Dirk intrigues boyhood hero Pippen

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Dirk intrigues boyhood hero Pippen
Trail Blazer getting first-hand view of Nowitzki's prowess

04/22/2003

By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News

Even before Dirk Nowitzki cashed his first paycheck for playing basketball at the ridiculous age of 15, he had a Scottie Pippen poster in his bedroom.

This fact was first publicized after the 7-footer was obtained by the Mavericks on draft day in 1998. Less than five years later, the wannabe has the legend on his heels.

While growing up in Germany, Nowitzki zeroed in on Pippen as one of the NBA stars who most appealed to him. He liked the way Michael Jordan's sidekick for all those years used his rangy body to his advantage and shot the ball with unfailing confidence.

"He learned a lot from me," Pippen said Monday. "Now I wish I'd have learned from him."

Nowitzki, coming off a Mavericks' franchise playoff-best 46 points in Game 1 against Portland, was a hot topic as the teams resumed practice after taking off on Easter. The 24-year-old was one of four players around the league who cracked the 40-point barrier on the opening weekend of the NBA playoffs, and the Blazers were asking themselves what will it take to slow down one of new superstars in the game.

The Mavericks? They've learned to expect the unexpected from Nowitzki. But it was Pippen who was trotting out the words "Larry Bird" and wondering what will come next from Nowitzki, who may not have all of Pippen's skills when it comes to athleticism but is fast becoming his own man on the basketball court.

"He still has a lot of basketball ahead of him," said Pippen, who was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history. "But he's grown a lot already. He's going to have a great future in this game. He's definitely shown me a different dimension in the power forward game. He's probably the only power forward I've seen that can do the things that he does out there – the ability to put the ball on the floor, the ability to shoot the ball from anywhere on the floor, the great court awareness."

Nowitzki shrugs off the huge night he had Saturday. He prefers to look ahead. But while he downplays his performance, he also said he will try to take advantage of anything Portland gives him. If that happens to be more open looks at the basket, he'll take them.

"You never know," he said about the chances of another 46-point game. "You just try to be aggressive and make things happen offensively. I think if we want to go far in the playoffs, we all need to play at a high level. Everyone has to make shots.

"It [his point total] doesn't matter. We got the win, and that's most important."

It's a race to four victories, and the Mavericks have a 1-0 lead with Game 2 approaching Wednesday at American Airlines Center. They expect Portland to come up with some alternative plans for defending Nowitzki. But more than anything, they expect other players to take some of the load off of him.

"Our game strategy isn't to go out and have Dirk get 46," coach Don Nelson said. "It's to do whatever we have to do to win the game.

"You don't anticipate that's going to happen every game. And we certainly needed every basket he gave us. I think we're probably [going to have] more balance, but the important thing I think is to take advantage of what's there. And the team did a marvelous job of finding him when he was open and nursing what we had going."

Pippen has seen enough after one game to know that Nowitzki is going to be a force that everybody in the league is going to have to contend with sooner or later. The Blazers' time just came sooner.

"He's definitely got an all-around game," Pippen said. "It's pretty scary to be at the level he's at now at such a young age."

So what can they do differently?

"If we can make him shoot shots under duress and try to wear him down and keep him from getting the ball, it makes the game a little tougher for him," Pippen said. "I thought he got on a roll the other night. We allowed him to catch the ball, turn and shoot it. We have to be a little more physical with him."

In that regard, the Blazers may have a chance to knock Nowitzki off stride, although that's what everybody tried to do in the second half of the season and all he did was get better instead of shrinking away from physical play.

It was suggested that Nowitzki is a reliable post-up move away from being unstoppable, to which Pippen bristled.

"Who said he doesn't have a post-up move?" he said. "Obviously, he's not going to be a Karl Malone. That's not in his body structure. If he's a Karl Malone, then he's not as great a shooter as he is. He's more a finesse player.

"But he's got some stuff inside that can be very effective. He showed Saturday he can score inside as well as out. And [from a defender's standpoint] he's such a great shooter, you probably want him going inside instead of shooting from the outside."