Great J-Kidd and Dirk Interview

[LSMF]

I don't know if this has been posted elsewhere but it is very interesting, I hope you guys enjoy. . I bolded some parts I found interesting btw

Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd believe the Dallas Mavericks can win it
Jan Hubbard

While some predictors doubt that the Mavericks can contend this season, there is quiet optimism in the Mavericks' camp. The primary reasons are Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, who sat down last week for a joint 30-minute interview to talk about the team, each other, new coach Rick Carlisle, Josh Howard, Avery Johnson and what their hopes are for this season.

While some doubt the Mavericks as legitimate contenders, Nowitzki said: "Our goal is not to make the playoffs. Our goal has to be a championship team. We can't be satisfied just making the playoffs."

While the two say they socialize sometimes off the court, they have become best friends on the court, and it's easy to see the deep mutual respect they have for one another.

Q: First of all, do you two guys like each other?

(Laughter)

Nowitzki: Very much so.

Q: When you're alone and you talk about the possibilities of this offense, what do you say to each other?

Kidd: It's a stress-free offense in the sense that you just read and react and we're playing off of one another. With me, I just talk to Dirk about his opportunities when I think he's open and just take a peek back and look for the ball. There's so much attention on him that I try to use him to draw people away from the other guys on the court.

Q: Is this different than what you've been asked to do in the past?

Nowitzki: To me, it's kind of new again. With [former coach Don Nelson], we were so used to running and moving and swinging and the pick and roll. And then the last two years we got a little stagnant and there wasn't that much moving going on. So now we've got to reprogram yourself a little bit - push yourself to move, remind yourself constantly to be running, which was so natural with Nellie. Basically I had to use the training camp to get used to it again and just be on the move, force yourself to run hard both ways. And Jason makes it so much easier on the break. He finds the shooters. Like he said, I've got to do a better job of seeing the ball. He's always looking up on the break. Other than that, I think we're having fun again. We're moving. We're getting good shots. I think we're on the right track.

Q: Do you get excited about the possibilities of what you might be able to do with this team?

Nowitzki: I'm very excited, not only with the way we're playing, but with some of the athleticism that we were missing at the end of last year - guys that could run with Jason. With Antoine Wright getting more time, Gerald [Green] has looked unbelievable in training camp. I think he's running, he's scoring and shooting better than we all were thinking he could. So I'm really excited about having a fun year. With [DeSagana Diop] back, he's a staple on defense so it should be a fun year.

Q: When Rick Carlisle was hired, was your first thought that he has always run a set offense and he's probably not going to be running?

Kidd: The one thing I thought was that his team always played hard and they were always prepared. Everybody talks about the set offense, but they always explored getting easy baskets. The team in Indiana was a pretty big team so they were running things for Reggie [Miller]. The team in Detroit, they kind of set things up. But here, we've got pieces that can get out and make the game easy. If you can get out and get an easy basket, it makes it so much easier on your defense.

Q: Because of the Finals loss to Miami and first-round losses the last two years, it seems that people don't believe in this team as much. Even Magic Johnson said this team will have a hard time making the playoffs. How do you respond to that?

Nowitzki: Not having the pressure of people focusing on you is not a bad thing. We can kind of slowly develop. I think we have a ways to go with this offense, but we need to just keep working. I think we're going to be a team that surprises a lot of guys, but it's going to be a lot of hard work and playing hard together. We'll just see how it goes as the season goes along, but I think we're a lot better of a team than a lot of people expect us to be.

Q: Do you get amused or irritated that people think the team has taken a step back?

Kidd: I really don't pay too much attention to that. Everybody comes out with their predictions, but I look at what happens at the end of the season. It's up to us to set our team goals and try to make each other better. If we do that, we shouldn't have any problem achieving our goals.

Q: So if the team is healthy the entire year, are you pretty certain you can make the playoffs?

Nowitzki: Oh, yeah. I think so.

Q: Do you guarantee it?

Nowitzki: (Laughing) I don't ever guarantee anything. The best thing is our bench is great. [Brandon] Bass improved tremendously. [Jerry Stackhouse] is probably in his best shape of the last couple of years. I think the big thing [is] that we get Josh back to where he was in his All-Star year, when he was slashing, scoring and playing hard on defense. He got a little lost last year. I don't know if it was Avery or his personal problems, but he seems to be upbeat. We need him to play at a high level if we want to go somewhere.

