NBA Playoffs 2011: The Evolution of Dirk Nowitzki and How He's Gaining Fans
June 20, 2006, the Miami Heat had just beaten the Dallas Mavericks to win the 2006 NBA Finals. As the confetti fell on American Airlines Center, you couldn’t help but notice that the home team was left wondering what happened. After being up 2-0, Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks managed to lose the next four games consecutively.
One person in particular stood out amongst the falling confetti, Dirk Nowitzki. The look of disdain, disappointment and shock he wore at the time helped coin my personal term, “Dirk Face".
He would go on to wear the Dirk Face several times over the next few years.
Due to the historical collapse in the 2006 NBA Finals, the Dallas Mavericks started receiving the label of choke artists. On top of all of that, their star player was starting to be called “soft” and many questioned if he would ever become that clutch player that would put the team on his back and carry them to a championship.
The next few years saw the Mavericks own the best record in the NBA; only to be bounced out of the playoffs in the first round by the 8th seeded Golden State Warriors.
Mark Cuban was burning money on questionable additions to the team. Who could forget the trade of a then up-and-coming Devin Harris for an aging Jason Kidd?
All of the shuffling to try to make the roster strong enough to win a championship never fully materialized as the Mavericks were bounced out of the playoffs at least by the end of the second round every year after 2006.
Frustration began to mount as some questioned whether Nowitzki was going to remain the centerpiece of the Mavericks future.
Mark Cuban stuck by his man though, and with good reason, because Nowitzki is playing some of the best ball of his career.
I remained skeptical because I had witnessed it too many times before.
The Mavs play great ball in the regular season, and come playoff time, Nowitzki would disappear.
The Mavericks-Lakers series was a turning point for me.
I thought the Mavs would give the Lakers a run for their money this year, but I never expected a sweep of the two-time defending champions.
As I watched the series, I could tell that there was something different about the tall German. Not only was Nowitzki coming through in the clutch, he seemed hungry.
He wasn’t watching his teammates or settling for jump shots in those crucial moments. No, he was asking for the ball and taking it to anyone who dared defend him. Not only was Dirk different, but you could tell that hunger was spreading to his teammates as well.
He followed that up with one of the greatest playoff single game performances in history. At the conclusion of Game 1 of the OKC Thunder-Mavericks series, Dirk’s final stat line looked like:
48 Points, 6 Rebounds, 12-15 FGM- FGA, 0-0 3 PTM-3PTA, 24-24 FTM-FTA, 93.9% True Shooting Percentage
Incredible!
He hasn’t come close to matching the same numbers over the last two games, but I would have no choice but to believe that the Thunder were complete fools if they let him slice their D up like that again.
Nowitzki has finally elevated his game to the level that I know many people were waiting for him to take his game to for many years. He’s got that swagger about himself now and you can tell that he wants to hoist that Larry O’Brien trophy in a few weeks.
By no means am I jumping on the Nowitzki bandwagon. He has always had my respect as a fan of the game, but I always felt like he could and should be doing more, he just was not willing to take those extra steps to get there.
With his performance this year, I can honestly say that he’s converted me into a fan.
Whether or not he wins a championship this year or in the near future, I honestly believe that Nowitzki deserves to be mentioned in that conversation with some of the greatest to play the game.
More clutch performances like the one he had in Game 1, especially in these playoffs, and I see no reason why he wouldn’t convert more doubters into believers.
As for the term “Dirk face”, I don’t believe I’ll be retiring it any time soon, especially when Kobe had one at the conclusion of that series.
