Official Dirk is Great Thread - Page 56 - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Underdog · 06-22-2011, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sike

http://theticket.com/Portals/2/UserF...ullPodcast.mp3

Do these podcasts stay on theticket.com forever?

My sig picture is a clickable link to this stream...

Brave Sir Robin · 06-22-2011, 05:42 PM

wow, since dirk and the mavs won the championship this thread has gone to hell. malone, barkley, duncan, kerr, wtf

Quote:

Originally Posted by LonghornDub

But hey, I got it right. Although I didn't know he was born in Lebanon...just knew it was Europe somewhere.

ah yes, the great european country of lebanon, right between canada and mexico.

LonghornDub · 06-22-2011, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brave Sir Robin

ah yes, the great european country of lebanon, right between canada and mexico.

Yikes. That should have said: I thought he was born in Europe somewhere. I'm (fairly) certain I know where Lebanon is, and it's definitely not in Europe.

It's in Antarctica, right?

Underdog · 06-22-2011, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LonghornDub

Yikes. That should have said: I thought he was born in Europe somewhere. I'm (fairly) certain I know where Lebanon is, and it's definitely not in Europe.

It's in Antarctica, right?

It's in Texas. Look it up.

twelli · 06-23-2011, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sike

http://theticket.com/Portals/2/UserF...ullPodcast.mp3

Happy Holidays, Dirk!

HiddenX · 06-23-2011, 07:12 AM

Dirk Nowitzki leaps to the top of the list

Quote:

By Jennifer Floyd Engel

jenfloyd@star-telegram.com

The last warble-y notes of We Are The Champions had barely escaped Dirk Nowitzki's lips, and we were trying to classify him.

Is he the greatest European-born player? Or was he already that long before? Did winning a championship cement his spot as "The next Larry Bird"? Or is Dirk, as Mavs coach Rick Carlisle has been arguing for a while, already a Top 10 player of all time, his name linked with Jordan and Russell and Bird, Wilt and Dr. J?

We love lists, and rankings. The World Wide Web is loaded with The Five Best Restaurants You Have Never Heard Of and The Best 20 Books For Summer and The Best NFL Players In History -- all based on criteria as subjective as whoever is making the list.

I say this only to note that I have no statistical basis for saying Dirk is the greatest local athlete of all time. I just know it to be true.

Yes, I am putting him ahead of Roger and Troy, Michael and Emmitt, and even Mo, which I realize is heresy to many of you. In fact, Mike Modano and Roger Staubach had flip-flopped for that No. 1 spot on my list until recently, like Game 6 in Miami when Dirk led the Mavs to an NBA Championship.

It is not simply the ring that catapulted Dirk in my mind. For greatness is not only rings or Cups or trophies, lest we confuse jewelry with legendary. Nor is it stats alone because, well, the history of sport is littered with guys with numbers but lacking in that ability to hoist a team onto his back and carry it to a championship. Reading an article on writing, of all things, I happened upon a quote by A.J. Liebling on what qualifies as great.

"The only way to write is well, and how you do it is your own damn business" it went.

This struck me as true about sports greatness as well, and Dirk in particular. The only way to be great is to be so, and how an athlete does it is his own damn business.

What Dirk did in the Finals was rewrite how we view greatness. Not that he was not great by typical standards, he was. The 2011 playoffs are full of big Dirk buckets, impressive fourth-quarter stats and flashes of what everybody agreed was leadership.

What elevated him in my mind was how he managed to rewrite his legacy while staying himself.

Turns out he didn't have to talk trash, or pad a dunk highlight reel, or sell Big Macs or Nikes, or do anything but be himself to be recognized for the genius basketball player he has always been in his time in a Mavs uniform. And by doing so changed his legacy.

After 13 years of doubts and questions and failing -- failing in spectacular fashion at the 2006 NBA Finals, Dirk changed not only who he fundamentally was but how we saw him.