Q: You had a lot of distractions with Josh's difficulties and the coaching change. Does going through those distractions make a team stronger or is it still distracted?

Nowitzki: I think we're all looking forward to moving on. Josh made a lot of it go away on media day when he said he wants to be here and he apologized to our fans. That was the best thing he could do to kind of get it over with. I think you can see the reception he gets now that the fans kind of forgave him and they all kind of look forward to having a good year. I think the best thing is that we got the summer over with and we're looking forward to a new year.

Q: Jason, you've been through some controversies through the years. Do you play better because you've gone through difficult times?

Kidd: I think you play better once it's over with. But everybody's different. Some people play better with controversy around them. With Josh, it's behind him and he's had a great preseason.

Q: Part of the craziness of last year was the trade for Jason, which looked like it was going to happen, then was dead, then finally happened. What were you two guys talking about during that time?

Nowitzki: We started communicating around the All-Star break. I didn't know Jason that well. I knew that Steve [Nash] played with him in Phoenix, and I knew they were very close so I knew he was a good guy, but I never really talked to him. Around the All-Star break we talked about it a little bit and then obviously we were both happy when it got done. There was the whole back and forth. One hour it was this and the next hour it wasn't going to happen. I think it was good for both parties that we got the deal done and moved forward.

Q: You guys were part of the group that helped rebuild a house in New Orleans at the All-Star break. What was your conversation at that time?

Kidd: When we were at the house, it wasn't happening.

Nowitzki: That was on the Friday.

Kidd: Friday. It wasn't happening. We thought it was on Thursday because we [Nets players who were supposed to be traded to Dallas] sat out the Thursday game.

Nowitzki: You guys did. Our guys played.

Kidd: (Jokingly) Yeah, that was cool. That was really good. We sat out that game so we thought it was happening. Then we got on the plane to New Orleans and it wasn't happening. And then we got to New Orleans and it still wasn't happening.

Nowitzki: When we flew home [Sunday after the All-Star game], we heard it was a good chance [to happen]. It changed so much that you really didn't know what to expect.

Kidd: We just talked a little bit that weekend.

Q: When it wasn't going to happen over the weekend, what was the conversation like between you two guys.

Nowitzki: He was on the East team at that point.

Kidd: Yeah, and he was killing me [during the game], trying to post me up.

Nowitzki: We didn't really see each other that much. That Saturday before practice [was] when the commissioner spoke for like five minutes.

Q: So you didn't talk during the game?

Kidd: No, I was trying to hold my own. He was trying to take advantage of me being a little shorter.

Q: What sort of defense was the East playing that you were guarding Nowitzki?

Kidd: We were playing small and they were playing big.

Nowitzki: Yeah, you had LeBron [James at center].

Kidd: Yeah, you guys were big and we were small.

Nowitzki: We should have won that game.

Kidd: (Laughs).

Q: How did you guys feel about Devean George when he refused to be a part of the trade?

Nowitzki: I didn't really have any feelings against him or for him. He had his rights and he felt strong about them. I wasn't mad at him for anything. Sometimes I think this league is about individuals and individuals look out for themselves. He did what was best for him. We just got to thank the guys in both organizations for figuring out another way to do it.

Kidd: I had no idea what the deal was. I didn't quite understand the whole thing, but it worked out.

Q: When you first got to Dallas, what was the process of getting to know each other? You guys went to work out together on a road trip. How did that go?

Kidd: I was rebounding for him a lot. But I got to shoot a little bit.

Nowitzki: Actually, we went out to dinner in New Orleans in the hotel after he got traded. We just talked and he wanted to know how I see things in the organization and I just told him honestly what was going on and from there we just moved on. Really, he helped me tremendously. I was struggling before the All-Star break and I wasn't shooting well. After he got here I was shooting better. I shot like 50 percent from 3's, so I guess we got to doing it our old ways again, moving and having fun. For some reason, our teammates weren't getting involved that much, but he helped my game tremendously.

Q: What was Nowitzki's reputation as far as working out?

Kidd: You just heard that Nowitzki works extremely hard on the road or at home. He's always looking to go shoot. Now I see it and it's all true. That's why he's the MVP.

Nowitzki: One of the first things he said to me was, "When you go to the gym, big boy, I'm going to the gym with you."

(Laughter)

Nowitzki: He actually worked out with Holger [Geschwindner, Nowitzki's trainer/mentor from Germany].

