Official Dirk is Great Thread

[Five-ofan]

We all know dirk has been on fire but I just want to put it in context. In his last 7 games hes avg 30/8.5/3.3 on 57/67/97 percentages. That is effing ridiculous over that long of a span.

[Mav Addict]

Originally Posted by Five-ofan

We all know dirk has been on fire but I just want to put it in context. In his last 7 games hes avg 30/8.5/3.3 on 57/67/97 percentages. That is effing ridiculous over that long of a span.

Not to mention these games are all playoff games which mean that defenses are tougher....so far every team we matched against supposedly had players that would slow Dirk down, but to no avail.....he cannot be stopped

[Murphy3]

This is the one thing that I worry about.. Dirk's gotta have a bad game at some point. Let's hope it's next regular season.

[JeffViggiano]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

This is the one thing that I worry about.. Dirk's gotta have a bad game at some point. Let's hope it's next regular season.

Dirk had has a bad game in game 4 against Lakers.the next will be on 3-1 against Miami

[mavs777]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

This is the one thing that I worry about.. Dirk's gotta have a bad game at some point. Let's hope it's next regular season.

I am not sure if he has to have a bad game but there probably will be a game or 2 where his jumper isn't automatic, happens to the best of shooters.

[CadBane]

Originally Posted by JeffViggiano

Dirk had has a bad game in game 4 against Lakers.the next will be on 3-1 against Miami

Dirk was fantastic in Game 4. Your red boxes are unsurprising.

[CadBane]

http://www.backpicks.com/2011/05/18/...dition-part-i/

Great article on Dirk's (and Wade/LBJ) playoff dominance and the huge burden/importance he carries.

Dirk has consistently been the best shooter on the list.

[JeffViggiano]

Originally Posted by CadBane

Dirk was fantastic in Game 4. Your red boxes are unsurprising.

you didn't understant the irony in my post...i'm so sorry for you.

[Kante]

Can´t do that with Cabane. Anything negative about Dirk, sarcasm or not, he will go after you!

[CadBane]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl..._durant_052211

Nice article contrasting Dirk and Durant down the stretch.

[CadBane]

Originally Posted by Kante

Can´t do that with Cabane. Anything negative about Dirk, sarcasm or not, he will go after you!

I don't think sarcasm means what you think it means.

[LetsGoMavs]

Originally Posted by CadBane

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl..._durant_052211

Nice article contrasting Dirk and Durant down the stretch.

Similar article up on NBA.com...:

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/feature...s=iref:nbahpt1

Gotta love the media's praise for Dirk

[dude1394]

All hail His Dirkness!!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...685160182.html

An NBA Voyage to the Heart of Dirk-Ness

These Playoffs Give Nowitzki a Chance to Help Settle an Argument About His Historical Place in the League

• By JASON GAY

One day an enterprising visionary will come along and create The Dirk Nowitzki Network, which will be the planet's first channel dedicated to arguing about Dirk Nowitzki. And The DNN will be a smash, because it often seems that the only thing basketball fans enjoy more than watching Dirk Nowitzki excel is disagreeing about Dirk Nowitzki's excellence, and there are surely enough variations upon this argument to sustain a 24-hour news cycle. Or at least 20 hours. The rest can be repeats of ESPN's "Cold Pizza."

[dude1394]

Dirk shows you how to be PERFECT!..
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/bal...urn=nba-wp3421

Video: Dirk Nowitzki teaches you how to be perfect

By Kelly Dwyer
Dirk Nowitzki(notes) has always been locked in, but his scoring numbers actually took a bit of a dive in 2010-11. Dirk's field goal percentage went up, but he managed "only" 23 points per game on the Mavs after averaging 25.9 and 25 in the two years before that. The "slide" ended last month, though, as Dirk has shot to 28.5 points per game in the playoffs on 52 percent shooting. He's gotten to the line 103 times in 11 playoff games, there appears to be more arc on his shot than there was in years past, and last night he nailed an NBA playoff record 24-straight free throws.
Want to see all of them? Want to immediately feel like you can waltz out to the charity stripe and knock in 12 of your own from 15 feet? Well, here you are:

And if you think there's something new going on with his work in the playoffs, well, stop. Dirk averaged just under 27 points per game in his last three playoffs, and his True Shooting Percentage (which takes into account three-pointers and free throws) remains a lights out 64 percent, as it was during the 2009 and 2010 postseason. He's been this good, even if his team hasn't been.
But with the emergence of Jose Juan Barea and the defensive stylings of Tyson Chandler(notes), the Mavs are a different outfit. Good thing, too. Because people were starting to forget just how brilliant Dirk Nowitzki is.

[dude1394]

Random Jason Kidd photo.. San Francisco Story is behind a paywall. Any SanFran fans?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...SPU21JIV16.DTL

[dude1394]

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angele...ory?id=6573733

Nowitzki, Durant test differently

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By Ryan Gomes
Special to ESPNLosAngeles.com
Archive
I've matched with both of them before.
With Dirk Nowitzki, he's crafty enough that he's not a guy you can force one way or just get into him physically. When you do try to get physical, he knows how to handle the contact, as you saw Thursday in Game 2. On the perimeter, you want to close out to him because you know he's a knock-down shooter, but everyone's instincts -- I think anyone who guards anyone when closing out -- is to put your hands on him. Thursday, they called maybe three or four fouls in that third quarter when Dirk was just catching and driving on a close out. As a defender, your natural instinct, especially as a big man like Serge Ibaka or Kendrick Perkins, is to put that hand out.


Durant

Nowitzki
Dirk can put it the ground. He's not just a stand-still shooter. And then you have to honor his pump fake and you have his up-and-unders. It's a very difficult assignment. With Kevin Durant, you just have to try to keep a body on him at all times. Oklahoma City's 's bigs set great screens, and Durant moves well without the ball. When he comes clean off a pin down, there's really nothing you can do. You can't alter him. You've got to try to keep a body on him and try to make him put it on the ground. Once he gets it and rises up, there's really no way to defend him. What can you really do with a guy that's 6-foot-9, catches it and then turns a corner looking into his jump shot? He's so tall, and he's extremely athletic. You have to do the work before he gets the ball.
Durant has been a great scorer since he came into the league, and you can't force him to do one thing, just like you can't force Dirk into one thing. I think the best way to guard Durant is to try to make him put it on the ground. Make him make multiple counter moves. If he has to put it between his legs or crossover two or three times, then he's exhausted in his dribble. From there, as a defender there's a good chance of altering his rhythm and disrupting his plan offensively.
Then you have to keep him off the line. Dallas did it well in Game 2. Durant took the same amount of shots he normally takes from the floor, but went to the line only three times. That limits the damage he does from a scoring standpoint. Durant is going to take and make his shots, but you have to make it tough.
But whether it's Durant or Dirk, sometimes you can't do anything when you get a hand in a guy's face and he's making shots over you. You're playing good defense, you're not sending him to the line, you're making him take a tough, contested shot. As an individual defender, at this point in the season you need a certain will. You just have to be able to keep fighting, without getting discouraged.
Ryan Gomes is the starting small forward for the Los Angeles Clippers and is offering insight for ESPNLosAngeles.com throughout the NBA playoffs.

[mavspwnage]

Originally Posted by dude1394

Random Jason Kidd photo.. San Francisco Story is behind a paywall. Any SanFran fans?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...SPU21JIV16.DTL

What I'm wondering is what the kid on the left is doing.

[mavErika]

Going through the interesting (albeit partly outdated) collection of Dirk-articles amassed on the latter pages of this thread, I feel encouraged to submit a late contribution myself.

It's a piece from the TheBasketballJones-blog after game one (that I didn't got to until after game two) and it's really just a chart listing career playoff-performances based on WSper48min for the last thirty years with some explaining and Dirk-praising fluff around it. The metric isn't an easy one to get fully into and I didn't, but that table was just too good-looking to forget about and not repost it here, so I'm glad that thread offers that opportunity without taking the focus away from what's important for tonight's game 4. These playoffs move on so fast, and it seems almost impossible to keep up wit all the good stuff out there, especially with the well-deserved love Dirk suddenly gets all over the interwebs.