And if there is anything we love more than lists, it is tales of redemption. We love the guy who bounces back from any of the recognized addictions, from injury, from his own stupidity, from an epic failure like, say, 2006.

So the story of Dirk as a changed man is being peddled. When in reality the beauty of the Dirk story is how he did it his way.

I am not saying Dirk has not changed at all; to pretend otherwise is to ignore fact. The Big German himself has talked about dialing up his defense and leadership and learning from 2006 and beyond. What has not changed, not really, was how he played the game -- the quirky one-legged jumper and the almost emotionless look on his face.

He tweaked his game. And he stayed the course.

He believed in Jason Terry, Jason Kidd, Rick Carlisle and Mark Cuban and mostly himself enough to re-sign last summer when nobody thought this team had any chance of winning anything beyond a first-round series -- and even that was dubious.

And that in my mind has cemented Dirk as the best athlete ever to don a Mavericks, Rangers, Cowboys or Stars jersey. He did what Staubach and Modano did before him, which was stay through all of the crud, fight through the doubt and finally do what many wondered was even possible.

It is hard to quantify what that does for a team or a legacy.

This is what I mean when I say I just know Dirk is the greatest local athlete of all time. What anybody who watched the Mavs over the past few months saw was a basketball player who embraced every part of the journey, the ups and downs, the criticisms and, ultimately, the moment.

He wanted the ball in his hands. He had prepared. And he delivered, not by being more like D-Wade or Kobe, but by being himself.

Of course, this is a subjective list. My criteria: The athlete had to have spent a decent amount of time playing here and had to have left a mark, by championship or otherwise, and had to have irrevocably changed the landscape.

And whoever comes next will be judged against Dirk, the best local athlete going at the moment.

Jennifer Floyd Engel

Murphy3 · 06-23-2011, 07:39 AM

Reading anything by Jennifer Floyd Engel is difficult..

Scott McGuire · 06-23-2011, 08:09 AM

I want some Dirk playing tennis highlight... I've about decided I could watch him play any sport and root vigorously for him.

dude1394 · 06-23-2011, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Reading anything by Jennifer Floyd Engel is difficult..

True

Nowitzness81 · 06-23-2011, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Reading anything by Jennifer Floyd Engel is difficult..

Women shouldn't write about sports.

Big Boy Laroux · 06-23-2011, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Reading anything by Jennifer Floyd Engel is difficult..

Is every single sentence a separate paragraph???

Zaknaf3in · 06-23-2011, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nowitzness81

Women shouldn't write about sports.

Then don't.

Underdog · 06-23-2011, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nowitzness81

Women shouldn't write about sports.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaknaf3in

Then don't.

kingmalaki · 06-23-2011, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Well, maybe you should actually look at the numbers.

WinShares per 48 in playoff history:
1. Jordan .553
2. Mikan .2541
3. LeBron James .2218
4. Magic .2078
5. Dirk .2067
6. West .2031
12. Barkley .1932
29. Dr. J .1756 ABA/NBA
55. Dr. J .1493 NBA only
77. Karl Malone .1396
97. Elgin Baylor .1338

Player Efficiency Rating in playoff history
7. Dirk 24.75
10. Barkley 24.18
13. West 23.06
22. Julius Erving 22.05 ABA/NBA
23. Elgin Baylor 21.83
40. Julius Erving 19.96 NBA only
31. Karl Malone 21.12 (ahead of OscarRobertson but behind Paul Gasol and Baron freaking Davis)

Dirk leads both statistical ratings. Obviously Barkley and West aren't too far off, but Dirk separates himself nicely from Dr. J, Elgin Baylor, and Karl Malone when it comes to the playoffs.

And statistically, this was as close to an "average" playoff run as Dirk's had in his career. His WS/48 was at .210. His career playoff w/s is .2067. So yeah, Dirk was rather average this year as far as the numbers go. He was just huge in the clutch.