Q: Did he work you hard?

Kidd: Yeah.

Nowitzki: I showed up an hour later because you can't really work together.

Kidd: I was sweating.

Nowitzki: He was sweating, his hamstrings were sore, he was tired.

Q: Do you guys socialize together?

Nowitzki: Every once in awhile. We go to dinner.

Q: Do you make fun of each other a lot?

Nowitzki: He does make fun of me all the time. It gets to be a little too much (both laugh).

Kidd: I'm giving you a break. Every Thursday.

Q: What's his best hit on you?

Nowitzki: It's something every day. You've got the wrong pants, the wrong shirt. It's always something.

Q: In sports, people often want to assign leadership. You are obviously the face of this franchise and people say it's your team. But then you have a point guard come in and it's natural for him to be the leader. How do you look at the issue of who is the leader of the team?

Nowitzki: Well ...

Kidd: He's the leader.

Q: You had Jason introduced last in the starting lineup when he first got here.

Kidd: That was nice of him. That's what a leader does, though.

Nowitzki: I've never looked at it that way. We're trying to be together as a team. In Europe, growing up, it was always five on five. You see commercials here, it's like Nowitzki against T-Mac. That's not how it was in Europe. And that's how I always grew up. The team is always more important and the team has to get the job done.

Q: And you like to pass so much that you don't care if someone else is the leader?

Kidd: I'm trying to be a small piece of the puzzle. I'm just here to try and pull my weight and try to make my guys better and have fun doing it.

Q: You guys finished six games behind the Lakers last year. Considering the trade and that the offense wasn't particularly suited to what you guys like to do, how do you look back at it?

Nowitzki: I think a lot of people write us off, but if you look back at the games, we were so close a bunch of times. I remember a couple of overtime games and a couple of times on the road we were close in the last two minutes, but we found a way to [let] the lead [slip] away. We always said all we need is a couple of wins in close games, and we're right there with everybody. So I don't think we were that far off. If you look at the playoffs, we were up in New Orleans in that first game 12 points and if we find a way to win that, I think that's going to put some doubt in their heads. They were brand new in the playoffs. That series could have gone the other way. So I don't think even last year we were as far off as everybody said.

Q: Did it bother you that Avery said after the season that it was a miracle that the team made the playoffs?

Nowitzki: I don't think it was a miracle. We played hard and we won some big games. We went to Golden State and blew them out by 20-something points. We lost to the Lakers [in Los Angeles] in overtime. We played a close game with Boston.

Kidd: We went to Utah on a back-to-back and led them by 20-something before we lost.

Nowitzki: At one point, we were like 0-8 against teams above .500, but we were in every game.

Kidd: There weren't that many blowouts against those team, so I agree with Dirk. We're not that far away.

Q: Did you get the feeling when you arrived here from New Jersey that there were mixed feelings about wanting you here? Or did you think everyone was on board?

Kidd: If a team makes a trade for you, I think they want to do it, mixed feelings or not. I think they did it for a reason.

Q: How hard were you pushing behind the scenes when you knew it was a possibility?

Nowitzki: I think we all wanted to get the deal done, to get a point guard in here like Jason that makes the game easier. Everybody was playing grind-out, hard basketball and sometimes we just didn't score enough points to win. We all wanted to have fun again playing basketball and we wanted to get a point guard that knows how to win. I love Devin Harris and I think he's going to be a great point guard in this league. But I think at my stage - I'm 30 now - I think we wanted to win right now and not in five or six years. So that's how we looked at this deal and I'm glad we got it done.

Q: Did the grind-out form of basketball kind of sneak up on you guys? When Nellie first left, you still ran some. Did it just kind of evolve?

Nowitzki: You know, I think it wears on you a little bit. In the beginning, after Nellie was coming to practice in his golf shoes already ... (laughter) ... He did. He kind of wrote the whole thing off. Once him and Cubes weren't on the same page any more, he wrote it off a little bit. I think it was good when Avery came. He was fired up and had a lot of enthusiasm. But over a long period of time, it just wears on you. I think this is a league of players and you have to give the players freedom. You can't control everything, starting from the time you go on the court until you go off the court. He kept us on too short of a leash. But other than that, he did a phenomenal job for us. He's going to be a great head coach in this league.

Q: What were your observations watching the Mavericks when you were in New Jersey?

