Dirk Nowitzki
Last night, NBA fans received news that they have been expecting for the last two or three years. Dirk Nowitzki has finally chose to hang up his sneakers and retire from playing professional basketball. His career stemmed twenty one years, encompassed winning an NBA Championship and being the first European to be voted as League MVP. In terms of statistical achievement, Dirk is incredibly special but it is the other aspects, the little details that really help to understand the legacy of the tall, goofy German forward.
Dirk came to the NBA in 1998 with very little fanfare, the only exposure that American people had to Dirk prior to the draft was the Nike Hoop Summit in which he turned up and dominated. The Hoop Summit has always been a place for European talent to get exposure on an international level against highly regarded US talent, in Dirk’s case he out-shined Rashard Lewis and Al Harrington. Regardless of this, when Dirk was traded to Dallas on draft night in 1998, nobody knew what to expect but there were a ton of stereotypes about European bigs.
European big-men were regarded as ‘soft’ and ‘weak’ in comparison to American front-court members. In many ways, Dirk had a difficult challenge presented to him as nineteen year old, he has the challenge to disprove the misconceptions and establish the idea that European players could really ball in the NBA. In terms of overcoming the stereotypes, Dirk went after the misconceptions straight away. In the era of the NBA in which Dirk came into the NBA, the forward spot was truly dominant. Duncan, Webber, Garnett and Rasheed Wallace were all All-Star level bigs who all played in the Western Conference and gave Nowitzki a baptism of fire.
Nowitzki could have crumbled like many other foreign big men, the name Nowitzki could have been buried in forgotten history books alongside Michael Olokowandi and Mengke Bateer. Instead, the Wurzburg product adjusted to the NBA and became a formidable opponent for rivals like Webber. In the 1990s, Dallas was seen to be a dysfunctional franchise, the same could not be said for the early 2000s in which Dallas was always a hard match-up with Nash, Nowitzki and Nick Van Exel. In many ways, Dirk proved the stereotypes wrong by building a winning culture in Dallas which consistently made the play-offs for the majority of his career and resulted in a cathartic championship in 2011.
Moreover, Dirk’s style of play helped to re-define the idea of a modern big men. Dirk was a pioneer in terms of bigs extending their range out to the mid-range or three-point line however he was the not originator. Those honours lie with Doug Moe and Nellie who both experimented in the 1980s with empowering big men to shoot jumpers. However, Dirk was arguably the first power forward who could operate in all facets of the game with skill and without looking over-matched. It wasn’t unusual to watch Dirk drift out to the mid-range on one possession before working the block on the very next possession. It made hell for traditional defensive minded forwards who did not have the experience to defend in space or the mobility to track Nowitzki away from the basket. It is possible to look at any big men in the league and see a trace of Nowitzki within them, the most common trait being the one-legged fadeaway that he developed to be unguardable.
Most players do not achieve the status where they are synonymous with a certain basketball move. Kareem became iconic with the skyhook, Dikembe was known as the one-man block party, in today’s NBA the step-back three will be forever equated with James Harden. The one-legged fadeaway was Dirk’s magnum opus in terms of creating the unguardable shot. Watching Dirk slide onto the right block and then pivoting into a wet jumper was art in the sense that it could be dissected over and over again but it could never be replicated. Dirk’s usage of this weapon and its stunning effectiveness led to the move being adopted and adapted league-wide. LaMarcus Aldridge and LeBron James are two players who developed their own adaptations on the fadeaway and then subsequently tore teams apart using this weapon. The most notable example being LeBron James in last season’s Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. In that particular series, LeBron deftly used the fadeaway to break Toronto’s morale and prove that the Air Canada Centre belonged to him.
The individual achievements of Dirk do not fully encapsulate the man himself, the affable competitor. On many occasions, Dirk is noted to be self-deprecating and quick to laugh at himself. He is noted to be a fierce competitor who does not stomach loss well and will not run from the challenge. Both of these aspects of his personality presented themselves in his career’s biggest moments.
The 2007 series against the Warriors cannot be forgotten, it is history that an 8th seed beat the 1st seed and reigning MVP. Dallas was overwhelmed by the speed and dynamism of the Warriors. From a professional standpoint, it must have been deeply humiliating that Dallas did not get business done when it mattered most. For most athletes, they are never the same after a devastating loss, mentally they are shot. Dirk suffered through the loss and rehabilitated his mental state by his trip to Australia in which he got away from basketball and came back to basketball even stronger, with a stronger desire. That loss in 2007 and the Finals loss in 2006 fuelled Dirk with the ammunition and spirit that was undeniable, that sheer determination that eventually resulted in the sweetest of victories in 2011. It is a sports cliche for athletes to come back stronger than ever but in the case of Dirk it was the total truth.
The other aspect of Dirk’s personality, the inner goof who is more likely to laugh at himself than shoot sullen glances built strong chemistry within Dallas Mavericks’ team since the turn of the century. He helped to create at atmosphere in which team-mates were like brothers and the bonds built in Dallas could not be forgotten. His personality has also been important in terms of nurturing his heir to the throne, Luka Doncic. Some veterans would bristle at the cockiness of Luka, some veterans would dislike the role that Doncic has carved out for himself. Dirk has embraced this fully, he has sacrificed his own numbers in order to provide the new cornerstone with the best possible start to his NBA career.
It is unbelievably sad to see Nowitzki retire and know that another titan of the game has chosen to walk away from the game. Dirk has been incredibly consistent for his entire career and developed a culture in Dallas that exists to this day, he has captained a team for a full twenty one years in which there have been different coaches, different players but still the same Dirk Nowitzki. His reliability is never questioned, his skills are unfathomable and he will be in Springfield alongside his heroes.