I can't find the numbers to back this up just yet, but I'd be willing to bet that this was at least a top 2-3 most statistically clutch performance in the history of the NBA for any of the Finals MVP's..ever. Sometimes it's not always about your numbers on the whole but when you get the numbers. Dirk had a solid post season this year, but he was a basketball God in the final 5:00 minutes of games decided by 5 or fewer points.

Edit: Just to be safe, I moved my response to this to the other thread at:

http://dallas-mavs.com/vb/showthread...34#post1221934

orangedays · 06-23-2011, 01:07 PM

Strong to very strong?

http://twitpic.com/5fq3kb

dude1394 · 06-23-2011, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orangedays

Strong to very strong?

http://twitpic.com/5fq3kb

I love the dirkster but I really don't want him that close to my junk.

Big Boy Laroux · 06-23-2011, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dude1394

I love the dirkster but I really don't want him that close to my junk.

i'd want him CLOSER!

Kante · 06-23-2011, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Boy Laroux

i'd want him CLOSER!

Closer or as THE Closer?

Rick41 · 06-23-2011, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orangedays

Strong to very strong?

http://twitpic.com/5fq3kb

That's a bit creepy.... for Dirk.

Rick41 · 06-23-2011, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dude1394

I love the dirkster but I really don't want him that close to my junk.

Lies. I don't buy this one bit!

mavs05 · 06-23-2011, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orangedays

http://twitpic.com/5fq3kb

That's insane! He should have first talked to his mom!

http://twitpic.com/30s58t

Underdog · 06-23-2011, 06:31 PM

@espn_macmahon: Dirk Nowitzki will throw first pitch before Rangers-Mets game Friday.

Kante · 06-23-2011, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Underdog

@espn_macmahon: Dirk Nowitzki will throw first pitch before Rangers-Mets game Friday.

Hopfully better than John Wall...

dude1394 · 06-23-2011, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick41

Lies. I don't buy this one bit!

Lol

mavspwnage · 06-24-2011, 10:00 AM

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=669...goryid=2378529

alexamenos · 06-24-2011, 06:57 PM

Anxiously awaiting tonight's first pitch.

GermanDunk · 06-24-2011, 06:59 PM

Dirk pitching stream anyone ?

mavspwnage · 06-24-2011, 07:03 PM

Dirk airmailed it. I guess he's used to shooting over people. lol

GermanDunk · 06-24-2011, 07:04 PM

OK. Done. Should be up on yt soon. :-)

alexamenos · 06-24-2011, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mavspwnage

Dirk airmailed it. I guess he's used to shooting over people. lol

He needed to be fading away instead of striding towards the plate.

I'm like a little school girl every time I see dirk. I get giddy.

mavspwnage · 06-24-2011, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexamenos

He needed to be fading away instead of striding towards the plate.

I'm like a little school girl every time I see dirk. I get giddy.

It would have been hilarious if he had pitched a fadeaway or some kind of one-legged throw. lol

GermanDunk · 06-24-2011, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dude1394

Lol

Hey dude. How about that ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-ftnSTu-CM

Kante · 06-24-2011, 08:23 PM

dude1394 · 06-24-2011, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GermanDunk

Hey dude. How about that ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-ftnSTu-CM

Sorta girlie.

dude1394 · 06-24-2011, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kante

Greatness. I read the crowd gave him a great ovation, I'll have to catch it tonight.

chumdawg · 06-24-2011, 09:22 PM

He looks like Randy Johnson on the mound.

As for that fadeaway of his, why is that people say he shoots it off the wrong leg?

dude1394 · 06-24-2011, 09:52 PM

He's having so much fun, so free...it makes me smile.

mavspwnage · 06-24-2011, 11:15 PM

Underdog · 06-24-2011, 11:23 PM

That's one happy German...

mavspwnage · 06-24-2011, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Underdog

That's one happy German...

Woulda been cool if he had the Finals MVP trophy sticking out of his pocket as he threw the pitch. SWAG!