Kidd: I thought they had a lot of pieces to be successful. Just watching it from afar, they weren't getting easy baskets. They were grinding it out and that put a lot of pressure on the defense. I thought if I was on the team, I could help get easy baskets and also help them win. Sometimes it wasn't fun to watch them play because you just saw a team that went to the Finals and you could see them struggling a little bit.

Q: When you guys lost to Golden State in the first round after winning 67 games, you still came back as contenders with some people predicting you could win a championship. Now they are not. People, again, are questioning whether or not you can make the playoffs. How do you guys feel?

Nowitzki: Our goal is not to make the playoffs. Our goal has to be a championship team. We can't be satisfied just making the playoffs. We're not that far off. If we can run this offense and stay solid defensively, we can play with anybody in this league.

Kidd: I agree with Dirk. We don't talk about making the playoffs. We talk about winning a championship. If you talk about it and see it, it helps it become reality. If you get in that position, you have to take advantage of it. And we're going to try to take advantage of it.

Q: Would either of you like to take the opportunity to guarantee winning a championship?

Nowitzki: That would be nice.

Kidd: That would be nice.

[Underdog]

Didn't this get posted in another thread?

(not that a great interview like this shouldn't be posted twice!)

[fluid.forty.one]

yeah this was posted already

[alby]

Kiddirk. I love it.

[Underdog]

Nowitzki: I've never looked at it that way. We're trying to be together as a team. In Europe, growing up, it was always five on five. You see commercials here, it's like Nowitzki against T-Mac. That's not how it was in Europe. And that's how I always grew up. The team is always more important and the team has to get the job done.

I'm so gay for this guy...

[ty]

Originally Posted by longsufferingmavsfan

Nowitzki: Our goal is not to make the playoffs. Our goal has to be a championship team. We can't be satisfied just making the playoffs. We're not that far off. If we can run this offense and stay solid defensively, we can play with anybody in this league.

Kidd: I agree with Dirk. We don't talk about making the playoffs. We talk about winning a championship. If you talk about it and see it, it helps it become reality. If you get in that position, you have to take advantage of it. And we're going to try to take advantage of it.

Yes please. I've wanted to change the quote in my sig for 3 years now, and it hasn't happened. Please free me of the misery of my sig.

[fluid.forty.one]

still, the quote Green gave trumps all these..

"There's nobody like Jason Kidd. He sees what you're supposed to do before you do. He'll tell me, 'G, do this and trust me.' And then you do that, and it works."

[MavsX]

Originally Posted by Underdog

I'm so gay

ha, fruit!

[sike]

Originally Posted by fluid.forty.one

still, the quote Green gave trumps all these..

"There's nobody like Jason Kidd. He sees what you're supposed to do before you do. He'll tell me, 'G, do this and trust me.' And then you do that, and it works."

Classic.

[mqywaaah]

Nowitzki: He was sweating, his hamstrings were sore, he was tired.

Oh nooooo! Stay healthy Jason! Rest as much as you can through out the season, but not until we know that the game is a W, alright?

[mqywaaah]

Originally Posted by MavsX

ha, fruit!

cake?

[Hitman]

Ok, now I am officially excited for the season!

[sike]

Hitman sighting!

[horse900703]

hope we can really play good this season~

[sike]

Originally Posted by horse900703

hope we can really play good this season~

I love you more than fat kids love cake.

[monty55555]

Most folks remember the disturbing cereal-bowl haircut that Dirk Nowitzki showed up with.

And who could forget how defensively challenged the 7-footer was. He practically needed a legal name change from Irk – no D.

But perhaps the most memorable thing from Nowitzki's formative years in the NBA was that ridiculously unfair comparison to Larry Bird. Linking a lanky, unknown German to Larry Legend? It was pure folly at the time.

All these years later, as Nowitzki enters his second decade with the Dallas Mavericks, even Bird remembers those who used the term "Bird-like skills" to describe Dirk.

"Anytime you have the height and you're able to shoot the ball, there will always be comparisons," Bird says. "I remember when I first came in, there was always Rick Barry. I always thought that was pretty cool because I like Rick Barry.

"With Dirk, he's 7-foot and he can shoot the ball like I did. You don't see guys his size doing that. It's like Magic Johnson at 6-9 playing point guard. It's just something you don't really believe. I mean, Dirk's taller than I am. And to be able to handle it and shoot it like he does is pretty spectacular."

