Jason Terry, Kidd, and Peja Stojakovic have been hitting their shots from deep and are averaging 39% from beyond the arc. As for the Lakers? A slumping 19%. This shows that the Mavs are putting in work on the defensive end as well as hitting their shots. And when the Lakers are shooting 72% from the free-throw line, that won’t help much either.
With 3 games now have passed in this series, and the brooms awaiting, we are now learning that the Dallas Mavericks not only were a great regular season team, but they have the firepower to take out the Lakers. With Dallas having the three-time defending Western Champions on the verge of elimination, what is this team’s ceiling? Is there one? And if so, when will we witness it?
While I can’t tell you where this Mavericks team will end up by June, I can tell you that this Dallas Mavericks team has it all: the defense, the offense, the bench play, the mix of vets and stars, and, of course, Dirk Nowitzki.
But most importantly, they finally seem to have the the courage, the fight, and the heart to bring it to whomever might await them come June.
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