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Dishing to Dirk Nowitzki Tom Haberstroh | February 9, 2015
Glenn James/NBAE/Getty Images Steve Nash handed out 797 assists to Dirk Nowitzki when the pair played together in Dallas. The subject of our most recent Insider Quiz (IQ) was a fairly obscure player, Oklahoma City power forward Nick Collison. This time around, we went big. Like, 7-foot future Hall of Fame big.
After a recent win, I caught up with Dallas Mavericks big man Dirk Nowitzki. He was tired, still sweating after his postgame shower and had an overnight flight to catch. But he was sharp as a tack.
Nowitzki is the latest to get the IQ treatment where I quiz NBA players on their own stats. If you're just catching up, here is the one with Collison on his block victims; Andre Miller on his assist recipients; Chris Paul on his alley-oop targets; Roy Hibbert on his block victims; and, on TrueHoopTV, Shane Battier on his block victims.
Here was my question for Dirk: Who has assisted you the most in your NBA career?
Here's how the big fella did. (Hint: his brain is German-engineered.)
Tom Haberstroh: Dirk, I don't want to keep you too long, but I have a quiz for you. Ready to play a game real quick?
Dirk Nowitzki [stops packing his bags]: Yeah, let's do it.
TH: You've been assisted by 114 players in your career...
DN: 140?
TH: 114, actually.
DN: Oh, OK.
TH: Nine guys have assisted you at least 150 times. Can you name those nine guys? Let's start from the top.
DN: Nash.
TH: Yep. Nash is No.1!
DN: Kidd.
TH: Yup. Nash has 797, Jason Kidd has 753. Nash by a hair. So what's the difference between getting a feed from Nash compared to Kidd? How are they different?
DN: Well, I think passing-wise, they're pretty similar. They'll go down as two of the greatest passing guards in history. I mean, what makes them great is that they're happier to get the assist when the other guy scores than when they actually score themselves. They're that unselfish.
TH: You don't see that often.
DN: I mean, Kidd's obviously a little bigger and a better rebounder. But passing-wise, they both have great eyes. I almost felt like both of them -- you know, sometimes with guards, you're open and then they throw you the ball and it might be a little too late. But those guys, they see the whole play develop and the pass is there once you're open for a split second. They just have a great eye, a great feel for the game.
TH: Do you have a favorite pass from Nash or a particular play where he'd get you the ball?
DN: The pick-and-pop. That worked for us a long time. No particular play comes to mind, but that's why he was incredible. Sometimes he'd get stuck in the air and make something out of nothing. Maybe a little behind-the-back or ... I remember numerous times he was getting into the lane, he figured he has nothing going in there and somehow he gets the ball out to a shooter. It was incredible.
TH: He's ridiculous. So, you got the top two right.
DN: OK, well JET is definitely up there.
TH: Jason Terry, yup! He gave you 744.
DN: He's No. 3.
TH: Yup, so you've gotten them in order so far. One, two and three.
DN: Yeah. Now it's getting hard, bro.
A Mavericks PR staffer pops in by Nowitzki's locker and reminds him of an interview.
PR: Dirk, you gonna do some German?
DN: Yeah. Hold on.
PR: OK.
DN: Let's see. Devin Harris up there?
TH: Yup! He's No. 5.
DN: OK ... not bad. Let's see who else I've played with ... Oh, man. This is hard! ... Hmm ... Oh, Nick Van Exel, maybe?
TH: Nah. Close! He's right below the cut. He has 101, but not quite 150. You've got three teammates right now on this list, but you've only guessed one.
DN: Really? OK, well. It's got to be Monta [Ellis], obviously.
TH: 167.
DN: So that's how many, five?
TH: Yeah. Four more to go. One's an assistant coach, or I guess, a Mavs staffer.
DN: Oh, not Darrell Armstrong!
TH: No, no, no.
DN: Who else do we have on the staff?
TH: You played with him for a ton of years. At the 2.
DN: He's gonna kill me if I don't get it. Besides DA, who did I play with?
TH: Well, ...
DN: Oh, Fin!
TH: Michael Finley! Yes!
DN: Aww, Fin. He's up there for sure.
TH: He's No. 4 on the list. You have another current teammate, almost more than Devin Harris.
DN: Not Rondo. He just got here. Oh, J.J. Barea?
TH: Bingo, Barea. You've got two more to go! Both of them not in the league anymore.
DN: That's hard.
TH: Not point guards. Think wings. One has 197 assists to you, the other 159.
DN [Long silence as he shakes his head]: That's tough. I got seven out of nine though, bro!
TH: OK, one is Jerry Stackhouse.
DN: Oh, Stack!? I wouldn't have guessed that. Wouldn't have guessed that.
TH: And Josh Howard.
DN: Ah, yeah. Josh. Seven out of nine!
TH: Nicely done. And just so you know, Shawn Bradley got you 55 times.
DN: Oh, wow. That's good stuff.
Nowitzki grabs his stuff and sprints out of the locker room, presumably to catch his German interview.
Tom Haberstroh