If that sounds like Bird is saying those comparisons about Nowitzki weren't so outrageous, you're catching the right drift.

OK, there's that little detail about championships, which Bird and Magic had in bulk. But Nowitzki has become one of the NBA's greatest players, deserving of inclusion with some of those other greats. Nowitzki has even become a one-name wonder. If you say Dirk, everybody knows who you're talking about.

"They used to say that Dirk might be the next Larry Bird, and everybody laughed," says Del Harris, who was a Mavericks' assistant coach for virtually all of Nowitzki's first 10 seasons. "Well, he's not. He's different than Larry Bird. But I put him in the same classification as Moses [Malone], Magic and Kobe and Shaq and these other great players I coached, so I think those people comparing him to Bird weren't that far off.

"But [Bird] having Kevin McHale, Chief [Robert Parish] and Dennis Johnson didn't hurt, either."

Nowitzki had that sort of Hall of Fame helper on his side a few years ago. His name was Steve Nash.

Now, the 7-footer has a new sidekick at point guard, one with whom he's had sufficient time to mesh. Jason Kidd is the new-age Nash.
Journey to the top

Nowitzki has come a long way since the start. His haircut thankfully changed many times since that regrettable look he had as a teenager. He also learned to play a little defense along the way.

One thing he never lost or changed, however, was that sweet shooting stroke.

And he has worked his ever-loving tail off ever since he got here.

"I had a lot of doubters at the beginning coming from Germany – a 7-foot jump shooter, basically," Nowitzki says. "Nobody really thought I could do it. So the last 10 years were an amazing ride – the Finals, I won the MVP, which to me is still really unbelievable. It's been great.

"But to compare it to Larry? That's tough. ... The game he had, the skills he had, were unbelievable."

Nowitzki remains one of the few players that Donnie Nelson ever took the ultimate risk for. When the time came to draft in 1998, Nelson assured ownership at the time that Nowitzki was a can't-miss prospect.

And fortune shined on the Mavericks. The team Nowitzki was on for the Nike Hoop Summit in San Antonio used Dallas as a training site for a week. Nelson was an assistant coach for the team.

"When we saw him at the time, we thought the very low end would be that he'd have a solid, 10-year pro career, maybe like a better Keith Van Horn," Nelson said. "But on the high side, we thought he could put a truly unique stamp on that position, really change the way power forwards were viewed."
Putting in the work

Nowitzki has evolved through the years. And there was plenty of room for improvement. He shot 40 percent his rookie year and barely 20 percent from 3-point range. He even had to change his name, remember? He was a European player in a made-in-America kind of market. The only thing Dallas loves more than American heroes are Texas heroes.

Beyond the comparisons to Bird, Harris believes another one might be just as valid with regard to Nowitzki.

"Everybody had heard about him or seen him, but he was just a skinny kid with a jump shot," says Harris. "But he had a great work ethic. His growth was similar to what I saw when I was in Milwaukee and watched No. 23 develop south of us in Chicago, because while [Michael] Jordan was much more heralded and was much more advanced, nonetheless, he had holes in his game as a young player. You could take advantage of some of those weaknesses he had. But each year as he went forward, those weaknesses disappeared and ultimately some of those became strengths of his.

"To a certain extent, this is what happened with Dirk. He was called Irk Nowitzki because there was no D, yet he developed into one of our top three defenders. He's an excellent team defender. He's no longer just a tall guy with a jumper. He can beat you every way there is to beat you – inside, outside, driving, passing, posting."

That doesn't mean Harris is putting Nowitzki in Jordan's class. It only means that he's followed in the path of players such as Jordan and other greats. They each had holes in their games early in their careers. Systematically, they erased those holes.

Nowitzki and Kidd will be asked to lead these Mavericks wherever it is that they are to go. If they are championship contenders, it will be because of this pair. They'll need help, of course. Josh Howard, Jason Terry and others will have to be good.

But Nowitzki has to be great. As does Kidd.

Nowitzki has no problem with that. In fact, he believes he's learned from so many experiences in his career, even those comparisons to Bird.

"I thought it was a little unfair at the beginning to be compared to one of the top three legends of the game," he says. "I always thought you don't want to be compared. You want to go your own way and build your own reputation.

"And I still think my best years are in front of me."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...e.32ef8a9.html

[mqywaaah]

I cried after having read that bolded line. *tears*