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bobbyfg7 · 08-09-2011, 02:39 PM

This article is old. Sorry if someone already posted it. Just thought it was well written:

http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Maga...1_Culture.aspx

Best Athlete
Dirk Nowitzki

Best local athlete? is there any debate? It is Dirk Werner Nowitzki, aka the Big German, aka the most underrated superstar in Dallas sports history.

Yes, Nowitzki now gets the respect he deserves, but only after two months spent wearing a cape and rescuing kittens from tall branches and babies from burning apartment buildings. Only after bringing home a championship from Miami. Had that magical playoff run ended in Los Angeles, or even Oklahoma City, Nowitzki would still be a symbol of all the Mavericks would never, could never be with him at the helm. It wouldn’t have mattered how well he played. It hadn’t mattered how well Nowitzki played since those twin playoff failures, in 2006 and 2007, a handful of games out of more than 1,000 that threatened to become his permanent legacy.

Between then and now, Nowitzki’s brilliance went overlooked. The fans and media stopped noticing. Maybe they’d glance his direction when he’d do something truly extraordinary, like scoring a team record 29 points in the fourth quarter against the Utah Jazz on November 3, 2009. But then they’d shrug and turn their backs on him again. They took him for granted, even after he became the rare star who spends his entire career with one team—and takes less money to do so. He worked with his longtime coach Holger Geschwindner every summer until his weaknesses became strengths, until his game was unsolvable, until he was even better than he was during his 2007 MVP season, and it didn’t matter. No one cared.

And then, over April and May and June, almost out of nowhere, Nowitzki became undeniable. He reminded all those who had given up after that first-round exit against Golden State exactly what they had been missing out on over these last few years.

The goofy German kid they’d left behind, the one with a regular-season repertoire and nothing more, had turned into a cold-eyed closer with an unstoppable shot. That shot—a one-legged fade-away jumper, often off the wrong foot, sometimes while turning around, occasionally from an angle that could end a friendly game of HORSE in fisticuffs—has probably ruined youth basketball for the next decade. In North Texas and beyond, kids everywhere are literally falling all over themselves, trying to emulate Nowitzki. The move is oddly fundamentally sound while remaining wildly unorthodox, like if a cat burglar kept regular office hours.

As he and the Mavs knocked out the Portland Trail Blazers, then the Lakers, then the Thunder, and finally the Heat, that awkwardly beautiful jumper took its rightful place as one of the most iconic shots in the game, now compared to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s sky hook and Hakeem Olajuwon’s Dream Shake. Nowitzki’s overall standing, too, ascended the ladder, his reputation finally free of every “but” and “if only.” We shouldn’t have needed the approval of a marginal ex-player like Jon Barry to convince us of Nowitzki’s greatness.

But even to those who knew what Nowitzki was capable of all along, those true believers who hadn’t given up hope that he would one day win a championship ring and that he would do it here in Dallas, it’s still surreal to hear Nowitzki talked about as one of the best ever. We had grown so accustomed to him as an inevitable force that we lost sight of exactly how special he was, until others slapped us in the face with it.

So, yeah, Dirk Nowitzki is the Best Athlete. This year, this decade, last decade, and maybe forever. —Zac Crain

08-09-2011, 02:39 PM	#2407
bobbyfg7 Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 276	This article is old. Sorry if someone already posted it. Just thought it was well written: http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Maga...1_Culture.aspx Best Athlete Dirk Nowitzki Best local athlete? is there any debate? It is Dirk Werner Nowitzki, aka the Big German, aka the most underrated superstar in Dallas sports history. Yes, Nowitzki now gets the respect he deserves, but only after two months spent wearing a cape and rescuing kittens from tall branches and babies from burning apartment buildings. Only after bringing home a championship from Miami. Had that magical playoff run ended in Los Angeles, or even Oklahoma City, Nowitzki would still be a symbol of all the Mavericks would never, could never be with him at the helm. It wouldn’t have mattered how well he played. It hadn’t mattered how well Nowitzki played since those twin playoff failures, in 2006 and 2007, a handful of games out of more than 1,000 that threatened to become his permanent legacy. Between then and now, Nowitzki’s brilliance went overlooked. The fans and media stopped noticing. Maybe they’d glance his direction when he’d do something truly extraordinary, like scoring a team record 29 points in the fourth quarter against the Utah Jazz on November 3, 2009. But then they’d shrug and turn their backs on him again. They took him for granted, even after he became the rare star who spends his entire career with one team—and takes less money to do so. He worked with his longtime coach Holger Geschwindner every summer until his weaknesses became strengths, until his game was unsolvable, until he was even better than he was during his 2007 MVP season, and it didn’t matter. No one cared. And then, over April and May and June, almost out of nowhere, Nowitzki became undeniable. He reminded all those who had given up after that first-round exit against Golden State exactly what they had been missing out on over these last few years. The goofy German kid they’d left behind, the one with a regular-season repertoire and nothing more, had turned into a cold-eyed closer with an unstoppable shot. That shot—a one-legged fade-away jumper, often off the wrong foot, sometimes while turning around, occasionally from an angle that could end a friendly game of HORSE in fisticuffs—has probably ruined youth basketball for the next decade. In North Texas and beyond, kids everywhere are literally falling all over themselves, trying to emulate Nowitzki. The move is oddly fundamentally sound while remaining wildly unorthodox, like if a cat burglar kept regular office hours. As he and the Mavs knocked out the Portland Trail Blazers, then the Lakers, then the Thunder, and finally the Heat, that awkwardly beautiful jumper took its rightful place as one of the most iconic shots in the game, now compared to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s sky hook and Hakeem Olajuwon’s Dream Shake. Nowitzki’s overall standing, too, ascended the ladder, his reputation finally free of every “but” and “if only.” We shouldn’t have needed the approval of a marginal ex-player like Jon Barry to convince us of Nowitzki’s greatness. But even to those who knew what Nowitzki was capable of all along, those true believers who hadn’t given up hope that he would one day win a championship ring and that he would do it here in Dallas, it’s still surreal to hear Nowitzki talked about as one of the best ever. We had grown so accustomed to him as an inevitable force that we lost sight of exactly how special he was, until others slapped us in the face with it. So, yeah, Dirk Nowitzki is the Best Athlete. This year, this decade, last decade, and maybe forever. —Zac Crain __________________ “They gotta come through Texas first. We’ll see what happens. I’m still mad about the ’06 Finals. LeBron just walked into a fire he doesn’t know about.” - JET (said at the beginning of the '10-'11 season)