[mavErika]

this article is just balm for the souls of media-annoyed mavs fans:

If what Nowitzki doesn't know has hurt him, he'll never show it
Sep. 30, 2009
By Jan Hubbard
Special to CBSSports.com

DALLAS -- Dirk Nowitzki should have serious conversations with important people in his life. It seems that those closest to him keep forgetting to provide him with vital information.

For example, someone should have told Nowitzki that players usually get their hair styled before media day, when all the local television stations and print photographers show up.

Nowitzki strolled into the Mavericks' practice gym Monday looking like a combination of a biblical character who had just ridden his camel across the Sahara, and a burned-out surfer dude who hadn't experienced the business side of a comb in months.

Nowitzki called his shoulder-length hairstyle a "summer-beach" look and said, "I'm definitely planning on getting it cut soon."

Despite the charming ragged look, the 2007 MVP looked refreshed from a summer that featured nine weeks off. For the first time in many years, Nowitzki did not play for the German national team and spent much of the summer relaxing and the rest of it getting in shape.

Part of his relief resulted from extricating himself from another situation where someone forgot to tell him something. In this case, it was former fiancée Cristal Taylor, who forgot to tell Nowitzki while living with him that there were eight outstanding warrants for her arrest.

Taylor was arrested at Nowitzki's Dallas home after Game 2 of the Dallas-Denver conference semifinal series in May on a theft of service charge for refusing to pay a bill for dental work. She was later sent to prison for five years for forgery and stealing. She also claimed to be pregnant, but that was later disproved.

The experience was a gut-wrenching one for Nowitzki, and it might have adversely affected a lesser player on the court.

But if there is one misconception about Nowitzki -- and it is certainly promoted by the otherwise entertaining crew at TNT -- it is that he lacks toughness.

Let's make this clear: Dirk Nowitzki is not a woofer or a fighter. Neither is Tim Duncan. Nor Yao Ming. Nor any number of others.

Nowitzki is also the complimentary sort. He doesn't disparage others. He has a habit of telling the truth, which apparently violates some sort of playground ethic.

The TNT fellows have been on him several years, calling him soft, and they certainly have not distinguished between him being mentally or physically soft.

Perhaps they need a little help in examining Nowitzki's purported softness.

After the Mavericks lost Game 1 of the Denver series, Dirk praised the defensive talents of Kenyon Martin, Chris Andersen and Nene. The TNT guys went nuts, with Chris Webber saying "Dirk is scared of a defender." Kenny Smith said that "it feeds the stereotype that this guy is playing a little soft."

Nowitzki went out that night, fully aware that his fiancée was about to be arrested and in complete emotional shambles because of his off-court life, and was so scared of the defenders that he scored a mere 35.

The Taylor story went public the next day. Nowitzki's "softness" continued with 33 points in Game 3, 44 in Game 4 and 32 in Game 5.

After the absurd TNT tirades and a devastating personal experience, the "soft" Nowitzki averaged 36 points, 12 rebounds and made 53 percent of his shots in the remainder of the Denver series.

And he still said nice things about the Nuggets, who won the series 4-1.

Mavericks assistant Rolando Blackman was born in Panama and moved to New York when he was 7 years old. He grew up in the asphalt jungles of the city and was such a success at Kansas State and with the Mavericks and Knicks in the NBA that he had a park named after him in Brooklyn.

He also served three years as an assistant coach for the German national team, and in his opinion, Smith, Webber and Charles Barkley need to do a little homework. Blackman is so passionate on the subject of Dirk that he talks non-stop for minutes at a time.

"It all goes down to the cultural aspects," Blackman said. "What people have to understand is Dirk is intensely competitive and intensely confident. But the way he shows it is not the way an American street kid will show it. I grew up in that lifestyle just like Kenny, but Dirk shows his in a completely different way. It's hard for all the jungle warriors to understand that kind of confidence he exudes and how he goes about it because it's just completely different.

"In the German culture, everything is internal. It's not that are not feeling it or thinking about those types of things, it's just that they don't display it in an arrogant or boastful way. You can't tell me and you won't tell me that Dirk is not an intensely confident, competitive player. But it's almost like everybody is waiting for him to have this macho-man display and a street-cred moment and then everybody will leave him alone.

"It's a funny situation with him that they just will not accept how great he is for dropping 25 and 12 every single night and whupping every player who tries to guard him. It's like you can show that greatness but you have to be a macho man to do it. He just doesn't play the macho side of it."

And then Blackman gets even more animated, saying:

"But he puts plenty of foot in people's butts."

It is unlikely that anyone can say it better than that.

Nowitzki and the Mavericks are excited about flying under the championship radar this season. They enter 2009-10 with few people expecting them to compete for the NBA elite.

They believe they have improved with the additions of Shawn Marion, Tim Thomas and Drew Gooden.

Jason Kidd is back, and at age 36, he is still a world-class athlete in tremendous physical shape.

Josh Howard missed 30 games, was not healthy for most of last season and is recovering from ankle surgery. But the Mavericks are optimistic he will be fully recovered.

Jason Terry is 32 and the returning Sixth Man Award winner, so the Mavericks will again have quality play off the bench.

The Mavericks will start the year with seven players who are 30 or older and critics are already dismissing them because they are "too old." But with Nowiztki at 31, the Mavericks have about a three-year window left to compete for a title, and they are not interested in rebuilding. They will compete with their veterans, and they are realistic -- hopeful, but not cocky.

"We're just going to have to see how it works out during the season," Nowitzki said. "I think we're all going to fit in well, but we'll wait and see how it goes. A lot of the great teams got better and made great moves, so we're going to have to see how it works out. I think we can be right there."

Once again, it shows that people are withholding information from Nowitzki. By "right there," he meant in the championship hunt. Apparently no one has told him that it can't happen.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/12289918

certainly some sig-worthy stuff in there, but I just added a different line to mine.
But it's hard to withstand Ro's comment about what Dirk does to people's butts.
Did that sound gay? Made rhyming it even worse?
And is this not the right time to admit how much I love his long, blonde hair?