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Originally Posted by Murphy3
Dirk is Dirk. He's going to be an efficient scorer over the course of a season regardless of who's on his team. It just depends upon who's on his team to determine just how much he's going to need to score. He'll gladly take a back seat for stretches if there are other capable players... Or, he'll more than gladly take the reigns when that's needed.
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Dirk lives in a town where the papers and radio talk shows would rather spend time talking about the Cowboys' new kicker or the perpetually-bottom-dwelling Rangers' new pitcher than to talk basketball. In another media market, Dirk's play would have been scrutenized and defined much better than the local media has been able to manage. The average fan would be able to look at Dirk and say "yeah, he carried a team and a franchise to its first trip to the Finals last season despite a myriad of team setbacks". It's just not as clear here. The local guys tend to take their cues from the national media in regards to what types of stories revolve around Dirk. That's why we get pummeled incessantly with the barely relevant and intentionally ignorant "Dirk collapses down the stretch" mishmash from the folks who havent seen Dirk play but maybe a couple of times this season.
Dirk is an historic player. By the way that the local media cowers away from writing unique, supportive observations, you would think that he was Ron Artest. Heck, I think that Artest gets more respect in the media.
There is a core group of Mav fans that see most of their games that can attest to what Dirk is, and I guess that its our job to help everyone to understand. Sports are so hype and highlight-driven that its hard to make a case for someone who isnt playing in a major market or throwing down monster dunks a few times a game.
I think that Dirk is one of those guys who will stand out when the next generation of basketball writers look back in retrospect.