Looking forward - Q&A DIRK NOWITZKI

[kriD]

Looking forward

Q&A DIRK NOWITZKI

By ART GARCIA
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Dirk Nowitzki thought about the Finals all summer, although he never watched a minute of them. He couldn't. It was just too painful.

Besides, everyone knows what happened.

Dwell as he might on the profound disappointment, the heart and soul of the Mavericks franchise won't let those four losses to Miami spill into this season.

Nowitzki is determined to get back. He's determined to be better. He's committed to making his teammates better.

"Once we get there again," he said without an ounce of doubt, "we're all going to do some stuff different."

Sitting at his locker recently, Nowitzki discussed what the Mavs would do differently and looked ahead to what should be another long season.

Q: What's the next level for you and this team?

A: "The next level would be to help this team win two more games. That's the bottom line. This summer to me was way too short to add something to my game. More than anything I got some rest and I played for Germany, so it was kind of the shortest summer ever, especially sitting on that loss. But I think we learned from that Finals experience. I think the whole hype of the Finals was new to us. We made some mistakes we've got to learn from. Hopefully we'll get there again soon and finish the deal off."

Q: Did you analyze what went wrong against Miami?

A: "I tried to stay away from it. I didn't even go back and watch it. It was tough enough going through it. We know what mistakes we made. You've got to give Miami credit. They played us well defensively. I try to stay away as much as I can, especially when I'm in Germany. I try to focus on the stuff over there."

Q: What did you go into the summer thinking the team needed?

A: "We just hit a tough stretch in the Finals. We had a couple games that were bad and if you hit that stretch in March and February, nobody really cares. You lose three in a row, who cares? We hit it at a bad time, and we couldn't stop it for some reason. Our defense wasn't the same in the Finals. We gave up penetration and we never found a way to stop them offensively. They did a great job clogging up the paint. We weren't shooting the ball well from the outside. The way they played defense, they gave us the open shot from outside and if we didn't knock them down. That's a tough series to win."

Q: As the team's most important piece, how do you expand your role?

A: "My role is going to be more getting guys open shots, getting everybody involved. Hopefully be tough defensively and be effective there and help the team wherever I can. Rebounding is always a key for me. Be involved in the rebound game. It's a little bit of everything. Help my teammates get open. Set some picks if the opponents are hugging me. More than anything, try to make something happen for my teammates and for me, but still be aggressive offensively. We'll see how it works."

Q: Do positions matter anymore?

A: "Modern basketball goes away from position basketball. Everybody these days comes in and can move, run. The game goes more to a running game like Phoenix plays. A lot of teams now try to copy the Phoenix style. With the rules they've put in, you basically can't touch anybody anymore. I think that's the way to go. I think the positioning is not really important. Shawn Marion played [power forward] for Phoenix for a long time, and he's really undersized, but they make it work through scrambling and athleticism. It's going away more from the big [center]."

Q: Do you expect it to be harder or easier to get back?

A: "It's going to be another long haul. We all know that, especially in the Western Conference. It's not going to be easy. Obviously, San Antonio is going to be fired up since we beat them last year. That's all they've been talking about in their training camp, that Dallas is the team to beat. Phoenix is going to be back up with [Amare] Stoudemire back. But really it's going to be a long grind."

Q: Are you still the top dog in the Western Conference?

A: "We'll see. We're trying to fit in six new guys and that's not always easy. We had some injury trouble so we couldn't really practice together. So we'll see how we start off in the season, but we'll go from there. We have enough potential to be back there and be up there again to fight for it. Nothing in the West is given to you. You have to work hard every night."

Q: What did you personally learn from the Finals?

A: "Everybody has got to start with themselves, and I know I didn't play my best basketball in the Finals. As a team we didn't play our best basketball. The hype was new to all of us. It was basically like being at the All-Star Game. You have a press conference after every practice. There are photo shoots right before with the trophy. It's just distractions, and once we get there again, we're all going to do some stuff different. Keep the distractions as minimal as possible."

Q: Are you comfortable with how the team has been built around you without Steve Nash and Michael Finley?

A: "I would love for Steve and Mike to still be here. We're great friends. You hate to see great friends and great competitors leave, but on the other hand, we've got great players in and filled the team around me. That's obviously a great challenge. It's fun to be in a situation of going to the gym every night and the opponents are worrying about me and trying to stop me. Obviously, you thrive on that. That's what a competitor wants. You love to compete on a high level. Basically, I've seen it all. I've seen guys switch now. Big guys, small guys, and still I have to find a way to help my team and help the team win every night. It's a fun situation to be in."

[Flacolaco]

Q: What's the next level for you and this team?

Q: Did you analyze what went wrong against Miami?


Genius questions. Bless these athletes who put up with this cookie cutter interview question bs. I'd look at him and say "WTF do you think is the next level you unbelievable moron?"

[mqywaaah]

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

Q: What's the next level for you and this team?

Q: Did you analyze what went wrong against Miami?


Genius questions. Bless these athletes who put up with this cookie cutter interview question bs. I'd look at him and say "WTF do you think is the next level you unbelievable moron?"

LOL



Kudos to Dirk. What a class act.

[nashtymavsfan13]

Another classy interview by Dirk, and I agree with flaco haha what a stupid question.

[G-Man]

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

Q: What's the next level for you and this team?

Q: Did you analyze what went wrong against Miami?


Genius questions. Bless these athletes who put up with this cookie cutter interview question bs. I'd look at him and say "WTF do you think is the next level you unbelievable moron?"

In journalism, its not the question that matters. Its the quality of the answer. He got good stuff from Dirk with each question. Dirk said he never even looked at tape of the finals. I didn't know that. Garcia apparently knows the way to get Dirk to give him good answers.

If you watch White House news conferences, you'll see people who stayed up all night thinking up a smart way to ask a question, but that defeats the purpose, if they end up getting a crappy answer. Or to make it non political, just recall any interview ever done on the sideline of an NFL game.

That was as good an interview I've seen with Dirk since the finals. There's hardly any cliche's in it. It actually got beneath the surface. It also made me feel really good about Dirk's state of mind, which has been a real worry to me.

Sorry to go on.. maybe I'm sensitive because I ask people questions for a living, but in my business, it not a dumb question of you get a good answer. Art Garcia did us a solid.

[Underdog]

That wraps up last season - let's get this season started...



[and by "wrap up" I mean "stomp into the ground"...]

[sike]

Q: What's the next level for you and this team?
Dirk should have reached accros the table and slaped that fool

[craggmac]

Q: Are you still the top dog in the Western Conference?

A: "We'll see. We're trying to fit in six new guys and that's not always easy. We had some injury trouble so we couldn't really practice together. So we'll see how we start off in the season, but we'll go from there. We have enough potential to be back there and be up there again to fight for it. Nothing in the West is given to you. You have to work hard every night."

Amen Brother! I love this guy.

[mqywaaah]

Daym! That Sig is Whacked!