Because Nowitzki has never won a championship ring, he isn’t widely considered to be one of the elite post-season performers of the modern era. It’s difficult to argue against this perception because, after all, rings are ultimately how we measure players. As ridiculous as it seems to many that people continue to compare Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan, those comparisons will never go away if Kobe ever captures that sixth ring.

Nowitzki’s dominance in this year’s playoffs has me ruminating about where he ranks among players in the post-season, starting with the beginning of the Magic-Bird Era. Magic and Bird both made their NBA debuts in the 1979-80 season, so that seems like a good starting point for the sake of this discussion. In terms of how we compare players, I went with “Win Shares per 48 minutes” (WS/48) among players who have appeared in at least 50 playoff games and averaged at least 30 minutes per game.


It’s no shock to see Michael Jordan at the top — let’s face it, we’d have to disqualify this metric immediately if it didn’t rank him first. As for LeBron James, our personal feelings about him don’t change the reality of his talent so I can’t quarrel with his runner-up status. And in third place is our boy, Dirk, ahead of Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, and everybody else.

I don’t consider this list to be as insane as a lot of people might. There’s no disputing the greatness of Magic, Duncan, Shaq, Bird and Kobe, but they all won their championships with assistance from another player on this list. Would Magic have a ring without Kareem? Would Duncan have a ring without Robinson and Ginobili? Would Bird have a ring without McHale? And then there’s that whole Shaq/Kobe/Wade/Gasol thing.

This ranking or any list of its kind conjured up by exceptionally complex statistics should never be regarded as the gospel truth about who are really the all-time greats of the modern NBA era. But I do think they provide excellent discussion fodder. Personally, I think it’s not crazy to point out that at least one of the LeBron/Dirk/Dwight trio would almost certainly have a ring by now if they had assistance from another top player. If you want to blame them for not being able to carry mediocre supporting casts to a championship, that’s your prerogative.

http://blogs.thescore.com/tbj/2011/0...ra/#more-19996

(if this popped up in the PGT or anywhere else before, well... so be it, I don't think it hurts to look at it more than once to develop an ablility to fully wrap one's heads around Dirk's greatness )

[41creepingdeath]

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nb...s=iref:nbahpt1

Really looking forward to this...!

[dude1394]

Picked up the latest sports illustrated that had an interview with rick Carlisle. I loved the way he didn't crawfish at all.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...91/2/index.htm

DP: You said Dirk Nowitzki was one of the top 10 players of all time. I can't see taking off any of the guys you usually find on that list for Nowitzki.

RC: Reasonable men have a right to disagree.

DP: Would you say that if you weren't the Mavericks coach?
RC: I don't know, but I am.

DP: Is he better than Kevin McHale?

RC: They're different. McHale played with [Larry] Bird, [Robert] Parish, those guys. It's a completely different situation. If Dirk had three Hall of Famers around him, the conversation would be different. I'm a huge fan. I recognize his greatness.

DP: So you stand by your claim?

RC: I do.

DP: Then we'll just disagree.

RC: Won't be the first time.

[LetsGoMavs]

WE ARE NOT WORTHY!!!


WE ARE NOT WORTHY!!!


WE ARE NOT WORTHY!!!

[LetsGoMavs]

WE ARE NOT WORTHY!!!


WE ARE NOT WORTHY!!!


WE ARE NOT WORTHY!!!

[41mvp]

Where Dirk Nowitzki happens here?

