Dirk Ain't Done
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM)- In the wake of experiencing the unprecedented sports scene of a Super Bowl won by an inadvertent touchdown, sure, why not, now here comes the reluctant NBA All-Star.
Let me say this: Dallas Mavericks' forward Dirk Nowitzki doesn't deserve the All-Star berth he was awarded Thursday night by league coaches. He knows it. I know it. And, if they're truthful, his fans know it too.
The Mavs, 15-11 entering tonight's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, have been mediocre in this truncated, lockout-languished season. And Dirk, who last summer was the best player in the world, hasn't been close to being Dirk. Despite taking a week off for a personal training camp aimed at improving his conditioning and tweaking his sub-par game, Nowitzki is still averaging only 17.6 points and 6.2 rebounds while shooting 46 percent and only 21 from 3-point land. Those are the lowest numbers for Dirk since his rookie season in 1999.
Not unexpectedly, his poor play born another bloom of deferential Dirk. Nowitzki doesn't like shortcuts and, of course, he got this honor only because, as teammate Jason Terry noted, he's being grandfathered in based on lifetime achievement rather than present success.
"Really, the setup is different with the lockout year," Nowitzki said. "You really only have like 22 games, and if you judge it on those 22 games I don't think I should be in. I think there are a lot of other power forwards that played really good over that stretch. To me, if you put all the things together of guys that's in the first third of this shortened season, then I don't think I should be in."
Read between the lines: Dirk didn't want to be in. And, honestly, after his first two or three All-Star Games he'd had enough of the superstar scene. He doesn't fit in. At all. He's not into the rap music backbeat of All-Star Weekend, this year to be held Feb. 26 in Orlando. He doesn't flash bling in his fashion. Check that, he doesn't have fashion. He doesn't dunk. And he's not selfish enough to shine on a court with nine of the best athletes and biggest egos on planet Earth.
He'll be in Orlando, sheepishly. Like he has for the 11th consecutive year as an All-Star, he'll say the right things and do the right things and take a couple of meaningless, harmless jumpers during the game in which Kobe Bryant or LeBron James or Kevin Durant or Derrick Rose will win the MVP after a couple hours of H-O-R-S-E.
Afterward Dirk, like he's done for 14 years in this league, will spend a day or two with long-time mentor Holger Gerschwindner getting his game back to an elite level. We saw glimpses of it in the last week. After a dismal dip in the road in the form of a 2-of-15 shooting night in a home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dirk began to slowly, but surely, come to life. In the next three games he averaged 26 points on 61-percent shooting. He rebounded. He ran. He transformed himself from the old, stagnant, stationary shooter which began the season into a championship-caliber star that pump-faked, and dribbled, and drove and began nailing his trademark Flamingo Fadeaways.
In fact, after watching Nowitzki score 25 points in a road win over the Denver Nuggets this week coach Rick Carlisle remarked, "It looked like an All-Star performance didn't it?"
With the 15-foot jumper that provided the dagger in Denver, Dirk passed Adrian Dantley on the NBA's all-time scoring list. By the time we get to March he'll leap-frog Robert Parish and be among the top 20 scorers to ever bounce a basketball. And by the time the Mavs get to April they'll be a great team led by a healthy, hot leader peaking at just the right time.
Owner Mark Cuban, who has all season preached patience for his old team slopping through a 66-game season, Tweeted a reminder after the Giants' victory over the Patriots: Good teams make the playoffs; Hot teams win championships.
It is lunacy to write off the Mavericks while Dirk ramps up his game and Jason Kidd stumbles through various injuries. And it is just plain dumb to write off Nowitzki, a mere eight months after he hoisted the NBA Finals MVP.
Right, TNT analyst Charles Barkley?
"Dirk getting old, bro," Barkley actually reasoned on Randy Galloway's 103.3 FM ESPN radio show last week. "Father Time is undefeated. Is Dirk in decline? Of course he is. You just drop off the face of the Earth, just like that. That's how it happens. His days of being 'the man' are over. Great players have farther to fall and we're seeing Dirk fall."
If that weren't insulting and idiotic enough, Barkley – who last year hopped aboard the Mavs' championship bandwagon – also pitched a shovel of dirt on the Mavs' coffin.
"You should be concerned, because the Mavs ain't gonna win the championship," he said. "They can't beat Oklahoma City. Can't beat Denver and they can't beat Portland. They're too old and too slow."
Barkley, of course, has come to the realization that Dirk Nowitzki will finish his career his career with more rings and more points. It stings. It makes him stupid.
Having reached the summit last summer, Dirk is certainly on the downside of his Hall-of-Fame career. But his fall won't be sudden, or disgraceful. Dirk's game has never been above the rim. His productivity will remain a product of his shooting and not gravity-defying athleticism. On Feb. 26 he'll be in an All-Star Game absent of long-time forward peers named Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.
Dirk isn't finished.
And the Mavericks are just getting started.
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