[LetsGoMavs]

Gotta love the praise for Dirk:

http://hoopshype.com/twitter.html

Well deserved (understatement)

[Mav Addict]

Tomorrow headlines will read "Dallas out-rebounded by 22 on the road in OKC, but still win thanks to Dirk's watermelon size cajones"

[EricaLubarsky]

Bill Russell - passed 4/19/11
Patrick Ewing - passed 5/2/11
Robert Parish - passed 5/2/11
Charles Barkley - passed 5/4/11
Sam Jones - passed 5/17/11
Clyde Drexler - passed 5/19/11
Reggie Miller - passed 5/19/11
James Worthy - passed 5/24/11
17th place-- 56 to Julius Erving
16th place-- 84 to Dennis Johnson
15th place-- 150 to Kevin McHale

[dero]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C05TMdwJyYo

[CadBane]

Originally Posted by LetsGoMavs

Gotta love the praise for Dirk:

http://hoopshype.com/twitter.html

Well deserved (understatement)

I've noticed Austin Daye has been all about Dirk all series. Cool to see the admiration...especially since he's a 7 footer who can shoot the three.

[monty55555]

My goodness. Dirk, you are amazing.

[FINtastic]

Originally Posted by LetsGoMavs

Gotta love the praise for Dirk:

http://hoopshype.com/twitter.html

Well deserved (understatement)

My favorite was Chris Kaman's:

Chris Kaman: Tomorrow to do list: -Finish leveling out my new gun range with the skid steer -Scrap out an old Ford -Haul a bunch of junk to the fire pit

Why is it that whenever I read the hoopshype twitter wall, Kaman is always doing something that sounds plucked out of a Jeff Foxworthy routine.

[CadBane]

Originally Posted by FINtastic

My favorite was Chris Kaman's:



Why is it that whenever I read the hoopshype twitter wall, Kaman is always doing something that sounds plucked out of a Jeff Foxworthy routine.

Kaman loves to hunt, fish, etc.

[mavspwnage]

This needs a repost:

[Nowitzness81]

Holy crap, this shot.

[mavs777]

Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

Bill Russell - passed 4/19/11
Patrick Ewing - passed 5/2/11
Robert Parish - passed 5/2/11
Charles Barkley - passed 5/4/11
Sam Jones - passed 5/17/11
Clyde Drexler - passed 5/19/11
Reggie Miller - passed 5/19/11
18th place-- 8 to James Worthy
17th place-- 74 to Julius Erving
16th place-- 102 to Dennis Johnson
15th place-- 168 to Kevin McHale

do you have a link to the list by chance ?

[mavs777]

Originally Posted by FINtastic

My favorite was Chris Kaman's:



Why is it that whenever I read the hoopshype twitter wall, Kaman is always doing something that sounds plucked out of a Jeff Foxworthy routine.

Kaman is a really cool and funny guy, I have always rooted for him to bad his injuries has slowed down his career he really could have been a special center.

[EricaLubarsky]

got my numbers wrong-- sorry. He now IS Worthy


Bill Russell - passed 4/19/11
Patrick Ewing - passed 5/2/11
Robert Parish - passed 5/2/11
Charles Barkley - passed 5/4/11
Sam Jones - passed 5/17/11
Clyde Drexler - passed 5/19/11
Reggie Miller - passed 5/19/11
James Worthy - passed 5/24/11
17th place-- 56 to Julius Erving
16th place-- 84 to Dennis Johnson
15th place-- 150 to Kevin McHale

http://www.basketball-reference.com/..._career_p.html

[Nowitzness81]

Someone want to explain what happened to Dirk in Game 6 at Portland?

Before game 6:

41.8% FG

Since, incl. game 6:

57.6% FG

[sefant77]

Originally Posted by FINtastic

My favorite was Chris Kaman's:



Why is it that whenever I read the hoopshype twitter wall, Kaman is always doing something that sounds plucked out of a Jeff Foxworthy routine.

http://sports.break.com/chris-kaman-...fireworks-show

[TheDeutschman]

Does Dirk pass KG on the All-Time-Greatest-PF-List this postseason? What do you think? Imho it's really close already...then again, I'm a homer!

[Rick41]

Originally Posted by TheDeutschman

Does Dirk pass KG on the All-Time-Greatest-PF-List this postseason? What do you think? Imho it's really close already...then again, I'm a homer!

I thought that was already done..